Choosing an outboard, and maintaining it.

yak2you2

2010-05-05 03:35:27

If you don't happen to live in a place with a local boat shop, you'll be looking for a lot of good advice over the phone, and a good motor shop you can trust to send your outboards to to be serviced. Rocky over at Rockies Marine in Petersburg is a very good guy to get set up with. Friendly, and knowledgable about all manner of outboards, I can't say enough good about him. He sells new outboards, as well as high quality used motors that you can get started with at an affordable price, and rely on to bring you home.

Some other good advice;

Buy a maintenance manual for every motor you purchase. Carry spare spark plugs, and 2 plug wrenchs ( you'll drop the first one), oil and fuel filters, oil, and fuses. Make sure you can get to the fly-wheel with a rope if you have to, and have an emergency start rope with a handle,,,just in case. Some basic tools in a small tool box. A spare prop, and prop nut.

Keep good zincs on your motors. Always replace the little gaskets on your drain plugs of your lower unit when changing fluid.

The biggest problem you'll face? water in the gas. So, get a cascading set of 2 or maybe even 3 Raycor filters. The ones with the clear bowl for inspection, and the cock for draining.

Most of the time if your outboard is running rough, all it needs is a new set of plugs or a filter cleaned, make sure you have the skills and the tools to do these.

SilverT

2010-05-09 17:21:47

Thanks Yak,

As usual, that's some great advice. I just went and reread your "Outfitting" post and realized how much of that advice I have used. I deviated on some points and found you to be correct on those as well. I simply have to get rid of some gear and buy more for not listening in the first place.

I thought of a couple of things to add for outboards. It's rather obvious, but if the boat is moored, tip the engines up out of the water every night. Exhausted a few of evenings, I forgot and left them down and the speed of the barnacle growth in AK was shocking. Also, Ethenol in the fuel is causing the additional water in the fuel. If the fuel sits too long, like over the winter, there will be water in the bottom of the tank. I bought a boat that had been sitting for at least one winter. Some of that water separated out in the engine, causing corrosion in the regulator, etc. beyond the Raycor filters. As soon as it was fired up, all that corrosion plugged the fuel injectors. I don't expect to have the issue again, as I fire the engines often during the winter and add additional fuel to the tank, however, I do carry an extra injector or two. They are fairly easy to change, but difficult sometimes to find.

Rockies is amazing and really helped me out of a jam last year. He seems to have a lot of parts in stock and was able to get them anywhere in SE within a day.

yak2you2

2010-05-09 21:57:52

Good advice Silver T, about tilting the motor out of the water. One thing though, some little boats have had the outboard added after market. I put mine on myself. The little bayliner wasn't designed to have a big outboard hanging off of the back. So, when I tilt it all the way up, the tip of the toe is still in the water, and the zinc is out. this isn't good. My thought is, I'm better off scraping barnacles and grass, than having part of my lower unit in the water unprotected by a zinc. The one exception? Make SURE you tilt out during herring spawn. The little buggers will cover your intakes and cause an overheat. In fact, the most important thing you can do when running outboards is to get in the habit of making sure their peeing healthy, and do it often, especially when running through kelp or other possible obstructions.Many, many times I've caught mine not peeing. One thing that happens is you'll get a tiny little pebble or piece of barnacle that has gone all the way through your coolant system and will hang up at the bitter end of your water tube. Do yourself a favor, pull the little plug at the end of the hose and check it out. There's a fairly large surface area, with a tiny little hole in the middle, this is where junk will stop and shut down your whole motor on overheat. It will take you less than a second to ream this little piece of plastic out with a drill and will stop this oversight.

a thought on winterizing. Always pull your plugs and spray fogging oil into your cylinders if your going to let her sit for a while. Flush all the saltwater out of it with fresh, then drain all the water you can out of your system, in case of cold weather. you can help keep your fuel from breaking down as described, or loosing octane on a long lay up by adding a bottle or two of Sta-bil to your tank. Good stuff it is. Change your fuel filters regularly, even if you don't see anything funky. Their made of paper, and break down over time. A friend of mine sprays a solution of Corrosion-x all over everything under the cowl to keep the white crust from happening, particularly on electrical connections. I havn't done this in the past but am going to start.