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"I'm taking the liberty of contacting you about your article on maintenance of outboard motors . I'm a former outboard mechanic and I often come across people telling me that they've found a "great article" on the subject in some magazine. Until today, none of these famous articles contained at least one misinterpretation, or worse, serious errors for the health of the engines.
On this subject, I found your article very well done, complete, and with an easy access to the common sailors!
However, I did note one more thing: you do note that 4-stroke engines need an oil change, but you forgot a specificity for 2-stroke engines (with carburetors): you have to "smother" them with winter oil.
This simple operation avoids engine blockage due to the presence of moisture in the cylinders during the winter.
The procedure is as follows:
- With the engine running (in a tank, or at the rinsing ears), spray the burnishing oil directly into the carburettor(s), while giving small bursts of gas for 3-4 seconds (the product is sprayed directly into the air inlet of the air filter). Then engine at idle, spray the oil (always through the air filter) until the engine stalls. When de-wintering, restart the engine with its old spark plugs and let it run until it smokes normally. You can then replace the spark plugs with new ones, and finally enjoy your toy during the season!
Caution, do not do this on injection engines (E-Tec, Optimax and other HPDI!), but only on carburettor engines.
This operation is useless on a 4-stroke engine. Indeed, these engines have a complex lubrication circuit, which brings pressurised oil to the connecting rod feet. From there, the oil is sprayed onto the cylinders, and the scraper rings spread all this oil. Particularly greasy, it remains "stuck" everywhere in the engine, after it has stopped, and therefore protects against corrosion. To have such a lubrication on a 2-stroke engine would require a very greasy petrol/oil mixture, totally unreasonable from the combustion point of view. Hence the spraying of a very greasy oil during the winter, to protect the engine from corrosion.
Last detail that simplifies life: do not hesitate to treat your essence with an adequate stabilizer. It is always painful to have to drain your tank because of a "rotten" gasoline! "
Thank you for all this accurate information. The maintenance of a speedboat is within the reach of all boaters as long as the details are not neglected.
