It is often almost impossible to get to remote hunting or fishing places if you do not have a good boat with a powerful motor. But in our area the season is short, the cold is coming. And if everything is clear with the boat itself, then what to do with its engine? Leaving it in a cold hangar is not at all reasonable! In any case, if you do not want to lose its performance! That is why today we will talk about how to preserve the outboard motor for the winter.
Why do you need to do this?
Even cars are not recommended to be thrown for the winter, as the consequences of such mismanagement can be very unpleasant. And
boat motors, which in recent years are not much inferior in complexity to automobile ones, are not worth leaving. In any case, all experienced fishermen and hunters agree on this. Let's say that the preservation of the Yamaha outboard motor for the winter (or any other imported model) can increase the engine resource by at least 20%, and save a lot of your money, which would otherwise go to repair.
It's all about banal corrosion and condensate. Few hunting and fishing enthusiasts can afford the construction of a warm hangar specifically designed for storing a boat, and therefore leave it in a regular boat shed, or in a garage. If the winter is “non-standard”, with temperature differences, a decent amount of condensate can accumulate in the motor. Moisture, once in the vital parts of the engine, will inevitably do such things that require expensive and complex repairs.
Simply put, you need to bring the motor to a certain state. So preservation of the outboard motor for the winter is exactly what this is needed for. Of course, to ensure the safety of the engine, you will have to make some effort, since you will need to carry out its maintenance, which differs in some subtleties.
Features of the market
It is no secret that most often our anglers use relatively cheap two-stroke engines. They are easy to operate, and their low capacity makes them very popular in terms of the amount of tax paid. The leaders in this industry are rightfully considered brands Mercury, Johnson, Suzuki, Honda.
True, over the past three years, due to the incredible increase in prices for "purebred" Japanese products, numerous Chinese companies have naturally won the market. The cost of these engines is much lower, but their care should be much better, no matter how paradoxical it may seem.
Means used for conservation
What are the means of preserving the outboard motor for the winter? Of course, “preservation” can be understood to mean the merging of fuel and oil, as well as the removal of those rubber parts that can become stuck and cracked, but it can be done easier using preservatives specially developed for this purpose. They greatly facilitate the work and improve its results.
What does the preservation of the outboard motor for the winter look like in practice? To do this, there is no need to disassemble the engine in the cogs and wipe each of its parts with some kind of “potion”. Preservatives are just available in the form of sprays. They are conveniently injected into the carburetor and other elements. Let's find out how in practice the conservation of a two-stroke outboard motor for the winter is carried out.
Process description
Take the standard Mercury 3.3 as an example, the design of which is most typical and typical of most boat engines. The preservative should be injected through the carburetor diffuser, from where it gradually flows into the crankcase. True, this will require a little disassembly of the engine. To do this, start the engine after adding a preservative compound to it, and then, without waiting for the stop, remove the carburetor and re-inject the spray there.
Important! Removing fuel hoses for a more “accurate” spray injection into the combustion chamber is not the best advice, since in this case you will directly violate the basic rules of fire safety. Therefore, we will not give such recommendations.
After this, it is necessary to feed the mixture into the engine cylinders themselves, so that over the long winter there is no corrosion in them and there is no sticking of the
piston group. Make it easy. First, unscrew the cylinder head. After that, unscrew the candle using standard tools for this. Having removed it, it is necessary to apply a preservative spray directly to the upper part of the cylinder cavity, having previously fixed the piston at the top dead center.
Although we describe the Mercury model, the preservation of the Yamaha outboard motor for the winter is no different from this process.
Operation completion
Having done this, several times pull the starter handle. This is done for that purpose, so that the turned pistons evenly distribute the preservative along the cylinder walls. This is especially important if you are preserving a four-stroke outboard motor for the winter. Its design is more complicated, and therefore much more “capricious” in relation to possible malfunctions that arose due to improper storage of the mechanism.
After that, screw the candle into its rightful place, and you do not need to twist it “completely”, and then put on the cap. In principle, the internal conservation of the engine is now complete. But we must not forget that the conservation of the outboard motor for the winter involves not only the processing of its "insides".
What to do with the body kit?
Many owners of motor boats for some reason forget about engine mounts. As a rule, it is made far from the best metal, and therefore it starts to rust quite quickly when stored in inappropriate conditions. To prevent this from happening, all parts must be removed, lubricated, and then stored. But you can do it easier, saving your time and effort, and use the same preservative.
For this, special mixtures of the “6 in 1” type are used. If you treat all surfaces of the motor with this composition, the metal parts will be reliably protected from corrosion, and the paintwork will not fade and warp from the effects of negative environmental factors. If you operate your boat in conditions of the sea, then such protection is vital for the motor, because, otherwise, salty sea water will quickly begin to destroy all the most important elements of the outboard motor. What else can be done to make the conservation of the outboard motor for the winter (all experienced sailors prefer to do it with their own hands) be successful?
Where to apply the preservative?
If you use a preservative spray, then you definitely will not have any problems with applying it, since you just need to spray it over the most vulnerable and remote parts of the outboard motor. It is very important to apply a preservative to the carburetor itself, to all fasteners that are most susceptible to corrosion. Do not forget about the other metal elements, especially the body of the motor itself.
Separately, a particularly thick layer covers the cylinder block. In modern engines, in which this part may not be made of the highest quality iron, it also has an increased tendency to corrosion.
However, you should not think exclusively about protecting metal parts alone. If you arm yourself with a brush and carefully apply a layer of preservative on the insulation of wires, rubber and plastic parts, then this simple action will significantly save their resource. Again, this is most true for those motors that operate in marine conditions, constantly exposed to the aggressive effects of sea water.
Other recommendations
Once again, we remind the "sailors" of the aggressive effects of salt on all the mechanisms that fall into it. After returning from any boat trip, and not just before conservation, we strongly recommend flushing all accessible parts of the engine with clean fresh water. This is especially true for those cases where the conservation of stationary boat motors for the winter is required. Before putting the engine in winter storage, this process should be approached with all responsibility.
How to store a canned engine in the winter?
In general, the conservation process on this can be considered completely completed. It remains only to completely assemble the engine. After this, it is time to prepare the room in which it will be stored all winter. We draw your attention to the fact that the ideal position for the outboard motor is vertical. Keeping it on its side is not recommended.
If you do not have a separate room or garage, you can get out of the situation by packing the engine in a bag of dense polyethylene and simply placing it in a cabinet. It is recommended not to allow sudden changes in temperature during storage. In cases where the vagaries of the weather or the heating system have let you down, it is recommended to repeat the procedure again, using the spray to preserve the outboard motor for the winter. This will prevent the negative effects of condensation. And it will appear in case of temperature changes in any case.
If you do not have the opportunity to store the motor in an upright position, then its location on the side is allowed, but in this case it must be placed on the side of the tiller. From time to time it is still worth putting it “on the ass”.
In what cases can conservation be dispensed with?
In the event that you have a dry and warm room, then preservation of the outboard motor for the winter (Mercury or another model does not matter) you will not need. You can leave the engine in the same position in which it is located. Of course, before this we strongly recommend that you clean and wash it properly, wipe it dry and, if necessary, protect exposed surfaces using a preservative spray.
In addition, it is better to remove the motor from the boat, even if you have a whole heated hangar at your disposal and put it in a dry place, after packing it in a strong plastic bag.
In those cases when you have a warm room, but the humidity in it is increased, preservation of the 4-stroke outboard motor for the winter (or two-stroke) is still vital. The fact is that in warm conditions, corrosion processes will go several times faster, and therefore in the spring you can expect an extremely unpleasant surprise.
About changing the gearbox oil
By the way, when discussing conservation issues, for some reason we completely forgot about the problem of changing the oil in the gearbox. When to merge the old and fill in the new: at the beginning or at the end of the season? The answer is unequivocal - at the end. Why so? Everything is simple. A gigantic volume of various oxidizing substances accumulates in old grease. In principle, every modern motorist is aware of this, since only the lazy one does not know about such “valuable” properties of current semi-synthetic lubricants.
Simply put, the older the oil in the engine, the more likely its internals will be covered with a layer of corrosion. Various alkaline additives are responsible for combating this effect, but they practically do not remain in the old grease. You cannot visually determine the degree of suitability of the oil for the boat engine for its further operation. The conclusion here is simple - it is mandatory to carry out the replacement of lubricants in the autumn, before the start of measures to preserve the motor for the winter period.
If an oil filter is structurally provided for your engine model, then, of course, it is also replaced with a new one. Of course, here we are talking about exclusively four-stroke models of outboard engines, in which two or more cylinders.
How to de-preserve the outboard motor after winter storage?
But why are we all talking only about conservation? After all, this may give someone the idea that in the spring you can simply pour gasoline and oil into the engine, and even go fishing! Alas, it’s not so simple. And if you follow the path of least resistance, and do not re-preserve the motor, then the consequences can be extremely serious, up to its complete failure.
Of course, we are slightly exaggerating, but still have to do something. Moreover, you don’t need to do anything particularly difficult. If the motor was stored in a warm room, being installed vertically or in the "reclining" position, then you just need to fill in the fuel and the engine can be safely started.
Until a preservative burns out in the first minutes, strong and black smoke will come from the exhaust. Do not be scared. It will disappear very quickly, immediately after the complete conservation of the preservative composition. After that, the engine can be operated in normal mode, no features of its use appear. That's how the conservation of the outboard motor for the winter is made. "Tohatsu" or another manufacturer - does not really matter, but still there are some non-critical features.
Other varieties of motors, varieties
So, all the above recommendations are true, for the most part, for two-stroke engines of medium power, which are actively operated by most hunters and fishermen in this country. But for all other engines that can be found on sale, these rules are well founded. It is better to find out some special and important nuances directly from the representatives of the manufacturer, since such information can only be with them. The general principle of any preservation is the use of a special mixture, best in the form of a spray.
This composition must be distributed as evenly as possible over all internal surfaces of the motor, and also, if possible, to protect the external “body kit” of the motor from corrosion. Especially important are all these comments regarding motors that operate in the sea. Salt sea water so quickly corrodes many parts of modern technology that in a couple of seasons you, if you do not properly preserve your outboard motor, can safely throw it away.
So you have learned how to preserve the outboard motor for the winter. Suzuki or another manufacturer - there are no special differences in the process. It is only important to remember that you need to perform all operations carefully, without being lazy.