Re: Advice on winterizing vintage outboards

[fisherman6]

It goes a little better when I get it done before my test tank freezes up. I just broke the ice out of mine and dumped it out tonight. Now, I’m back to not being able to keep it full for extended periods of time. I’ll be filling it every time I want to use it now unless.we get a warmer stretch of weather. Temps in the mid teens at night do nothing for my progress of winterizing. By now if I don’t have the water drained out of leaky gearcases, I could be in trouble. I may need to try a drum heater this year.

Anyway, I run mine in the tank on 8:1 mix, fog the carb as it runs out of fuel and choke it out with fogging oil. Then pull the plugs and spray fogging oil into the cylinders and roll it over a few times slowly. Put the plugs back in, make sure the pistons are innthe middle of stroke, and call the top end done. It is always a good idea to pull the choke closed to keep the bugs and other stuff out.

Then it’s on to the gearcase. I pull the drain plug to check for water. If there is water, I drain it and refill with fresh oil and note the motor as needing a reseal. If I have run the motor more than a handful of hours, I change the oil
If I barely ran it and it doesn’t show water intrusion I put the plug back in and call it done. Hang it vertically so it drains and put a dryer sheet or two under the cowl. So far they have worked for me to keep the rodents out. I use the obnoxiously scented ones. I don’t know if that matters or not, but so far so good.

-Ben

OldJohnnyRude on YouTube