What has to be done to my boat engine when going from fresh water to saltwater?

Question

The engine is a 115 horsepower, 1982 Evinrude.

Answer 1

In salt water you are to wash your motor down, with a hose,  to get rid of any salts, that would rust  your engine and boat... You love it, it love you?

Answer 2

going from one to the other requires nothing on your part... however... when you come out of the saltwater, you should fresh water flush your engine. you can do that with muffs or take a 55 gal trash can drill a drain plug size hole in the bottom, plug it up, fill it with water, and run engine for a few minutes... after that all is well!!

Answer 3

Basically nothing, but if you take the boat out of the water after each use, you should put "ear muffs" on it and run it flushing with fresh water.

Answer 4

Make sure you have the proper zincs attached,  there are different zincs used in fresh and salt water. Keep things like the tilt motor well painted as salt water is very corrosive.  Keep your wiring sprayed with corrosion x or equivalent.

Answer 5

You will need an undercoating that is compatible with salt water.

Answer 6

I am guessing this is an outboard. After running in salt water make sure you run the engine on the garden hose to flush the cooling system. Failure to do this after each outing will cause a build up of the salt in the cooling system. Once it restricts the system the engine will start to run hot.

Answer 7

Freshwater-flushing after every use with your age of motor is really unnecessary. You only need to make sure you have the appropriate sacrifical zincs on the lower unit (usually the trim skeg) and on the mounting bracket/trim tilt unit.

Furthermore, if the boat stays in the water (i.e. you do not trailer it), and part of the mounting bracket/trim tilt is below the waterline, you need to paint it with an antifoulant. It is VERY important to realize that you CANNOT use a traditional copper-based antifoulant. It will corrode and destroy the metal it is painted on. You need to use a tin-based product like Trilux.

Answer 8

After each use in the salt water flush out the motor with "earmuffs".  You should run the motor until normal operating temp.  This makes sure that there is not any salts left.  Inspect the motors zincs.  There should be one on the lower unit. If the zinc goes away the next metal that will go will be the aluminum lower unit.  The lower unit is a lot more expensive than the zinc.  Wash the whole boat and motor to get rid of the salt.  Good boating and be safe.

Answer 9

Nothing. The outboard doesn't care whether it runs in fresh or saline.

Flush the cooling every thirty days if you wish, or at end of season. The motor is 25 years old, a little salt won't hurt it.