Engine care

[Morten]

Hi

How often do you take your engines apart?

Not completly, but just carburator and head!

I find myself, having to do it every time I have been boating.

Not a biggi, but there might be a better way of doing things, than I have been doing them.

Especially my needle (assembly) gets rusty if I don't, lube every time.

I allways sail on salt water. That dosen't help me either.

Any hints ;D

 

[chunk t]

Hey Morten,

Salt's a killer isn't it!

Threads of any kind, including the needle will draw in moisture and the accompanying salt. The best advise I can give is pull the engine and flush it and all running hardware REALLY GOOD with fresh water. If you can't do this at the place you run pull the engine, wrap it with a wet (fresh water) towel and bag it to keep it wet 'til you get home. I know this sounds contradictory, but if you can keep the salts from drying out they will flush out easily when you wash the engine (it takes about 10-15 min. of soaking to disolve solidified marine salts, so if you don't get rid of them before lubing the engine the salts will get taped next to the metal). After the fresh water soaking use either straight WD-40 or my favorite, WD-40 & STP engine treatment. Pour the mixture in the carb, in the glow-plug hole and turn the engine over by hand a dozen or so times and repeat. This will dispurse all water and prep the engine for your preferred after-run oil.

The nice thing about this method is you only need to pull the carb and glow plug ;D!

chunk

 

[Hammerhead]

When I lived in Guam, the only place to run was inside the reef. Getting rid of the salt can be a real pain. We always took a bottle of fresh water to do the same thing that Chunk t is talking about in his reply. One other problem that I will mention, is that the salt tends to follow the threads of all the engine bolts down it to the holes. If you run in salt water, it is a hassle, but I think it is wise to completely take apart the engine after every day of running. When you do this, if you are careful, you won't damage the engine. You may have to replace the rear manifold gasket occasionally though. They are only a few bucks, and that is cheaper than an engine.

Have fun! Hammer