boat motor maintenance?

[Toller]

I bought a Honda 4 stroke 2hp motor 6 years ago. The first required maintenance is at 10 hours; changing the engine oil and the gear case oil. I used it for about 2 hours and then put it in storage because I sold the boat I used it on. I drained the gas, changed the engine oil and the gear case oil.

This year I bought a new boat and put another 2 hours on it, and am putting it away for the winter. Should I bother changing the oils? It isn't called for even once for another 6 hours, and I have already done it once. On the other hand, I don't want to wreck an expensive motor for a little oil. Whatcha think?

[Meat Plow]

What's the regular gearcase and engine oils schedule after the initial changes? I'm sure it's much longer than 10 hours for the breakin oils. I would go through the normal storage checks and not worry about the oils.

[trader4]

The usual rule for eqpt like this, especially marine eqpt, is either at the specified hours or at least once a season before storage. You don;t want contaminated oil sitting in the engine all winter.

[Meat Plow]

At 2 hours of usage I find it hard to imagine finding contamination but I guess the OP is better safe than sorry and do an oil change.

[salty]

Any time a small motor is going to be stored for a long period, it's an excellent idea to change the oil.

[ransley]

You should run it till there is no gas draining is not enough, even with only a few hrs changing the oil keeps any acids from atacking the bearings, spray some fogging oil into the cilinders.

[mgarvie]

Every year before I put my boat away for the winter, change all the filters, all the fluids, spark plugs, and don't forget to fog the engine!

[Joseph Meehan]

Bingo. That got it. I would certainly recommend changing the oil and anything that might have been contaminated by water, at the end of every season. The exception would be if you did not use it at all and it never was in the water.

[Toller]

Interesting that everyone says to fog the engine on the boat motor, but no one would suggest it for a lawmower engine. Is that because it is used on the water, so there could be contamination? I have a can of fogger, so I will do that; but wonder what the distinction is.

[admin]

put my boat away for the winter, change all the

We change our boat oil in the spring. I have found that the metal filings tend to accumulate during the winter and the oil (looks like) it is absorbing moisture. The oil tends to be more watery in spring than when we parked the boat.

Even if you only used it twice... I guess it depends on where you store the boat. Ours is in the driveway and I suspect all that snow and rain is making its way inside. :(

[salty]

I fog my lawnmower and snowblower. If I was going to park my car for 6 months, I'd fog that too. It's so easy to do, you'd be hard pressed to find a reason NOT to do it. When I fog my yard machines, I also shoot fog into the crankcase via the oil fill to hopefully protect the crank and rod bearings a little as well.

[TD]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I maintain everything, but in 30 years never fogged anything. It's 80s and

90s in the summer and 10s or 20s in the winter.

[trader4]

put my boat away for the winter, change all the

I've seen what amounts to fogging suggested lots of times, including in owner's manuals for lawn mowers and other engines of various types. Most times they say to squirt an ounce of oil into the cylinder, then crank the engine a few times without starting to distribute it around. It helps prevent any rusting. However, in practice, I guess the question is how much diff does it really make? I doubt anyone has done any testing to verify it.

In a marine environment, the air tends to be more humid, so it's likely more of an issue there than for your lawnmower that gets put away in Nov. I always fogged the boat engines, but never any other.