1989 force 125 saltwater question

[forexsystemresearch]

I bought a boat with a 1989 force 125 outboard since I will be keeping it in salt water all the time. I thought I would be able to tilt the motor out of the water and flush it every time I use it, but with my boat, the motor does not come out of the water high enough to flush it.

So now I am stuck with an outboard that is going to be in the water 100% of the time(yikes).

Is there any way to install a fitting or something that can feed water into the engine another way in order to flush it?

How bad is this really going to be for the engine? I will be using it quite frequently since its docked behind my condo.

Any suggestions?


Thanks,


Mike

 

[maxum247]

Re: 1989 force 125 saltwater question

About all you can do is trailer the boat once in awhile and flush the motor with fresh water useing muffs and a garden hose.
Keeping the battery disconnected between trips and the annode behind the propeller changed once a year will help cut down on electralasis. max!

 

[forexsystemresearch]

Re: 1989 force 125 saltwater question

Thanks for the tip about the zinc anode. The prop is not in the water when the boat is slipped, only the back part of the bottom of the motor. Will the zinc anode still help if its not in the water? I guess it will help when im running the motor, so I will change it tomorrow.

I could propably get muffs on it if I got on a float behind the boat, but im not sure if the motor would even run at almost a horizontal angle.

I do have a battery disconnect switch on the boat, so I will keep that disconnected when im not using it.

 

[RRitt]

Re: 1989 force 125 saltwater question

IMO, a meticulously maintained saltwater boat is more difficult to work on than a neglected freshwater boat. If the engine was 100% stainless or 100% aluminum there would not be any problems. But mixing stainless with aluminum and putting them into saltwater turns your engine into a battery. All the little electrons want to come out of the aluminum and go into the steel. and they do. Your aluminum turns into white corrosion which is 10x bigger than the aluminum it came from. Which, naturally, clamps down on every single SS nut, bolt, shaft, and screw in your engine. Clamps down on them hard enouh that they will twist in two before turning.

SS + Aluminum + salt water turns any outboard into a big lump of seized bolts. The only thing that you can do is keep your anode in 100% perfect condition - and in the case of your force - get a few slabs of zinc and add more anodes.

 

[forexsystemresearch]

Re: 1989 force 125 saltwater question

would the extra zinc annodes actually have to be in the water in order for them to do their job, or can I just attach them to the engine?

 

[maxum247]

Re: 1989 force 125 saltwater question

I live in an area where there's salt water, engines will last a pretty long time with some care.
The bolts will seize with corrosion after awhile and twist off, try taking the water pump off an outboard that has some age on it! max!

 

[RRitt]

Re: 1989 force 125 saltwater question

i would get some of the flat 1/4" thick squares and attach them liberally in
strategic locations. There are some bolts that need to come out every year when you put in new impeller ... maybe a plate or two near there. Trim & tilt has stainless shafts & stainless oil tubes going into aluminum cylinders, brackets, & pumps .... and the same tilt bracket is known to cause stiff steering. So I would put a slab of zinc on bottom of trim housing and another on swivel bracket. Up inside the engine your t'stat is known to seize bolts. Not much you can do about that except loosen & tighten the bolts every season to prevent accumulation.

 

[jim_b_20653]

Re: 1989 force 125 saltwater question

I would be carefull about disconnecting the battery while docked. If the bilge pump has no power you might be recovering your outboard from the bottom.