Flushing outboard at marina

N

nightstalker

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Dec 10, 2003
Messages
570
My boat is in a slip and I can't reach the lower skeg of the engine to flush her using muffs. I have the hose adapter on the back of the motor where you can attach a fresh water hose. Is it best to flush it using this hose adapter with the engine up or down, and should it be running or shut off? Should the water be turned on full?<br />Stalker
 
A

alcan

Commander
Joined
Dec 14, 2001
Messages
2,505
Re: Flushing outboard at marina

This is a situation that has a lot of depends to it. Do you have a bonding system? Do you moore with the motor up or down? What do the other guy's on the dock do? Look at their rigs. One look should tell you who to listen to and who not to. To make an exact recomdation you pretty much have to be there. The hose attachmet on your motor is to be used with the motor off. This will just flush the power head. I have moore boats for many years. Outboards, I/O's and inboards. I never flushed my I/O's or inboards and only flushed the outboards when I took them home. I have had a few small problems with galvonic corrosion here and there. This was minor, and corrections were made. I used these boats regularly, almost daily. I have dismantaled 100's of old outboards and have only see a few that were so plugged with salt that it might be a problem. These few motor were dredged up from the bottom of the bay and had been down for god olny knows. I do feel that it is very important to rinse your entire boat and motor (top sides) after each outing. And wash with soap and water at least once a week. Keep your boat covered, or under a shed is best. Try to moore on the north side of the dock, control marine growth. Best bet, talk to you neighbors on the dock.
 
C

Cricket Too

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
May 14, 2003
Messages
1,732
Re: Flushing outboard at marina

Stalker.....You can use the backflush on the back of the motor with the hose no problem. I usually do it with the engine up, my boat is in a slip also and I don,t want to have the lower unit in the saltwater when I'm back flushing it. Do not run the motor when you have only the backflusher hooked up, the water pump will be running without any water to lube it and you will destroy your impeller. There is also another post on here (General Outboard) that talks about using the muffs at a slip. I believe you can just raise the motor, put the muffs on, turn the water on, then lower the motor back down into the water and start it to flush and I guess the muffs keeps the saltwater out of the lower unit. Personally I don't see any reason to use the muffs if you have a backflusher. Some guys say it won't flush as good because the thermostats don't open with the cold hose water, but I figure they designed it to flush so I'm sure it does a good enough job. I have had motors that I never flushed at the dock, only when I took them out for the winter, not that you should do this, but the backflusher should be fine, and yes you do use the hose at full pressure, at least that's what I do. Good luck.
 
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