Re: to winterize or not to winterize?
so i know what the sevice manuals and the experts on here say to do to our outboard motors. but how many of you really do everything? the reason i ask, this is my first outboard. all my buddys are telling me that they run stabil and just unhook fuel line, let it shut off on its own. and make sure motor is vertical to allow the water to drain out. i live in georgia but it still will freeze. are they just lucky? they seem to have no problems next spring. they tell me its a waste of money to do all the other.
Don't let it run til it dies unless it's a single carb. engine. With multi carb engines, one or more carbs will run out of gas first. The cylinders they feed will then run w/o any fuel (therefore no lube either). That could damage those cylinders. For those engines, just treat the fuel with stabilizer and run it long enough so you know that the stabilized fuel has reached the carbs. The passages, if flooded with treated fuel, will not gum up. Or you could drain each carb.
If it's a oil injected engine, when the gasoline runs out, the oil keeps pumping and can fill carbs, etc. with oil, making a mess.
You should definitely drain and refill the lower unit. Any water that's in there could cause catastrophic damage if it freezes.
I also fog the engine, that's easy too.
Other than that, I grease fittings and drain the water separating filter. This all takes about 20 minutes for a V6 and about 10 minutes for my kickers.
