Boat question

[David]

Hey guys....first year owning a boat with outboard motor. It's a 2000 model 175 efi mercury 2 stroke.

I know with my inboard, you had to stabilize fuel, change lower unit lube, fog the carburetor, change oil, and full tank of gas, or at least that's what I always did.

So with this outboard, what do you guys typically do? One guy told me just add stabil to fuel and run it a few minutes and that's it. What do you guys do?

 

[TNLynn]

If it is going to sit a few months, stabilizing the fuel is a good idea. If you plan on using it occasionally through the winter, you don't have to do anything.

 

[mossyhorns300]

Hey guys....first year owning a boat with outboard motor. It's a 2000 model 175 efi mercury 2 stroke.

I know with my inboard, you had to stabilize fuel, change lower unit lube, fog the carburetor, change oil, and full tank of gas, or at least that's what I always did.

So with this outboard, what do you guys typically do? One guy told me just add stabil to fuel and run it a few minutes and that's it. What do you guys do?

Both Lynn and your buddy are correct. I would recommend using some sort of fuel stabilizer on every fill up, though. Mercury tells us to stress this to everyone as they don't cover anything fuel related under warranty now, thanks to ethanol. Also, wouldn't hurt to check your gear lube to make sure it doesn't have any water in it. That is about all we would do for a winterization on an outboard at our shop, other than lubricating the pivot points.

 

[Football Hunter]

If it is going to sit a few months, stabilizing the fuel is a good idea. If you plan on using it occasionally through the winter, you don't have to do anything.

Thats what I do,just go run it once a month

 

[SilverFox]

I use mine all year. Make sure you tilt the motor down to get the water out of it and use fuel treatment. I use sta-bil blue and then add some Marvel Mystery Oil in the gas to lube the cylinder walls if it's going to sit for a couple of months.

 

[David]

Got done today, I'll start it up on the pipe once a month or so to keep it good. When you guys say motor down you mean like level, or all the way down like u gonna take off on the lake?

 

[yamaha200]

I add Marine stabile to my gas everytime I fill up. Also I use ring free everytime I fill up. Tilt your engine down as far as it will go to drain all the water out, to keep from freezing !

 

[fishboy1]

Back in the day.....

Would run the motor on the ear muffs and spray about half a can of silicone spray lube in the water intake (use the little straw) while running. This would help keep the rubber impeller from sticking and the cooling ports from corroding.

Pull fuel line and run the motor completely out of gas. Run trim up and down all the way 2x to help drain the motor ports. Then pull the kill switch and give it a 1 second crank. My old Mariner would fart out a bit more water.

Top off the tank with fresh 100% gas and add stabil.

NOTE**** This was for a 2 cycle engine with a carb that was run mostly in fresh water but occasionally in salt.

 

[elkman]

Guys,
Please do not use stabil in your boats during the winter. Use seafoam. I just got my 20' Skeeter back with a 200hp yamaha HPDI that has been in the shop for over a month because the stabil and ethenol by-product stopped up all my filters and ruined my high pressure pump. After $2600.00 worth of damage i will never use the stuff again.

 

[elkman]

Guys,
Please do not use stabil in your boats during the winter. Use seafoam. I just got my 20' Skeeter back with a 200hp yamaha HPDI that has been in the shop for over a month because the stabil and ethenol by-product stopped up all my filters and ruined my high pressure pump. After $2600.00 worth of damage i will never use the stuff again.

I do recommend the ring free because i have had no issues with that and my boat mechanic highly speaks of it.

 

[SilverFox]

Guys,
Please do not use stabil in your boats during the winter. Use seafoam. I just got my 20' Skeeter back with a 200hp yamaha HPDI that has been in the shop for over a month because the stabil and ethenol by-product stopped up all my filters and ruined my high pressure pump. After $2600.00 worth of damage i will never use the stuff again.

Never heard of this. Is it common? I run stabil all the time.

 

[yamaha200]

Guys,
Please do not use stabil in your boats during the winter. Use seafoam. I just got my 20' Skeeter back with a 200hp yamaha HPDI that has been in the shop for over a month because the stabil and ethenol by-product stopped up all my filters and ruined my high pressure pump. After $2600.00 worth of damage i will never use the stuff again.

That's funny, my mechanic told me to use the stable everytime I fill up. I have a hpdi as well. Guess it depends on who you talk to about it. I have had mine for 3 yrs, and no problem so far.

 

[milkey]

same here

 

[elkman]

i hope yall dont, but that is what he told me. I guess i should also add that i did not use high test gas either.

 

[Winchester]

Sta bil has worked well for me in the past as well!

 

[mossyhorns300]

Guys,
Please do not use stabil in your boats during the winter. Use seafoam. I just got my 20' Skeeter back with a 200hp yamaha HPDI that has been in the shop for over a month because the stabil and ethenol by-product stopped up all my filters and ruined my high pressure pump. After $2600.00 worth of damage i will never use the stuff again.

Never heard of this. Is it common? I run stabil all the time.

Only time we've ever ran into that problem with stabil is when it wasn't measured properly and ran too heavy, or when the wrong formula of stabil was used. We've had guys use the red stabil which is for automotive purposes, instead of the blue stabil which is made for marine purposes and it caused major headaches with the motor and fuel pumps. We have a 30 yr master certified mercury tech and he strongly advises against seafoam in marine motors. All we use at work in our shop cans is blue stabil and mercury quikstore. Again, this is coming from mercury, so I'm not sure about yamaha's.