Mercury 75 4 stroke Winterizing

I am a new boat owner this yea

I am a new boat owner this year. I have been told that all I really need to do is de fog the engine. Is this true? Can I do it myself? I will be leaving the pontoon in the water for the winter. Thanks for any help/advice. Mollie

"Martha,

Fogging alone is n

"Martha,

Fogging alone is not enough, and is usually done improperly. First, make a fuel mixture for this process. This consists of maybe a half gallon of gas, two stroke oil (50:1), fogging oil (25:1), fuel stabilizer (one ounce), marvel mystery oil(50:1). If you want to treat the fuel in the fuel tank add stabilizer to that. Start the engine and after it warms up, substitute the winterizing mixture for the normal fuel and run for about ten minutes. Remove the spark plugs and spray some fogging oil into the carb intakes while turning the flywheel clockwise slowly. Spray some fogging oil into the spark plug holes and rotate the flywheel again a couple of turns. Replace the plugs. You should drain and fill the lower unit at this time in case some water might be in there. Use Quicksilver high performance gear oil for this.

Tony"

"Sorry mate, fogging oil is pu

"Sorry mate, fogging oil is put into the carburetor with the engine running.You do this till the neighbours house disappears (hence the term fogging).4 stroke or 2 stroke this coats the internal parts ( pistons,rings,cylinder walls and valves with the sticky oil."

"When you fog the engine while

"When you fog the engine while it is running, the oil is drawn through the crankcase or intake manifold, into the cylinders, burns up (that is where the smoke comes from), and out the exhaust.

This leaves behind a nice thick coating of carbon on the rings and pistons, and very little oil in the crank or manifold.

If your goal is to make smoke and gum up your piston rings, then go ahead and fog while running.

It makes much more sense to fog while cranking. You use much less fogging oil, everything gets a good soaking with oil, and there is no carbon left behind by the burning oil, which can be especially harmful to a 4-stroke engine. It is not a bad idea to flush out the oil before starting in the spring for the same reason.

I have been using this method for only about thirty years, and have never had a problem, or a complaint from a customer.

In my opinion, the instructions on the can of fogging oil have only one purpose; sell more fogging oil.

Tony"

"Tony:

That's the most

"Tony:

That's the most intelligent comment on fogging I've ever read. (Even the manufacturers of that stuff could learn from it.) I did it that way last year, but then surcumbed to the dopey method "everyone" uses this time. Well, no more, my man!

Jeff"

"What "potion" would y

"What "potion" would you use in the spring to get rid of this oil that is now in the cylinders before starting the motor, since this oil is so harmful????"

"The oil in the cylinders isn&

"The oil in the cylinders isn't "harmful". It does cause a bit of plug fouling, but a few raps of the throttle should cure that.

Jeff"

"I generally flush the engine

"I generally flush the engine with fuel in the spring before starting. I disable the ignition, remove the carb drain plugs and pump plenty of fuel through. Replace the drain plugs and remove the spark plugs. Crank the engine until the oil has been flushed out. Let the engine sit until the fuel has had a chance to evaporate. Then start the engine.

I don't want any extra oil in there when I start it up, especially if it is a four stroke engine.

Tony"

"Tony, Thats great advise. May

"Tony, Thats great advise. Maybe you could help with a problem I'm having on my 2001 90hp Mercury. After thanksgiving I went to pull it out of the water but could get it started. It would just click. I though maybe it was the starter and replaced it... still just clicked when I would turn the key. That brought me to replace the solonoid...then it would turn the starter lust a little and make a fast clicking sound now... w/ the key engaged all the gauges and voltage seemed good, as soon as I would turn the key to start the volts would shoot to zero and again a fast clicking... I then replaced the battery (just in case) and nothing but the same. I cleaned/ lightly sanded the connections @ the battery terminal as well as all the hook-up on the starter and solonoid... don't know what to do next. still in the water, and only getting colder.

Matt"

"My guess is a bad connection

"My guess is a bad connection between the starter and the battery. There are more connections than the battery poles to be sanded.
By jumping with jumper cables directly from the + on the battery to the starter motor terminal, you just bypass anything else that can be faulty. Regular car jumper cables work just fine. You might as well use jumper cable for the negative ground also, to be absolutely sure.

If motor is ok with jumpers, then look for voltage drop on both sides of the starter, while trying to start (you need a voltmeter for that of course). With that voltmeter you can trace the position of the fault. Use the negative lead of the meter directly on the battery and move the positive around the circuit while testing. It is essential that you draw a lot of current while testing to find the voltage drop. On the negative side of the starter, you should read close to zero when cranking. If the voltage goes up, you have a bad connection on the negative side of the starter. A wiring diagram is not absolutely necessary, but helps.
Robert"