Corrosion Maintenance

"I have not been running my mo

"I have not been running my motor in freshwater before taking it back to the parking lot to rest. It's been ran only 2 times in the past 3 months, the most recent time last weekend. When should I start to be really concerned about the salt getting into the insides of the motor and rotting it out? Also...the exposed metal near my spark plugs are starting to corrode....I've started to spray WD-40 and a liquid grease on some of the parts but they look pretty ugly...what kind of cleaner can I use to get these looking nicer?

Thanks in advance!"

"Raoul, you should already be

"Raoul, you should already be concerned. You need to flush every single time it even gets close to salt water.

If you want to clean up the powerhead itself there are a number of "engine cleaners" available - try a marine dealer or auto parts place. Get the crud off and then keep it sprayed down with fogging oil or even WD-40.

Not flushing the motor also causes build-up in all the water channels inside the motor and could also rot out your water tubes (both pick-up and the one from the water pump to the powerhead) - that's really not good.

Here's a pic of a motor. It was 3 years old when the photo was taken - the guy who owned it didn't bother flushing it either. The inside looked just as bad.

It took about 50 hours to completely restore it and every piece of hardware on the motor had to be replaced. The lower unit bolts had to be cut off at the heads to remove the lower unit.



I redid it as a project - it would have been cost prohibative otherwise - the guy gave me the motor as scrap. It looks like this now - a little care would have gone a long way...

"

"So I'm guessing it's

"So I'm guessing it's going to take a few hours with a 3in1 and a hard wire brush for the exterior....I can flush it with regular water no problem, but I was wondering if there was something to put inside the water that would help to clean any kind of current buildup happening right now on the inside parts that I cannot see. Motor looks real nice in that second picture....you have a talent!"

"Raoul, to clean up anything i

"Raoul, to clean up anything inside you can use either some CLR or even just plain vinegar/water (mixed at about 50/50).

On smaller motors I have put the mix in by removing the thermostat and just filling up the water jacket, then replace the thermostat and leave them turned upside down. A little tough to do on a larger motor...."

nice re-do......!!!

nice re-do......!!!

Okay...CLR sounds like the tic

Okay...CLR sounds like the ticket. I've seen some guys put their props in 5 gallon buckets...since mine is a little bigger I'll have to figure something out but I think that's a good way of flushing it properly. Thanks for the tip Graham.

"Thanks JWB - if I hadn't

"Thanks JWB - if I hadn't been doing it for myself, really wouldn't be worth it. Cost about 200 bucks in parts/paint/decals and a good solid week of work - not feasable to have it done (or me to do it for someone else) - 50 hours worth of labour = new motor in most cases."