86 Evinrude twin 6 took a bath

"Started out to be a nice day

"Started out to be a nice day for sailing... Motor was on its back on the dock and a "tourist" in a rental boat hit the dock! Over the edge she went into 5 feet of salt water - with the cover off. We got her out in under three minutes (that's what teenage sons are for) - washed it with fresh water to get out all the mud. Took it home to dry, no water in the carb (ok a few drops, but that's it)pulled the plugs, and blew it out with air, and sprayed some oil in the cylinders and NO START!
How do I check for a spark? What else should I look to dry out and clean? By the way, boat is stuck at a $35 a night dock....
Thanks - this is a great site, and I seem to be the only one to admit losing his motor over the side of a dock...."

You need to give it a good bat

You need to give it a good bath at some point but if you need it running now try spraying WD40 on all of the electrical parts to displace the water. If that doesn't get it going then you need to pull the flywheel and clean and dry it out real well.

"Engine needs to be started BE

"Engine needs to be started BEFORE it dries out! Hook it on the boat, drain the carbs, have the starter dismantled and cleaned. As the wire haness may be shorted due to moisure, pull the stop wire from power pack (black/yellow). Spray some CRC 556 electrical spray or similar in connectors etc but NOT WD 40!"

"when removeing the gear case

"when removeing the gear case i see only 6 screws,should i leave on the propeller until the lower gear case is removed. i have a parts cat 1966 18 hp evinrude outboard"

This should be good. Why not W

This should be good. Why not WD 40?

This should be good. Why not W

This should be good. Why not WD40 for displacing water? Please explain reason in detail.

From what I have seen WD40 is one of the best ways to displace water and keep an engine from drying out until it can be cleaned in the correct manner. The way I read this problem was the man needed to get his boat moved and had already checked the fuel system for water.
So that leaves getting the spark to return.

Unless your pull starter is not working for some reason don't worry about cleaning it until you can service the whole engine.
The pull starter has nothing to do with the engine running other than to spin the motor over.

"Mainly own experience and eve

"Mainly own experience and even recomendations from my distributor.
As rust preventer/remover/lubrication on mechanical parts, excelent. On plugwires I have seen/experienced quite some wild spark jumps where they should not be. In contacts (power pack/stators) current jumps between the pins (Ampenol plugs). On metal parts no problems, but in electric/electronic conectors anything that leaves an oily film may cause more harm than good. The WD 40 is a lubricant, and in correct application perhaps the best.
As for a drowned engine, it is often better just to leave it in water, preferrably fresh (and oily). I used to drop them in my test tank until I was able to take care of them.
As for the starter, it is an hour job to take it appart, wash and clean and lubricate. If rust starts on the spring, it is soon gone.
But as general for a submerged engine: Get the water out, fill the inntake with 'Fogging Oil' and pull. Do this several time. New/cleaned plugs, clean carb(s), and start. Then let it run for at least an hour. I flipped my dingy with my 3,5 Johnson quite some times on my trip. My normal procedure was just to shake it a couple of times by the leg (upside down), pull the water out of the cylinder and then start. The good things about 2-strokes, the do normally not mind a short swim."

"Thanks very much, guys! I fl

"Thanks very much, guys! I flushed her out with a fresh water hose immediately after. The recoils spring got a new coat of oil, it got new plugs and the cylinders drained and oiled. I don't know what a fogging oil is... I used 10W30 sprayed in and pulled her half a dozen times to make sure I wasn't getting anything liquid and salty out of the cylinders - only the top cylinder showed any sign of water anyway. The carb got a rebuild kit except for the cork float.

I was worried about the electronics. No electric start (although I'd love to have one for this motor, but I pulled the flywheel and found no sand or mud under it. My motor has a charging system on it and can't tell if I'm getting any voltage until I get her to run awhile."

"You did the correct thing wit

"You did the correct thing with the oil in the cylinders. In fact everything you did was correct. It would have been better with fogging oil but the oil used was better than nothing. The fogging oil is used for storage of an engine and protects the parts longer than plain oil will.(there is more to it than that)
The use of WD40 will aid in getting the engine restarted by helping desplace water so the water will not short the wires to ground.
As with any engine that has been dumped into salt water all the wires should be cleaned and dried after the engine has been restarted. This includes but not limited to checking all wire harness taped areas that could have let the water in. The stator, coils, ETC all need to be very well cleaned.
Even a small amount of salt water left in the wire harness will start to eat away at the wires and connectors.
Only after you are certain all the salt has been removed and all oil is off the wires and the wires are dry should the wires be sealed with a good spray wire / harness sealant. All connectors should be disconnected cleaned and sealed with insulating compound.
The motor may not have been down very long but it does not take water long to get into the ends of a wire harness.
If this is not done the wires will give trouble later on down the line.
Any crimp / butt connector end will allow water into the end of the wire where it starts working its way up into the wire under the insulation.

Never take for granted the power of salt water on the wire system. Just washing it off is not enough. Salt on a wire system is like rust on a car. Once it starts eating it never sleeps."