Outboard Flushing

[Bottle_of_Rum]

There's been various talk of chemicals to flush out the cooling channels on outboards.

Would central heating stuff such as fernox in the bin full of water do the job? any risks?

 

[cliff]

[ QUOTE ]
There's been various talk of chemicals to flush out the cooling channels on outboards.

Would central heating stuff such as fernox in the bin full of water do the job? any risks?

[/ QUOTE ]Might be risky unless you use the type suitable for aluminium.

Might be better to use automotive "radflush" for aluminium engines.

BTW all these sort of treatments rely on running the engine up to temperature so I would start off with hot water in the "bucket".
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"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"

 

[sofka]

hose pipe to a hot tap and to the muffs

 

[BarryH]

Rad flush is useless in an outboard and not much better in the car! I've had good results with household limescale remover. The last one I used was cillit bang. The one with the dodgy add on TV. A couple of quick applications with a flush seemd to work with applying and leaving it for any length of time.

Do check the label and see what your NOT supposed to use it on. Its restored the cooling system of a mid 80's mariner of mine with no probs at all.

 

[VicS]

I have the Cillit Bang in front of me. One of the things it is not suitable for is aluminium!

 

[BarryH]

Theres a couple of different ones, from memory, the wife got it I had a dig about in the cupboard and thought "I wonder". Used it and it worked a treat. Hence the quick applications with a flush in between. I think its slightly caustic which is why they say not for ali. It'll take an awful long time to do damage to an ali engine tho. The warning is probably so as not to discolour/damage the decrotive finish on household stuff.

 

[VicS]

Cillit Bang is very acidic; pH around 1, maybe less, as is a citric acid based kettle descaler. Vinegar is only about pH 3.

Agreed though anything strongly alkaline (caustic) will also attack the aluminium, and leave the scale behind.

 

[claymore]

There is a 45 gallon drum of water which has an oily,flushing brew in it at our boatyard. I always stick the outboard in it after use and once started switch off the petrol supply and let it run itself dry.
Amazing how long it runs for!

 

[andy_wilson]

Ordinary water will dissolve away the salt deposits, but not touch any of the calcium based deposits which ultimately bung the job up.

A short, sharp dose of an acid based cleaner, followed by a thorough rinse works well.

I am about to do my 15 yr old Johnson 4 with Masonary cleaner. This is hydrochroric acid 10% and I dilute it about 50:50 to clean engine parts for dipping, say thermostat housing and about 10:1 for flushing.

Yes it will react with aluminium, but not that quickly until the calcium has just about stopped fizzing. And certainly not as bad as leaving salty water lodged in the powerhead over winter.

Just feed it in, leave for 10 mins and flush very well.

 

[andy_wilson]

2 stroke Outboard Flushing

Difficult to judge, but if you can run it almost dry, rev it up and hit the kill switch, you will coat the internals with a nice fuel / oil mix, the fuel part will evaporate leaving far better protection than if you burn it all completely off.

Mine, like many, gives a clue by starting to surge just before it dies.

 

[onenyala]

I have a Mercury 2.5 which is 14 yrs old.
Despite washing it out in a fresh water tank each time after I use it salt deposits build up. Every two years I take off the cylinder head and dig out the deposits using a thin screwdriver and a hacksaw blade.
If you are careful not to allow any of the scrapings to get between the piston and the cylinder and are careful removing the gasket you can reuse the gasket if you use Loctite gasket sealing compound.
I'm sure if I had not the engine would have packed up by now.

 

[jimbouy]

This is all interesting stuff as I'm about to try and flush thru a Mercury 2.5 which I don't think is "dribbling" enuff water out of the tell tale.

 

[claymore]

Re: 2 stroke Outboard Flushing

Ahh!
Thanks

 

[cliff]

Re: 2 stroke Outboard Flushing

[ QUOTE ]
Mine, like many, gives a clue by starting to surge just before it dies.

[/ QUOTE ]oooh /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif that's strange - so does mine - I mean starts to surge before it dies /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
Do you find the surge clears out your tubes completely or do you still get a dribble after it dies? /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
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"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"