Bob&Alicia
New member
Pat,
Most ship's stores will sell the sheets of Oil Absorbent pads. They will probably give you a couple 12x12 sheets at the fuel dock if you're filling up.
I use a plastic bag with 1/2 of an Oil Absorbent sheet inside the plastic bag to go over the filter as I unscrew it. The second sheet is stuffed around the engine to catch drips. The remaining half goes wherever I didn't realize I needed it.
These sheets work really well. They absorb oil/diesel but not water. I have used them to soak up a bilge that had a bunch of diesel fuel in it. It took a bunch of sheets but by the time I was done you really couldn't see any diesel left. I used the red dyed off road diesel so it was easy to see. I have been an advocate ever sense.
I have never changed the lower unit unless it was out of the water. I had a friend did it in waist deep water where he didn't have any wave/boat traffic. He tilted the motor just enough to get a plastic pan under it and used a NPT fitting on the end of the extractor to screw into the bottom drain plug and then took the top plug out and pumped it out with the extractor. He then measured in an old soda bottle how much came out put only that much back in. It worked but it could have been messy if the floating plastic pan got knocked over or he dropped the plug in the water etc.
Bob
Most ship's stores will sell the sheets of Oil Absorbent pads. They will probably give you a couple 12x12 sheets at the fuel dock if you're filling up.
I use a plastic bag with 1/2 of an Oil Absorbent sheet inside the plastic bag to go over the filter as I unscrew it. The second sheet is stuffed around the engine to catch drips. The remaining half goes wherever I didn't realize I needed it.
These sheets work really well. They absorb oil/diesel but not water. I have used them to soak up a bilge that had a bunch of diesel fuel in it. It took a bunch of sheets but by the time I was done you really couldn't see any diesel left. I used the red dyed off road diesel so it was easy to see. I have been an advocate ever sense.
I have never changed the lower unit unless it was out of the water. I had a friend did it in waist deep water where he didn't have any wave/boat traffic. He tilted the motor just enough to get a plastic pan under it and used a NPT fitting on the end of the extractor to screw into the bottom drain plug and then took the top plug out and pumped it out with the extractor. He then measured in an old soda bottle how much came out put only that much back in. It worked but it could have been messy if the floating plastic pan got knocked over or he dropped the plug in the water etc.
Bob