Outboard(s) Up or Down ?

[Doryman]

Our slip at Skyline (which is for sale or rent, BTW, if anyone is in the market) has a triangular piece of dock in the corner where the finger pier meets the main fairway pier. Our dock box fits on it. Because the Tom Cat is essentially rectangular, when we pull all the way in to the slip that pushes the boat away from the finger pier. As a result, even though it is a 30' slip with 6' overhang, our engines jut out into the fairway and have been hit by !@#$%^&*() more than once. If I put the boat back in the slip I will experiment with backing it in.

Warren

 

[Sea Wolf]

The anchor roller and anchor are great battering rams, i can attest to that 1st hand. I have hit more than a few of those 4x4 wooden posts sticking up on the slips and launching ramps.Better nick the posts than my boat. The way the anchor sticks out you could sure do some damage if you were to hit another boat broadside. Tug

How about this protruding out to welcome intruders? (Fortress FX-16 on Lewmar Pivoting Anchor Roller)



Joe. :teeth :thup

 

[hardee]

Joe, is that what you graduated to after I bought the Delta? Sure looks like it would do the job :thup

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[Sea Wolf]

Harvey-

The Delta was my first anchor and rode, and worked great everywhere I used it, but back then, I didn't have a windlass.

I bought the Fortress FX-16 at West Marine in Alameda, but wanted to wait until I got a windlass to use it, since it was so large dimensionally (only weighs 12 pounds).

Thus when I retired in 2000 and had the time, I added a Quick 500 windlass.

We had trouble with the windlass passing the rope/chain splice with the Delta Fast-Set anchor and rode. It wasn't a fault of that rode, but of the Quick Windlass, which choked on the standard type of splice (too large, not enough taper).

After considerable thought and experimentation, it seemed that the simple solution was to add 100 feet of chain (which the windlass passed flawlessly), develop my own rope/chain splice (smaller and more gradually tapered) add 250 feet of 1/2" 3-strand nylon rope, and add in the new Fortress anchor.

After some fine-tuning, I got the new set-up to work just fine. Even added an hand-held wired remote to pass up through the front hatch to operate the windlass from the deck when there were fouls (very rare, since mostly all I use is the first 100 feet of chain).

This left the Delta Fast-Set Anchor and Rode as surplus, so I offered it to the C-
Brat group, and you were the first to respond.

Joe. :teeth :thup

 

[Les Lampman]

Up or down may depend on your motors. Since acquiring the Viking Lady the twin honda 90s were always left UP when in it's salt water slip. This last summer I found a considerable amount of 'extra oil' on the starboard engine and it smelled a lot like gas. In talking with my Honda service guy he pointed out that all to often the carborated engines will experience the floats getting stuck open when the motors are stored Up. A fresh oil change and new filter (I had less than an hour on the last change!), a few 'raps' on the carborator as directed by my tech and no more problems. I now keep the motors down - but I would sure like to keep them up, but worry about the carb leak.
Am I the only one with this problem? Wonder if it was a one-time problem?

This doesn't make any sense to me at all and I can't think of any logical explanation of how fuel in the bowl would travel up through the fuel jet, through the intake manifold, and into a cylinder without the engine running. In any case it would have nothing to do with the floats in the carbs; their job is not to control fuel flow into the engine but to control fuel flow into the carburetor.

When the float bowl is full then the needle valve on the float keep more fuel from entering the carb bowl.

Whether or not the floats get stuck open has nothing to do with whether or not the engines are vertical or tilted. In fact, just from a logic standpoint it would stand to reason that they'd be much more likely to be stuck open with the engine in the vertical position since the floats would then be fully perpendicular to the pull of gravity; and less so when the engine is tilted. With fuel in the bowl the floats would be floating and therefor not stuck open at all. With no fuel in the bowl they might stick open but as noted before from a physical standpoint you'd be better off with the engines tilted so that the floats don't have as much gravitational force on them (kind of far-fetched, eh?).

This is a situation where the person making the comment makes up a scenario (and likely out of good intentions) that explains an issue he otherwise doesn't understand.

The most likely reason for gas in the oil on your engine is a stuck open thermostat. That allows the engine to run well below operating temperature and that leaves a very rich mixture in the cylinders with unburned gas. The oil ring on the piston swipes that back to the oil reservoir along with the oil it's collecting.

It is possible that a fuel pump is leaking fuel into the engine (via the hole it's mounted in) and while not unheard of it's actually quite rare.

Les

 

[Les Lampman]

I have recently changed from using composite (Pro-Pulse) props, (NO corrosion or pitting) to aluminum. The shafts were well greased, but... in salt water.....
#1. Do I still need to be worried (and I think I know) about the corrosion between the prop and the shaft now?
#2. Should I be raising the OB's after each days run, even if they aren't flushed and I am still on the water? (No freezing temps)
#3. How often should the prop shafts be re-greased?
#4 Should I add more zincs?

I'm new the the aluminum prop stuff. Thanks in advance for suggestions here.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

Hi Hardee,

As long as you lubricate your prop shaft you won't need to worry about corrosion.

You can leave the engines up or down, it's your choice. As long as you aren't getting any damage from leaving them down it's fine. This is very situational so you just need to watch the engine zincs and the lower unit parts for pitting.

The prop shafts should be generously lubricated annually or anytime you remove the prop.

You shouldn't add more zincs the engine and you can definitely become "over zinc'd". If you have trim tabs (in saltwater) you may need to add zincs to them.

You want the zincs to be eaten away, that's what they're there for. On average we'll replace about 1 or 2 engine zincs annually for ALL the Honda engines we service so it's not something that's typically done very often (other geographical ares could be totally different).

Les

 

[Doryman]

As long as you lubricate your prop shaft you won't need to worry about corrosion.

Les, if I wanted to remove my props (for security) for the winter and the boat is going to sit outside, what would be the preferred way to protect the prop shafts?

Thanks,
Warren

 

[Les Lampman]

As long as you lubricate your prop shaft you won't need to worry about corrosion.

Les, if I wanted to remove my props (for security) for the winter and the boat is going to sit outside, what would be the preferred way to protect the prop shafts?

Thanks,
Warren

Hi Warren,

I'd just lube them up (grease...yay!), wrap plastic around them, and then tape or zip tie the plastic wrapping.

Les

 

[bridma]

I keep my boat in the marina (salt), it will only come out for Winter. After talking to a couple of respected boaties (one with a 250 Yami), I am going to try the following. The outboards will be tilted up when not in use. Prior to starting, lower the outboards back to vertical and leave for 15 minutes before firing up, lets the fluids settle down again. Sounds logical to me. What say you?

Martin.

 

[C-Nile]

Prior to starting, lower the outboards back to vertical and leave for 15 minutes before firing up, lets the fluids settle down again. Sounds logical to me. What say you?

Martin.

I'm not sure that it will make any appreciable difference, particularly for models with oil pumps as opposed to sump-only. Probably the most important thing to do is to not have the engine sit too long without running. In the Northeast, for example, we had two, prolonged, weather-related, electrical outages last fall. A great many people's generators failed them precisely because they had been sitting idle for extended periods of time. Engines are made to run, and should be exercised regularly.

Rich

 

[matt_unique]

With our oil pumps and the amount of oil in the reservoir I have no problem leaving engines up when not in use. I always leave my engines up and out of the salt water. Zero growth and shiny props are a beautiful thing after thousands of nautical miles cruised. The ability to trim an engine out of the water is a HUGE advantage to having outboards over other options!