Outboard Oil Change

Dave Shorett: Boat launch checklist a bright idea

If you didn't get the boat out for shrimping yet, it's time to get it ready to launch for crab season and the summer salmon season.

Like most people, your boat likely sat around most of the winter and if you don't do some serious checking on your boat — the power plant, either outboard or inboard, your trailer — and done some significant maintenance, you may be in for a nasty surprise at the boat launch.

Launching any boat at a public ramp can be dicey, even when everything going in the water is in good working order.

Here are some suggestions and some outright nagging:

Change your spark plugs, whether you think you need to or not. Check the drain plug for signs of rot. Change the oil on your I/O or four-stroke outboard. Make sure every moving part, like the tiller or steering wheel, all move. Winter rusts both humans and mechanical moving parts around here and saltwater is deadly on most engine parts.

Get rid of your old gas. This may seem drastic with the price of gas these days, but gas with ethanol if left untreated with a stabilizer for even a month or two will separate gas and water and will gum up, maybe ruin your engine. Check it out on the Internet. I've seen it happen, and it's a financial disaster in the making. Get new gas and always use a stabilizer. Turn your engine over to be sure it will start and if you can attach a water supply to it, run it in low.

Now you're basically ready to launch, right? Nope.

Thoroughly check your trailer. If your bearings are shot, you won't get out of the driveway or you'll be one of those guys whose boat and trailer you frequently see on the highway shoulder every year with one or both wheels off.

Make sure that your trailer frame isn't rusted through. I've seen trailers break at boat launches from too many years and too much rust. If you don't want a ticket, check out your trailer lights. Current tabs are helpful in this regard as well.

Some day I'll write a series of columns on the mishaps I've had and seen at boat launches. Backing a trailered boat down a ramp — often slippery — is extremely difficult. Go slow, don't be afraid to pull back up and start all over. Launching a boat is not a time to be macho; it's almost an art form.

A few tips: Above all, do not ask your spouse to back the boat down the ramp, unless you have planned your divorce and consulted with a lawyer.

Be sure your drain plug is in to avoid sinking the boat and feeling unbelievably stupid. Tilt the motor or outdrive up. Failure to do so can cost you big bucks and humiliation beyond description.

mwf ge water filter: How to change a 4-stroke Yamaha outboard motor!

Www.reefari.com As a service to the outboard motor and an oil change is a short video as a service to 4-stroke engine. Pretty simple really, the video shows how to make your outboard engine oil and filter oil. Also some tips on how to run your engine and warm up before the oil, making it easy to pump. I recommend using your outboard recommended oil and filter, quality pays, and pays for routine maintenance. I am not an expert and pick up any pretense, but still yourOutboard motor mechanic through your normal testing, if needed, or a problem that is not to alarm you can handle. Maintenance of the outboard motor is shown in a simple way and with a sump pump in the video, from the small-engine service like this and more in our engines to 250 HP Raptor II, 4-stroke outboard engines are exactly like a normal car with a swamp but you you need a measuring stick pump can pump oil from old. Just make the length of the tube, as much change from the old oil as possible, butYou know, if you lose suction. I mean engines every 100 hours of service, and subscribe too, such as the transmission service and oil change is coming. It's worth going there and the cost of expensive work, it's really cheap to service your engine, especially when you have two of them that we do on our performance catamarans. As an oil change, just pump out the old oil and replace it with new oil, back to the level of full size on your level. Oil filters are only a matter of ...