Never build a boat, story of the Ho-Hum

[Still Kicking]

Yacht Club has a 225 gen1 Etec that kept over heating, well alarming at least, we replaced the impeller, thermostats, poppet valve, infra red thermometers showed cylinders were not getting hot, but it was alarming, temp sensors
were swapped with known working ones, water to the computer was ok. It was eventually traced to the outlet pipe from the computer which was blocked so the computer was overheating as the water was not flowing out. Go figure

Yeah even with regular freshwater flushing, the complexity of modern outboards can lead to scale and debris buildup in micro passages. I have taken to pumping industrial descaling agent through my outboard on a loop for a couple of hours once a year or so. The amount of junk that comes out is crazy and the engine runs cooler now.

 

[rjack321]

Yeah even with regular freshwater flushing, the complexity of modern outboards can lead to scale and debris buildup in micro passages. I have taken to pumping industrial descaling agent through my outboard on a loop for a couple of hours once a year or so. The amount of junk that comes out is crazy and the engine runs cooler now.

My god this is a nasty. What descaler are you using? I've used a giant bucket of salt-away in the past, but I only have a 60hp Yam. Edit ok finally got your link to work McMaster-Carr

Have you had any issues with this removing paint or other damage?

 

[Still Kicking]

My god this is a nasty. What descaler are you using? I've used a giant bucket of salt-away in the past, but I only have a 60hp Yam. Edit ok finally got your link to work McMaster-Carr

Have you had any issues with this removing paint or other damage?

It was the stuff i linked ti from mcmaster. For use on:

Aluminum, Brass, Bronze, Chrome, Copper, Galvanized Steel, Iron, Plastic, Stainless Steel, Steel

No problem on the paint.

It actually looks worse than it was because the stuff was rust colored to begin with. But very satisfing to see all the solids come out.

There are commercial all in one flush kits advertised on youtube but they are pretty expensive and all you need is this stuff, a small pump, a tub and some hose.

I don't know how Salt Away would do up against scale. Maybe CLR?

 

[rjack321]

It was the stuff i linked ti from mcmaster. For use on:

Aluminum, Brass, Bronze, Chrome, Copper, Galvanized Steel, Iron, Plastic, Stainless Steel, Steel

No problem on the paint.

It actually looks worse than it was because the stuff was rust colored to begin with. But very satisfing to see all the solids come out.

There are commercial all in one flush kits advertised on youtube but they are pretty expensive and all you need is this stuff, a small pump, a tub and some hose.

I don't know how Salt Away would do up against scale. Maybe CLR?

Salt Away is advertised for the purpose of motor flushing but I have no idea how well it works relative to other descalers. I've only done it perhaps twice in 300 engine hours. I use a large rubbermaid tub and then catch the telltale stream in a 5 gallon bucket off to the side and pour that into the tub over the ~15mins I ran it. Can't say it was or wasn't successful. I think I swapped out the thermostats once over 100 hours ago and the passages looked clean-ish at the time

 

[Still Kicking]

Salt Away is advertised for the purpose of motor flushing but I have no idea how well it works relative to other descalers. I've only done it perhaps twice in 300 engine hours. I use a large rubbermaid tub and then catch the telltale stream in a 5 gallon bucket off to the side and pour that into the tub over the ~15mins I ran it. Can't say it was or wasn't successful. I think I swapped out the thermostats once over 100 hours ago and the passages looked clean-ish at the time

Since i got this kit and it's easy to set up, i think i will use it for day-to-day flushes. I will use hot water and Salt Away and cycle it through 15-30 mins.

Interestingly, the factory says never to run the motor on the flush port only muffs -- my mechanic says it's fine to run the motor on the flush port. I know who I trust

 

[rjack321]

Since i got this kit and it's easy to set up, i think i will use it for day-to-day flushes. I will use hot water and Salt Away and cycle it through 15-30 mins.

Interestingly, the factory says never to run the motor on the flush port only muffs -- my mechanic says it's fine to run the motor on the flush port. I know who I trust

I usually use my flush muffs for about 12-15mins in the driveway since I only have access to cold water. The flush port won't open the thermostats - while starting up and running it gets the whole innards warm to hopefully dissolve more salts. The salt away (I still have like 1/2 a gallon) is more of a every other year service time exercise

 

[Tracy]

I don’t have buildup or scale. Freshwater only up here in the Lakes.