Fished a neighbor out of the lake after his 16 ft. john boat and 40hp motor with 2 batteries capsized. Man was ok and wanted me to tow his boat back in. The boat was upside down but floating. I didn't dream it would take nearly as long as what it took to tow him in. That being said we couldn't get over about 900/1000rpm or boat would start to sink. We made it to where we had to go. My question even though I didn't have any alarms go off should I be concerned??
I would at least check my plugs and change my lower unit oil.
Glad to hear you helped the fellow out. When I read your post title- I have to admit, my first thought was "who in their right mind would idle a race-designed engine for 2 hours"?
Now I know..... and sounds like you did the right thing!
That being said- the best recommendation would be to:
-Make sure you're running Quickleen (or better yet, the Cocktail)
-Run the engine for a nice, long 15+ minute run, preferably in the 4000-4600 RPM range. If you have Smartcraft, watch your instant fuel economy (and try to maximize it to the best economy RPM). This will help to clean up excess carbon that may have built up from your "Good Samaritan Adventure".
Dual Mercury Master Technician- for Mercury Outboards, Mercruiser and Mercury Racing at European Marine in Greenville, SC.
Still consider myself a "Marine Apprentice" after 48 years (learn something new every day).
Mercury Parts, Mercury Outboards, Smartcraft & Accessories, Injector Service, TDR Reeds- BBC Sponsor
I sometimes fish walleye tournaments and troll for up to 8 hours at idle with a 2004 250 XS on a 202 Blazer... My engine has never skipped a beat , running 0 % alcohol content Canadian Shell 91 octane without any quickleen or seafoam cocktail , and, I do not normally baby it ....... I doubt your engine will have even noticed it ...The merc dealers in my area never even heard of quickleen until I told them of the service bulletin advising using it , which means , thousands of optimax motors are running great without quickleen ,...
Modified by canadablazer at 6:27 AM 6/4/2010
I ran at idle for about 8 hrs one day. I was using my hbird sidescan to search for a downed helicopter on Old Hickory Lake a year or two ago. I ran a pattern all day at idle. I had a 225 SportXS at the time. It did fine I was using quickleen which really helped.
Allison XB21 2+2, Merc 250 ProXS, 1.62 Sportmaster, Hydromotive Engineering X-OB 29
Excel 1751 Viper F4, Tohatsu 50 4-stroke, EZ-Trac trailer
FeelFree Lure 11.5 Kayak
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