yes what (which question are you answering?)
yes what (which question are you answering?)
Thanks yam911
Yes to the power head questionOriginally Posted by yam911
or NMEA cord question
I recently had struggles with getting a bunch of sandy mud in mine, my own dumb fault. I didn't pull the power head, but I did a whole bunch of other stuff to hopefully clean it out. Was trying to avoid removing the power head as much as possible after watching some videos on YT of how much work that was, plus no videos of people doing that to a SHO. After being in the mud, I was only getting water from the tell-tale at idle or just above, but no tell-tale on plane. Took me 3+ hours to motor home, but I was worried about causing damage with overheating. Reason I didn't know about the state of the cooling water was my water pressure gauge was at a constant 20 psi regardless of throttle - it was clearly clogged, which I confirmed later with visible mud being in the tube that ran to the analog gauge. Some here will say that was probably over-cautious as I wasn't getting an alarm on the way home, and the tell-tale isn't the end-all-be-all indicator of cooling water, but I really didn't want to risk it - these are expensive motors. It did ruin the rest of my fishing day.
Removed lower unit and changed the water pump. It was due in a few hours anyway, but wanted to make sure I had not damaged it. Also did an engine oil change as the oil cooler needed to come off to get that cleaned out.
Removed and cleaned out the fuel cooler, oil cooler, thermostats, water cover behind the rectifier/regulator, and the cooler for the rectifier/regulator. Left the thermostats out to flush, ended up replacing them with new anyway just in case. All of these components had mud and debris in them - they all have little crevices in the cooling vanes that catch and hold debris no matter how much flushing you do. Also tried to open cooling lines as much as I could and blow them out with compressed air. I also cleaned off all the anodes that were in those components with a wire brush.
Then did a 3 hour flush via the intake tube from where the water pump pushes water (lower unit still off) using a 100 gallon tub and a Harbor Freight submersible pump with a 50/50 solution of Rydlyme and water - used 2 gallons each, but I think next time I flush it will be 4 gallons each just to ensure that it fills enough to get sucked into the submersible pump. A lot of debris came out of that. Followed that up with about 90 minutes of just water flush. Quite a few videos of people swearing by Rydlyme, and I agree - amazing stuff. Got it from Amazon, marine version. Most other substances there are videos of people saying that they don't work, but not with Rydlyme. The only bad thing is that you have to remove the anodes in these components (oil cooler and water cover) or the Rydlyme will eat them.
After the flush, went back through the fuel cooler, the oil cooler, thermostat area, water cover behind the rectifier/regulator, and the cooler in the back of the rectifier/regulator and cleaned them all out again. Found still more sandy mud in the crevices, but less than original, and there was no calcium buildup like there was the first time I went in (I'm on St John's River in FL, so the water has all kinds of nastiness in it over time). Put new gaskets on all those components when I put them back together, and put the anodes back in where applicable. Also pulled the cooling lines going into the bottom of the power head (there are 3) and made sure there was no mud in those.
Replaced the analog water cooler pickup with a digital one, and now read that on my graph instead of an analog gauge. I trust that reading more.
Put lower unit back on after doing an oil change on that, and got the engine all put back together, including new thermostats (had tested the old ones and they seemed to be fine, but just to be sure - they're cheap and easy to replace anyway). Ran it for 10 minutes at idle in the 100 gallon tub. Verified that there was no leaking, and the tell-tell worked as it should.
Couldn't have done any of that without the service manual. The cooling system is a very complex array of parts and tubes with multiple branches, and I didn't want to mess anything up. Even then, the diagrams in the manual can be very confusing. But in the end was all worth it to get it cleaned out sufficiently. My only other option if that all didn't work was to take it to a mechanic and have him pull the head to clean that out. Since then (about 10 hours of running time since) everything has worked well. And I'm very risk averse to shallow water now when running, esp since the water is very low where I am right now.
As a result of all this and where I live, I plan on doing this flush every 6 months to a year. The other thing I learned was that the normal flush hose does not completely flush the entire cooling system. It only catches up to the thermostats from the head back down to the lower unit. It does not touch any of the rest of the above listed components unless the thermostats are removed. And I believe those components are where debris is most likely to collect if it gets in there.
Wow, that's a lot of good information ... thanks so much for sharing. I'm going to try the Rydlyme flush as you suggested. I don't think mine is related to trash or sand, but due to salt corrosion. Where did you get your service manual?
Sorry for not answering sooner! Thought I turned people off with my long post!!
I think I ordered it from PartsVu. Took a couple weeks as it's stock they didn't carry. Part number I got was LIT-18616-03-64, not cheap, but cheaper than paying for a mechanic.
Here's the video that pointed me to Rydlyme. This guy is from my area, but runs more in the saltier parts of the river. Long video and different motor, but you can see his results. I didn't buy the kit - just bought the gallons of Rydlyme from Amazon, and used a Harbor Freight submersible pump with a cut off hose I clamped to the up-tube where cooling water routes from the water pump. I hope it helps you!
Edit - the guy who posted the video doesn't allow reposting. The title of the video is "ACID WASHING OUTBOARD MOTOR" by "Capt Dave's Sport Fishing" on Youtube.
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