Cleaning under the cover of outboard, how?

[TheRealAndy]

How does everyone do it? I often get salt on the head and block etc. I hit it with wd40 or the likes but that does not clean it all off. Is it safe to give it a light hose down inside or am I going to get water in carbies and shit?

[madmackrel]

:o Be carefull with wd 40 im sure it perishes fuel lines and wireing, i use inox8-)
Cheers MM

[Roughasguts]

Use hot soapy water with a sponge to get the salt off, then hose down with a fine spray.

I use penetrol on the metal bits and Armourall on the plastic bits, and ordinary marine grease on the metal sliding/moving bits.

I hate sticky tacky motors.

[tunaticer]

I spray the motor with a degreaser once a yr and wash it down then apply a protective spray. Every time I come back i then hose off the motor and spray with dewatering fluid and let dry. My '96 'rude has minimal signs of age under the cover, outside the cover its getting a tad ratty wherever there has been a scratch in the paintwork. I wedge some clean rag in the carby inlets prior to any washing / degreasing to keep the water out.
I also give the motor a flush after a clean as well. It helps dry off the motor.

Jack.

[BrewGuru]

Good advice from the MM and RAG, wash down with soapy warm water, then saturate everything under the cowling with lannox or any other lanolin based product, protects and lubricates all the metal bits, nourishes all the rubber bits, then next time just give your motor a low pressure hose off, that will wash all the salty bits off and leave the lanox still in place, depending on how often you use your boat, redo every 1/2 dozen times, thats the go!