Salt Spray in Motor

[Thedoc]

Hello everyone, new to Ausfish like what I see. I have just purchased an old mustang hull with a 3 yr old Mercury 200 EFI on the back. After the last 3 trips it has had significant salt crystals on the motor after lifting the cover. None of my previous smaller motors did this. I presume it coming from the drain holes. There is alot of spray due to hydrofoils but I'm not willing to ditch them.
I have washed it down a couple of times gently with water and the usual copious amounts of lanox afterwards. Any tips? I'm considering siliconing up the drain holes!

[mik01]

get rid of the foil mate.
first thing I did with mine and stopped the spray - you probably won't even miss the foil - might even improve your ride.

try it and see what you think

[Thedoc]

Hmm thats what my mate said to do too!!!!!!!!!!!

May have to consider I suppose.

[bluefin59]

My 60 mariner was doing a similar thing except it was the tranny throwing up the water and it was entering the external trim switch which has no seal ,the bloke who services it took the switch out and put a little silicone around it and replaced it problem solved ..matt

[johnnytheone]

Is the salt accretion all over the motor or just one particular area? I reckon it may have something to do with the way air is drawn in, and then circulates under the cowl on the way to the air intake (I may well be brutally corrected on this one). My wonderfull V4 Evinrude 130 always used to get salt build up on the area around the bottom pot, LHS, with subsequently more corrosion on that plug. Just used lots 'o Lanox. No foil was fitted to that motor, by the way.
As an aside, are you happy with the motor? I'm putting one on a project I've got going at the moment. I'd appreciate any comments you have. Regards, John

[Noelm]

I guess you might need to try to find out why it is getting in! the holes are there for a reason, but excess water should not be getting in there, is the Motor too low? this will cause a "rooster tail" and water will be spraying up over the Motor, the Foils should not cause a drama, but it will cost nothing to remove them to test it, they should be above the water at planing speeds.

[Thedoc]

Thanks lads salt appears to on both side bottom 1/2. Distributed fairly evenly. Seals appear ok. Motor isnt too low naked eye and was fitted in shop ( is there a formula to measure) have 2 things possibly creating spray I think foils and transducer right side. Lanox being used heaps.

The motor is excellent, starts easy, good at pulling up out of the hole cruises nicely pushing my boat 6.1m Mustang at 4400 rpm 27 knots 17 pitch mercury vengence prop.

I am currently on a mission to maximise and monitoring my economy and performance by adding fuel flow sensor and possibly looking at other props. Used 136 litres for 124 km last trip. Have to do better.

[Angla]

When I first got my boat, The transducer was putting up a spray. I put a cover over that and that deflected the water away but it caused water from the laeg to hit it and be reflected upwards, so I added a piece to the cover. Same happened to the pickup for the deck wash.

Just took a little persistence to fix and now all is great.

Chris

[Scalem]

Interesting .... My boat just came out of service and the mechanic asked me if I should'nt check the amount of spray coming up behind the boat the next time I am out. THe flywheel and a few other engine components have surface rust, but nothing too serious. But he pulled out a book - and there are stats from the engine manufacturers which actually have benchmark water induction rates which are considered normal, and anything over is considered harmful to the motor. In any persons' thinking, ingestion of moisture to the combustion is never a good thing, so I might have to adjust the height of the transducer and look for other things such as the height of the motor. But the main reason I think is that I often go out in conditions that are a little rough, forcing me to a very slow planing speed, which causes a rooster tail behind the boat, and the wash "catches up" to you. That's another reason I will be adding to the list of excuses to the wife, so I can upgrade to a bigger boat, where I can go faster in sloppy conditions::)

Scalem

[kizza1]

firstly find where the spray is coming from, if your transducer is to low it will spray the engine,also if the engine is bolted to low or not being trimmed out properly it will also cause spray. 95% of boats shouldnt have exessive spray over the engine.
i have also seen many bait tank pickups cause spray also.

[Thedoc]

When I first got my boat, The transducer was putting up a spray. I put a cover over that and that deflected the water away but it caused water from the laeg to hit it and be reflected upwards, so I added a piece to the cover. Same happened to the pickup for the deck wash.

Just took a little persistence to fix and now all is great.

Chris

Those covers look great what did you make them from Angla?