Flushing outboards

[bigjimg]

After an trip offshore on sunday we did the usual cleanup etc and I jumped in the boat after hooking up the muffs to the motor.I started her up with the hose on full biccies as per normal and went about tidying up in the cockpit.Made sure telltale was having a piss and when up around the 60deg the thermo is usually open.At that moment the motor dropped what seemed to be 4 or so cylinders and coughed and stopped with raw fuel in the cooling water on the leg.Wondall Rd Marine had her today as was near its annual service anyhow.Jason thinks it may have been low water pressure from the mains and this sent the motor into limp home mode.No faults listed on the diagnostic and she ran sweet after all the service bits and pieces were installed.I know that water in our area was turned down twice and the water guy was in our street a few months ago,I even quizzed him on the streets pressure and he said should be good.Just glad no damage was done and will be getting a council rep to test our water pressure at the tap.This is not the first thing to happen had to take off the shower head off but thats another story.So be aware of your water pressure when you flush the motor.Jim

[cormorant]

No Alarm sounded?? on't like that idea.?

It is not pressure but possibly volume in regards to water. When it is i n the water idling there is no water pressure but water is at the pump impeller level. .

Change over to a length of 18mm hose and good big bore fittings with a decent set of muffs that are actually sealing.

[PWCDad]

If you want to test your flow rate... 9 litre bucket and a watch. Time flow for a minute and read bucket.

Dont know what is needed but my tap near boat and skis gives about 8 litres per minute?

You can also buy a pressure gauge from most plumbing supplies. It has a small gauge, a 200mm length of hose and a female tap thread. Screw it on, turn on tap and read pressure. Keeps council honest if you have a low water problem.

regards
PWCDad

[gr hilly]

i still like to use a rubbish bin and cover the leg i don't like muffs am i on my own here i would like to know i like to also use a product called saltaway and i know it works well.

hilly

[Mindi]

:angry:
i still like to use a rubbish bin and cover the leg i don't like muffs am i on my own here i would like to know i like to also use a product called saltaway and i know it works well.

hilly

agree Hilly.....earmuffs dont give enough water toi my Yammy 60 and I put it in a 60ltr rubbish bin with the hose running in it and the lower leg fully submerged...way to go.
Where do you get Saltaway..? I have had an eye out for something like that but havent seen it

[Peter4]

i still like to use a rubbish bin and cover the leg i don't like muffs am i on my own here i would like to know i like to also use a product called saltaway and i know it works well.

hilly

I agree as well hilly. My little 40hp Honda four-stroke always gets the entire leg immersed in a container for a good flush.

I just don't trust the muffs....

Pete

[Noelm]

ear muffs are fine, especially the double sided ones, the problems with a big container full of water is dragging the thing around and mucking about trying to get it all lined up before trimming the motor down, it might be OK for smaller HP, but a decent gearbox and prop is a snug fit.

[ozscott]

Muffs are fine as long as you do an occasional tank check if you are not using the boat often and are stretching the servicing a little cause with an impellor thats sad they will often still pump the tell tale with the pressure from the hose, but will not suck the water in an up if in the tank. As for the alarm, my 2001 60 Merc used to alarm as well as go into limp home if hot - I thought all outboard did that. My 93 Yammy V4 does it as I found out from a salt blockage in the head that was easily fixed...so I am not so sure about yours....I wonder if it was a different problem but did not register on the memory. Jason should know though if anyone does....I take it its an OPTI?

Cheers

[Steeler]

I sometimes find people have there taps turned up to hard when on the muffs leading to the muffs not wanting stay on properly.

Steeler

[gr hilly]

i got my saltaway from the boat show and then at the next boat show i havn't seen it else where
glynn

[neil_stessco]

I prefer using my test tank but the dual feed muffs are the way to go if you don't have one or a bin/bucket.

[bigjimg]

Muffs are fine as long as you do an occasional tank check if you are not using the boat often and are stretching the servicing a little cause with an impellor thats sad they will often still pump the tell tale with the pressure from the hose, but will not suck the water in an up if in the tank. As for the alarm, my 2001 60 Merc used to alarm as well as go into limp home if hot - I thought all outboard did that. My 93 Yammy V4 does it as I found out from a salt blockage in the head that was easily fixed...so I am not so sure about yours....I wonder if it was a different problem but did not register on the memory. Jason should know though if anyone does....I take it its an OPTI?

Cheers
Yep it's an Opti 135,I am going to make up a set of dual feed muffs to put equal pressure both sides.As for the audible alarm as it was only idling and temp was only 61deg wasn't hot enough to do any damage,and due to insufficient BAR she just shut down.Didn't sound good though at the time.Ive see the temp at 66deg before on the muffs so the sensors must monitor water pressure as well and when below a set pressure shut her down.Would that be right?Jim

[ALOGT]

:angry:

Where do you get Saltaway..? I have had an eye out for something like that but havent seen it

http://www.salt-away.com.au/default.asp

Hopefully the link works.

This one list dealers http://www.salt-away.com.au/dealers.asp

[indy]

Jim just another thing for you to try is with my ear muffs i use to get alot of water coming out the sides until i put a very big zip tie on the metal of the ear muffs and tightening it up so i can only just slide the muffs on now take a fair bit of force to get them on and they now seal so much better

[trueblue]

I had a problem with too much leakage from my muffs recently. Bought a set of new round muffs instead of the rectangular ones and much improved.

[Luc]

Was never happy with using muffs so I rigged up one of those blue 200L drum with hose fittings so all I have to do if click the hose on and after disconnecthe hose from the tap and let the water run out on a garden bed.

Luc

[wrxhoon]

I use muffs on my 200 Opri , never had a problem . On my last boat I had twins, I have a 2 muffs on the same hose , never a problem either .

You have to make sure the muffs are nice and tight on so you don't loose to much water, you don'r need pressure you need volume.

[bigjimg]

Ok here is my problem.We have poor water pressure here at Moorooka as the mains pressure has been dropped a couple of times due to the drought we had a while back and pipes were bursting due to shrinkage of the substrate.Now volume is provided by the water pressure and during peak times of the day we experience poor water flow,had to take the water saving shower head off because the gas hot water system would not fire up,and I asked the missus if she turned the tap on while i was flushing the motor,hey presto said she put the bath on for the kids.That folks answers the question to the mystery as to what happened.I think.The muffs i use when connected are a good fit and when i fire the motor up all water is sucked in and little if any escapes.The motor has water pressure gauge linked up and makes it's pressure by the volume that feeds it but if the mains pressure drops i am in trouble,so the rule here now at home is die of thirst until i have finished flushing the motor.Jim

[Daisy Burnett]

Guys
As has been stated many times on this thread pressure is not the big deal here. I always had my tap turned up high for flushing and I had water going everywhere including out from under the muffs. This was until a visit to my local outboard mechanic. I saw him running the motor and he barely had a flow going through the muffs, I asked him about this and he told me that as long as there is enough to have the tell tail working properly that is enough. A lot of people have too much pressure going on and lose volume by water breaking the seal around the muffs. I now only turn the tap on enough to get things running properly and have never had a problem.
Food for thought anyway.

Daisy

[bigjimg]

The problem here though Daisy is the telltale was pissing water out and the thermostat was open and water coming out at the usual rate.The motor itself said nope not enough.I'm going down to fire her up right now to check the BAR and see what it reads.Jim

[bigjimg]

The results are water bar at the gauge thermostat closed is .15,thermostat open at 62deg bar is .11.It took 2min 25sec to fill a 20ltr bucket with tap on full.I will make a note what the BAR is while underway next time out and compare.1 BAR is about 15psi so there is bugger all pressure needed like has been said just volume.Jim

[honda900]

Jim,

Just thinking out loud here, a couple of things seem odd,


there was no overheat or event logged by your engine.
there was raw fuel in the cold water (assume this to be at the prop exhaust outlet.Just thinking that if the motor was at idle, and it experienced a overheat, it would disable the engine or put it in limp mode as you say, but limp mode at idle is that likely to dump raw fuel?

As for the other stuff, BLA make a dual sided set of ear muffs, if you are thinking about going down the wheelie bin idea, you can also buy a flush bag from the shops for a 100.00 or so, that comes fitted with tap fittings and is a vynal bag.


Regards
Honda.

[bigjimg]

Jim,

Just thinking out loud here, a couple of things seem odd,

there was no overheat or event logged by your engine.
there was raw fuel in the cold water (assume this to be at the prop exhaust outlet.Just thinking that if the motor was at idle, and it experienced a overheat, it would disable the engine or put it in limp mode as you say, but limp mode at idle is that likely to dump raw fuel?

As for the other stuff, BLA make a dual sided set of ear muffs, if you are thinking about going down the wheelie bin idea, you can also buy a flush bag from the shops for a 100.00 or so, that comes fitted with tap fittings and is a vynal bag.


Regards
Honda.
Honda not sure exactly where the fuel was discharged ,there are two little outlets either side of the cav plate and obviously from next to the telltale outlet at the cooling water vent.Given that it was on top of the cav plate would say it came from up top and not the prop exhaust.Yes no audible alarm does seem odd but there were three alarm symbols on the digital display after shutdown.I don't think it overheated because i was looking at the temp when it spluttered to a stop and it was only 61deg.I thought by the sound it made it had a brain malfunction,ECU or something electrical.Ran beautiful this arvo when on the muffs and got to it's usual 66deg.Ive got the Smartcraft Gateway as well and no engine faults where logged there either.Jim