When flushing outboard do you use additives .........

[grinner2]

Had my 115 4 stroke Suzuki serviced last week ( only has 44 hrs on the clock ) Service guy questioned me whether I was flushing motor after every use ( My answer, yes ....... religiously , I run it for 10 minutes or so with fresh water whilst I am tidying up the insides of the boat )
He advised me that there was a large amount of salt built up internally & that he replaced 1 of the internal anodes ( which he kept to show me )
He could not fault my flushing process & iam left a little confused / concerned why this would be the case .
Can anyone out there suggest any thing .
I have never used additives when flushing this motor or previous motors & never had any issues until now . What are your thoughts on additives ( Macs / Salt away, are they worth running )

[wayno60]

just water......

[myusernam]

the local guy in townsville that used to sell suzuki used to push the saltaway in a big way, and I have heard other reports about anodes and corrosion in suzukis. also they are meant to have the lowest copper content in their alloy so not the best for corrosion.
Maybe it's more prudent with suzukis.
No outboards are perfect but it's generally accepted that the jap engines aren't as good as the US ones when it comes to corrosion resistance

[bonneville]

temperature along with water for that 10 minutes should clean out most salt build ups, but u do need to make sure the engine warms up so the thermostat opens up.
I remember vividly back home, probably in the late 70's, I used to help my uncle at his workshop. He was an out board mechanic. he had his tub with the engine legs in it to start the motors up. I remember him pouring a cup of dish washing liquid into the tub ! I asked him why, he said water and the engine temperature can only do so much, this stuff will loosen all the build ups of salt and leave a bit of residue in there for the next start up and use, if consistently used, not to much mind, but from then on it was for me, standard practice. I always got the job of draining the tank, refilling it with fresh water and adding the new detergent. The sediment after 1 week of use, from supposed always flushe engine was quite astonishing ! now days on the ear muff's, i'll squirt a bit down the hose reconnect the ear muffs and flush away, again, not much needed. So who knows really, myth or fact, just something old school that I've always done.
but I do remember scraping the sludge off the bottom of the tank before re filling, and these motors were only in for service and had been flushed on there last use.......
Bonneville
ps, I will note he had the tell tale water going back into the tank, hence the build up and regular weekly change.

[wayno60]

Good tip bonneville.

[scottar]

I use Armour All wash and wax. I noticed the difference with a previous tinny that I owned. When I washed with just water, in wet weather the boat would feel wet as the residual salt sucked the moisture out of the air. Washed with the car wash it didn't happen. For the motor I use a salt away injector but run the car wash instead.

[Bonus]

I do my own servicing of my DF175 Suzuki 4 stroke. It is quite normal for the anodes in the block on these engines to attract a salty gelly and it is normal for the anodes to corrode away. This is the anode doing its job and attracting corrosion. There are 5 anodes in the block in my engine. I was taught by the Suzuki specialist in Brisbane and I build auto racing engines as a hobby, so I am not guessing with the info I give. I clean up or replace these anodes with every service.
Recently I have started using saltaway in both my outboards and upon servicing the DF175 I have noticed the inside of the block appears a little cleaner, although the anodes still have lots of salty gel on them and are still doing their job.
From what I have seen so far I will continue to use saltaway. I am a little concerned with members using detergent as detergent contains caustic soda and if you place alloy in caustic soda it is very quickly destroyed. Detergent is a very mild caustic solution but still I would flush the detergent out at least. In fact I would not use it.

[Bonus]

Grinner2, what process are you using to flush your engine as they are a bugger to flush.

[Seahorse]

On my yammy 4 stroke i have been told by 2 dealers, just unscrew hose on side of motor and plug water hose in and turn hose on. No starting motor.

greg

[Axl]

On my yammy 4 stroke i have been told by 2 dealers, just unscrew hose on side of motor and plug water hose in and turn hose on. No starting motor.

greg

You wont be flushing your motor properly by doing this, there is plenty of info on this site around this subject. Do yourself a favour and do a search of the site.

[grinner2]

I attach the muffs ( with the leg in the down position ) Turn tap on full bore , start engine & allow to idle for 10 min or so whilst I clean the internals of the boat out .
Once complete , turn the motor off turn the tap off remove muffs & store until next time .

[grinner2]

Sea horse , I mentioned to the mechanic about flushing with the motor not running ( using the upper hose connection ) he advised against it & said to continue using the muffs with engine running , as this does a more thorough job.

[Moonlighter]

My mechanic found the same thing last service on my DF115. Anodes almost gone.

He Recommended:

1. Flush for longer on the muffs so thermostats open and salt gets washed away - at least 10-15 mins
2. After that, plug hose to flush connector and flush another 10 mins without engine running.

He did mention that he has one client who uses warm water to flush and his anodes and block is sparkly clean. Warm water takes more salt away, obviously.

i do notice when I wash my alloy boat down that if I use car wash, it takes the salt off far, far better than if I just wash with fresh water. If no car wash is used, a week later the boat sides will have salt on it when its sitting in the shed. I normally use one of those windex bottles where it sucks the car wash out into the spray and you can turn it on or off as required.

Makes me wonder how a brief shot of car wash would work in the hose for the engine flush? Is it caustic like detergent?

[bonneville]

I do my own servicing of my DF175 Suzuki 4 stroke. It is quite normal for the anodes in the block on these engines to attract a salty gelly and it is normal for the anodes to corrode away. This is the anode doing its job and attracting corrosion. There are 5 anodes in the block in my engine. I was taught by the Suzuki specialist in Brisbane and I build auto racing engines as a hobby, so I am not guessing with the info I give. I clean up or replace these anodes with every service.
Recently I have started using saltaway in both my outboards and upon servicing the DF175 I have noticed the inside of the block appears a little cleaner, although the anodes still have lots of salty gel on them and are still doing their job.
From what I have seen so far I will continue to use saltaway. I am a little concerned with members using detergent as detergent contains caustic soda and if you place alloy in caustic soda it is very quickly destroyed. Detergent is a very mild caustic solution but still I would flush the detergent out at least. In fact I would not use it.

sorry to be argumentative, but please name the "mild caustic solution" that dish washing liquid has in it ????
I wash my car with the stuff !!
dish washing liquid is an alkaline, not acidic ! commercial grade detergents have a caustic base, but you seriously wouldn't think anyone would be stupid enough to use that ???????
as mentioned, saltaway is a great product, by why spend money when you already have it under your kitchen sink.........
....maybe I didn't explain myself properly in my post, i'll check and edit it to say " dish washing liquid"
regards
Bonneville
nope, just checked, " dish washing liquid" detergent was not mentioned...............

[bigjimg]

I only ever use water but I add a stubby to my hand while I wait for the temp to come up to spec. Usually takes around 10 min to complete and another stubby. Jim