How To Maintain And Care For Your Outboard Motor

One of the more aggravating situations is when you get to a lake, launch your boat, and try as you will your outboard motor just want start. If properly maintained an outboard motor can give you many, many years of hassle free use and pleasure if you use a few steps to properly maintain and care for your outboard motor. Your outboard motor is a very expensive piece of equipment so it just makes sense to take care of it.

First thing you should do if you just purchased a new motor is to properly "break" in the motor. Follow the manufactures instructions to do this. It will outline steps to take while breaking your new motor in. For example you may run at a certain RPM for a period of time then when that is accomplished run at a higher rpm for so many minutes. This is essentially the first things to do to properly maintain and care for your outboard motor.

After a trip to the lake there are a few other things you should do to maintain and care for your outboard motor. First thing I do when loading my boat back up after a day on the lake is to trim the motor back down to let any water trapped in the motor to drain. This is especially important through the winter months where any trapped water can freeze and damage internal parts of your motor and lower unit.

Here is another tip I do from time to time. Periodically you should flush out the cooling system of your motor with fresh water even in motors designed for salt water use.

This can be done in a number of ways. One was is to use a device that fits over the intake of your motor on the lower unit. You can attach a water hose to this, turn on the water, and then start your motor and let it run for a few minutes. Some motors have a plug on the back side of the motor housing where you can screw a water hose directly to it. Turn on the water and let in run for a bit. Do not start your motor if using this method. This method is only used to flush, not run your motor.

One of the best things you can do to maintain and care for your outboard motor is the use of an additive which you add to the gas or gas/oil mixtures. One I like and use is a product called Sea Foam Motor Treatment. Sea Foam is an additive specifically designed for marine use. Sea Foam does a number of things including:

• Lubricates cylinder heads and other components of your fuel system.
• Lubricates cylinder heads and other components of your fuel system.
• Dries and neutralizes any moisture in the fuel system
• Cleans gum & varnish fuel residues from fuel system components.
• Cleans carbon deposits from combustion chamber.
• Stabilizes the fuel when motor is not used for extended periods.

Gas containing ethanol has caused many anglers and pleasure boaters a headache and expensive repair bills. In older motors the ethanol broke down the inner linings of fuel lines and other components in the fuel system ruining carburetors and other parts of the fuel system.. Today's newer motors and fuel systems have been modified and are ethanol safe. To properly maintain and care for my outboard motor, even though it is ethanol safe, is to use a product called Sta-Bil Ethanol treatment. Just a few ounces of Sta-Bil Ethanol treatment added to your gas will neutralize the ethanol. I figure an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure any day. Wouldn't you agree?

If you take these simple and inexpensive steps to maintain and care for your outboard motor you can have a worry free day on the water. Take the time to do these basic steps and enjoy the day without hassles of motor problems. They are a far better choice over the alternative of expensive repair bills and having to get someone to tow you back to the launch area.

Tight lines and good fishing.