Engine Outboard - Preventative Maintenance Program

[peterb]

Curious as to what everyone else out there does to take care of their outboards. Here is what I do for my twin 2000 200 HP Yamaha 0X66's. I probably average about 80 to 100 hours of use per year.

Bi-annual
1. Replace water pumps/impellers

Annual
2. Replace lower unit oil
3. Perform tune up with certified Yamaha mechanic

Winterize
4. Put stabilizer & ezorb in my fuel tank
5. Fog the engines
6. Pull the batteries and electronics from the boat

Semi-annual
7. Replace sparc plugs
8. Follow the dunk method of using Seaforam to decarb my engines
9. Replace the external Radco 3213S fuel filters.

Ongoing
9. Use rung free every other tank of gas.
10. Check the bottom of my radco fuel filters after the end of each trip to make sure that i don't have any crap/water in my fuel filters. If I do, I drip it out.
11. Only use Yamalube oil for my engines.
12. Towards the end of each boat ride I try to briefly run the engines @ WOT to blow any crap out of the engines, as well as to make sure that my RPM's and the like are fairly consistant with the last time that I ran them WOT.
13. Run fresh water through the engines (ok, maybe I don't do this everyone time, but often enough).

Peter

[Bushwacker]

I add fuel stabilizer every time I buy gas; figure it's cheap insurance against fuel system problems. I believe the stuff they've added to gas to reduce emissions tends to break down pretty quickly; suspect octane loss may begin after about 60 days. Fuel in sealed injection system is probably ok; it's the stuff in the tank exposed to air that's the problem.

[jwclbi]

It sounds to me like you have it all undercontrol, I do many of the things that you do for my Merc. but i also use power tune (quicksilver product) on my 98 225 EFI. It works well to de-carb the engine. Also I live on LBI (north end) You on the water often?

[warthog5]

Man you guy's up north do a lot of extra stuff.

I add stablizer, because I don't know how long it will be till the next time I go.

Waterpump assy gets changed at every 200hrs.

Never pull the batteries until they are dead.

Never fog a motor.

4 strokes get oil / filter changed every 100hrs.

Charge the batteries every now and then if it's been sitting a few months.

My '98 yamaha C-90 was in the shop at 20hrs for 1st service.
it's never been in a shop again. 450hrs

My suzzy's have never seen a shop.

We run'em year round.

[Old'sCool]

Every so often with the OX66 motors you need to clean the O2 sensor, housing, and dogbone. The housing and dogbone are cleaned most effectively in a glass bead cabinet, the sensor business end soaked in ring-free. 2000 motor should have this. You may want to inspect the oil rod plastic swivel at the pump end. I found mine cracked. Cheap part and easy to replace. I understand if it fails the pump will default open.

[LEVERETTE5]

I have 200 HP 2000 ox66 and would like to check and do this maintenance. Were are the sensors and other parts located.Keith

[Old'sCool]

The O2 sensor is on starboard side between starter and head. Oil pump plastic piece is on the end of metal rod which moves the oil pump with throttle movement. If you'll search Hull Truth site there was a very detailed (with pics) example of the sensor cleaning.

[askipper3]

The usual, It usually breaks by the time I can afford to replace it.....

[Fr. Frank]

Annual:
Water pump impeller
Spark plugs
Lower-unit oil
Timing adjust
New fuel line and primer bulb from water separator to engine.

Semi-Annual:
Fuel filters (2)
De-carbonize engine with PowerTune
Lube steering, steering cable, and tilt tube

Ongoing:
FluidFilm entire engine
Flush with fresh water EVERY time I pull it out (Only sits in the water continuously for 9 days per year, trailered the rest)
Always run at 90%+ power for 2-3 minutes on the way in to the dock. If running light, I stay below 6000 rpms.
Use only Quicksilver Synthetic blend or Yamalube synth blend oil in premix.