Every fall in our upper Midwest, you reach the point in the fishing season where the fall leaves signal that the end is in sight. If you can’t read that signal, the shortened days, the near frost mornings, and all the docks having been pulled out of the water, should together be more than enough to tell you that its high time to prepare the fishing fleet for hibernation. Nobody wants to shovel a path through the snow to winterize their boat. Embarrassing yes - and risky for freeze up on your gear for sure.
For those who don’t store their fishing boats in heated spaces where freezing temperatures exist, there are several things that must be done to an outboard if you want to avoid a risk for freeze up damage, and if you want to have the motor run well come spring.
For two-cycle outboards:
- put stabilizer in the gas tank.
- run the engine until the stabilized gas reaches the motor.
- fog the motor with engine running according to specs (ex. many Johnson/Evinrudes have an access valve to introduce the fog aerosol).
- fog until the motor has smoked a half-minute (fogging is done to cover the bearings so once that is done there is no gain in prolonged fogging).
- turn off the motor & drain the carburetors.
- relube the gear case being careful to observe if water entered the gear case.
- replace any suspect seal on gear lube access screws.
If you have a 4 cycle motor, be sure to follow manufacturer specs as well. The basic gig for winter storage runs like this:
- disconnect gas line & run motor until it quits.
- change oil.
- change gear lube.
- some will spray fog into pistons (again - review your manual).
In any event, the routine is not time consuming & is the overhead required for having a reliable outboard pushing you around the lake in the next season. A little fussing over these way too expensive critters will keep that already high cost per pound of fish just a little bit lower.
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