Outboard engine flushing

[Andy Dingle]

That time of year again. My Mercury engine (Freddy - with apologies to Rob!) has an ingenious hose pipe hozelock connector under the engine to flush with freshwater on a regular basis - which of course I never use.
Getting the engine home yesterday I ran it through in fresh water and I recalled some years ago now when I had occasion to use outboards very regularly in a professional capacity, we always used to flush them with some stuff called 'Saltex' and also to wash off all our gear that got submerged in salt water.
I haven't seen it for years so looked on line and found similar called 'Salt Away' www.salt-away.co.uk (they also have an ebay shop) they are the uk importers and it seems to have good reviews.
I've ordered some to flush through the engine and hopefully keep it going for another year.
Not sure how to tell if it works or not though...

Andy

[Rob Johnstone]

So far, Freddy has been flushed out (by me) twice and possibly the guy who has given it an annual service. So far (in excess of 200* hours operation in salt water) I've not had a problem. I saw the salt away product at one boat show or another but didn't buy it. As I understand it, the downside of not flushing the engine is that the temperature sensors can become fouled and run hot. They then tell the engine to shut down. Bloody electronics.

*Yes, I know it's a lot. Vagabond has done about 2500 miles now. At 4.5 knots that's over 500 hours, of which about 40% has been "engine assisted" (I wanted to get on with it!).