Winterizing a 4 stroke.

[HD]

Ok, this is the 1st 4 stroke I've ever owned. What do you guys do to winterize?  My new Yamaha has a water jacket flushing port... do I need to do anything with that?

I can't find anything online 😣

I've only ran non-oxy premium in it since start up.

[Rebel SS]

Park it out back.

[deadeye]

I have a Honda 50 and it has gas drains on each cylinder.  I just open and drain out any fuel in them. 

[HD]

I'm think'in, I'll just run the fuel out, drain and re fill the lower unit...and move the entire boat from the barn to the heated garage and fog the cylinders.

i just don't know about the water jacket flush? Anybody? Buhler?

[glenn57]

Ok, this is the 1st 4 stroke I've ever owned. What do you guys do to winterize?  My new Yamaha has a water jacket flushing port... do I need to do anything with that?

I can't find anything online 😣

I've only ran non-oxy premium in it since start up.

call or stop and ask what they do where you bought it from??????? guess that's what I would do.

[Gunner55]

I'm think'in, I'll just run the fuel out, drain and re fill the lower unit...and move the entire boat from the barn to the heated garage and fog the cylinders.

i just don't know about the water jacket flush? Anybody? Buhler?

We've only flushed ours, a 02/03 Yamaha 115, once since we've had it ('06) just to see what it did. I think I'd check with your dealer too as yours is probably still under warranty & I wouldn't want to do anything that might void that. Almost all the new 4 strokes are well built & pretty much bulletproof but just in case something would happen I'd see what they say. They might even have a couple pointers on the best way to go about it, if they even say you should do it.

[LPS]

I just check the lower unit and put it away.  Make sure the motor is all of the way down for awhile so all of the water drains out of it first. 

[Gunner55]

Ours takes a little less than 4 qts of oil & has a oil filter too. So we just stick the vacuum pump hose down the dipstick & change both of them every year as well. We've been using an Amsoil Synthetic in the lower unit for a while so we just check that & if it looks good just fill it back up & we're good to go. Changing it ~ every 2-3 years or so.

[Reinhard]

I have had my 2002 Mercury 115 hp 4 stroke to this day and have only used non oxy gas the whole time.  I have recently switched from my anual oil change from high quality conventional oil to synthetic and synthetic for my lower unit.  That's all I do except put in some sea foam at the end and run the motor for 20 minutes or so.  Runs as good today as the day I bought it.  It is important to put your motor as far down as possible to drain the water out.  good luck.

[Gunner55]

  Synthethic is all we use as well, some sea foam in the last gas I put in it, then maybe even a little of the Star Brite Enzyme stabilizer just before we put it away.

[HD]

The motor has been sitting in the lowest position possible for over a week now. I did not see any water dripping.

This is the port I was asking about.... I disconnected it from it's mount and blew some air through there, and about a half cup of water came out of the motor. Is this what I should have done?

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[glenn57]

I'm just a poor union guy, so I wouldn't know!!

[LPS]

That flush port is more for when you run in salt water.  It is to flush the corrosive salt water out of the motor.  As long as you let the water run down out of the power head you are ok.  Really a 4 stroke is just like a car engine as you know.  Shut it off and check the lower unit oil for water contamination.  Other than that let it sit.

[Gunner55]

The motor has been sitting in the lowest position possible for over a week now. I did not see any water dripping.

This is the port I was asking about.... I disconnected it from it's mount and blew some air through there, and about a half cup of water came out of the motor. Is this what I should have done?

I think LPS is right, the only other reason I could see is for those that run on shallow rivers often & might have some sand from sandbars/silt in the cooling system. Think it would be better to flush it out than run it through the water pump/impeller. We've only had ours apart once, HD, & we hooked up a garden hose to it just to see what happened. Every year since we've put the motor as vertical as possible & let it sit 'til it quits drippin. We've never worried about blowing any air through even the year we flushed it.

[Cooperman]

The motor has been sitting in the lowest position possible for over a week now. I did not see any water dripping.

This is the port I was asking about.... I disconnected it from it's mount and blew some air through there, and about a half cup of water came out of the motor. Is this what I should have done?

HD, I have a Yamaha 60 4 stroke with that same fitting and in 13 years never blown it out. I, like others have said is just put the motor as vertical as possible. But if you are worried about it it doesn’t hurt to blow it out. I wonder what would happen if you just put the motor down and just unscrew the fitting, maybe it would drain that 1/2 cup without pressure?

[delcecchi]

I thought that was for flushing the motor after operating in salt water.   

[HD]

I gots a question..... those of you that have a Yamaha....does it take a special spark plug wrench? I can't seem to be able to get the plugs out to fog the cylinders. They look to be 13/16's , but the wall thickness of the socket will not fit.

[mike89]

I do know they make narrower sockets or used to..    good luck!!

[Gunner55]

No special wrench needed for ours  We do have a small set (3) of sockets that are designed just for sparkplugs. Looks like it takes a 5/8 on most models to me. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=removing+the+sparkplugs+on+a+2019+yamaha+15+hp+outboard&docid=607989132540707618

[HD]

Yup I got a 5/8's, it doesn't fit. I see the replacement plug spec's in the manual says it's 5/8's. 3/4's almost goes on, so I'm thinking it's 18 mm.....of course, I don't have one 

Anyways, I ordered a full set

[mike89]

I was wondering metric too... 

[Gunner55]

    We do have a cheap, Harbor Freight, metric deep well set here too but I'm pretty sure, brother usually does that, we use the middle 1 of the plug set & that's 5/8. We been running NGK platinum plugs in ours. Good luck!

[HD]

Yup, the manual says to use a NGK DPR6EB-9 to replace it.

[Gunner55]

You got me curious so I had to check it out. Our little set is made by Stanley & the sizes are 5/8, 3/4, & 13/16. Very handy & gets used a lot this time of year. 

[HD]

The set that I bought, is a set of 4:
14 mm
5/8's (which is very close to 16 mm)
18 mm
and a 13/16's

I already have several 5/8's and 13/16's, but they all have a thick wall.
These are made for Yamaha dirt bikes, and have a thin wall.

[Gunner55]

Never really checked before but ours are ~ 1/2 the wall thickness of our deep well sets.

[snow1]

I gots a question..... those of you that have a Yamaha....does it take a special spark plug wrench? I can't seem to be able to get the plugs out to fog the cylinders. They look to be 13/16's , but the wall thickness of the socket will not fit.

HD,no need to fog cyclinders on your 4 stroke,just to be safe drain your lower unit incase you have a hairline crack in the housing and water seeped in,easy pezzy,that's it unless you don't use non-oxy fuel.running yammie since 2000.nothing has changed for winter storage after all these years and 4 new tillers.

[delcecchi]

I gots a question..... those of you that have a Yamaha....does it take a special spark plug wrench? I can't seem to be able to get the plugs out to fog the cylinders. They look to be 13/16's , but the wall thickness of the socket will not fit.

HD,no need to fog cyclinders on your 4 stroke,just to be safe drain your lower unit incase you have a hairline crack in the housing and water seeped in,easy pezzy,that's it unless you don't use non-oxy fuel.running yammie since 2000.nothing has changed for winter storage after all these years and 4 new tillers.

I take my Suzy in but I think it is stabil the gas, change the oil, change the lower unit lube, change the external gas filter, anti freeze in live wells.  Read out the computer.   

[LPS]

I have always just shut mine off.  Move tilt all of the way up and then down twice and then of course leave it down so water runs out.  Drop lower unit oil till spring.  Done deal.

[HD]

Yeah....it's a brand new motor, and was thinking I should fog the cylinders. I've never done it on ANY thing else I've ever owned. And I've never had a problem....oh well...

It's snowing outside, and it won't be ran till next spring.....