Outboard Motor Maintenance Tips and Advice

Every boat owner should know about the importance of maintaining your outboard engine in between services, as well as before and after every outing. When you’ve spent a lot of time effort and money on something as important as your boat, it’s only right that you’ll want to keep it in the best condition possible to keep it running as well as possible for as long as possible.

As well as having regular maintenance carried out by a trusted team of engineers and ensuring you have your outboard motor serviced at the correct intervals, there are several things you can do yourself to keep your boat in great shape.

Flushing Your Engine and Inspecting Oil Levels

Flushing your engine is one of the most important things to do to keep everything running smoothly on your boat. The flushing process for each engine is slightly different and as such you should ensure you follow the instructions in your owner’s manual for how to do this safely and correctly. While flushing your motor, you should also take the opportunity to check the water pump to ensure it has good water flow too.

The next most vital thing is ensuring your engine has the right level of lubrication required for internal combustion. In order to check this, you’ll need to take the engine cowl off and instructions for how to do this can again be found in your owner’s manual. If you find your oil levels are low, you should seek to rectify this as soon as possible with a trusted company such as ours. This is different for each engine type, so bear this in mind too. 

Once these checks have been carried out you should disconnect the fuel line and allow the engine to burn out all of the fuel that remains in the carburettor. After this is complete, you should turn the engine off, remove the key and if you have a battery switch this off also.

Other Regular Maintenance

Other things you should do regularly to maintain your outboard motor on your boat include regularly checking the fuel line for cracks or any wear and tear; regular checks for any water in the fuel; checks of the fuel tanks to see if there is any corrosion or other damage; check for any clamps on the fuel line or any rust or corrosion; and checking the fuel primer bulb. Carrying all of these tasks out on a regular basis will extend the lifetime of your outboard motor and ensure you can enjoy your boat for many years to come.

If you find any problems when carrying out regular maintenance of your outboard or other boat parts you should contact a boating specialist as soon as possible. At Aquatec Marine Engineering, we’re delighted to assist with servicing, repairs and the supply of parts or new engines for clients across Sussex from our base at Lancing Business Park. Get in touch by calling 01903 762 610 or emailing aquatec@mistral.co.uk to see how we can help you.