Winterisation

[Rapier]

Was testing a nice '66 3hp yesterday - am waiting for a carb kit from South Coast Marine, so ran it up on a '69 Evinrude 4hp AMAL carb, which has fixed jets and bolts straight on. I think was the same block and spec, but if any experts know better let me know?

It ran well, so much so, that thoughts got on to a nice Colorado freshwater '64 9.8hp Mercury 110 languishing on a rack. Last run on a trip up the Hamble 2 years ago, in the NIXY that Alactrity now has. Sometime back I finally managed to source and import a remote kit for conventional MerControls. Yesterday seemed the right time to fit it and run the engine with a view to getting a decal kit to replace the tired ones. However, it was not to be; stuck solid and dead on one coil, I managed to free it up this morning but have a wide spread in compression figures. It'll spend a few days being turned over with PB Blaster run through it, then I'll pop the flywheel and fix the spark before running it.

Leads me to the subject of winterisation - now's the time to do it. Here's a link, but there are always variations on the theme...

http://continuouswave.com/maintenance-logs/winterize/

From a merc point of view, especially boats that live outside like mine; poke out the crud from the drain holes in the LU, if water gets trapped in there and freezes it'll crack casings. Drain the gear oil and refill if you live in colder climes than the south coast. Johnnyrudes often have leaky gearcases, so make sure there is no water in there (the oil will be like milky coffee, or have separated out so that water will run out the drain screw when it's removed).