Sunk my workboat

[silver fish]

I stupidly managed to sink my workboat Friday/Saturday - cause was an emergency bilge pump having too long a hose, accidently left in river to back-siphon. Ouch.

Anyways got it lifted and pumped, but the 2 outboards are my main concern. It's freshwater and I've isolated them. They're Mariner bigfoots, I've pulled the plugs out and spun them with the emergence pull. Filled up with WD40. Pulled carbs off and dried. Changed Oil and filter. Cleaned fuel lines etc.

Mechanically I think I've done enough. My big concern is the ECU - does anyone know how these fare after a dunking? And what is the best course of action?

Many thanks (I know it's not classic)

[Alacrity]

I suppose you said 'oh bother'

My guess is the ECU's will be OK - they are normally sealed units (if they aren't and are you can get them apart, do so so you can dry them on a radiator or something). In my book you need to get them running again ASAP. Remember water only hurts when it is left to sit, if it just gets in then is dried out again straight away little or no harm is done. You have protected them with the WD40 - hopefully sprayed in through the carbs so the crank/bearings as well as the bores will be coated. The starter motors will need pulling apart & drying out but again no harm should have been done providing it is done quickly. I would then start them up warm up & check all is well then when you are happy take them out for a good belting to get them hot & push any remaining water away. If they run on premix, double the oil mixture for a tankfull.

Speed is the byword here, you have to get rid of the water before it can do serious harm. You are lucky it isn't salt then you would have to work really fast!

Others may pop up with other suggestions that will help.

[se7en]

If you can't sort them out and run them straight away, throw them back in the water till you can sort them, don't leave them out for more than a day or so with out running them....!!!! even with WD 40, you can't be sure you have displaced all the water, if they were down for some time and its tidal, you may have to strip bits off to get any silt or grit/sand out, you wouldn't believe how much rubbish can get in an engine. over one tide,turn it over by hand slowly and see what the engine 'feels' like.
As Alacrity said "speed is the byword"

[silver fish]

I have had moments of joy in my life and firing up those outboards was one of them!

I can't tell you how happy I was to hear them rumble into life. Took a lot of cranking, but I've had them run for an hour this morning. Unbelievable really, thanks for advice and I guess I'm wiser for the experience.

I'll run them for a while and check the oil, any emulsifying and I'll change it again. I'll keep an eye on the electrics as this is the stuff that may degrade over time.

[twister]

Our Yamaha 70 motors on raceboats are always getting submerged, nobody has ever to my knowledge had a problem with the ECU/CDI units, which are sealed - a spray with WD40 on the connectors seems enough, ditto the coils. Speed in getting the motor up & running again is crucial, then run as long & fast as poss.

The one bit that everybody forgets to clean out though is the starter - and later on it'll give trouble - strip down, clean the crud out, lube bearings & lots of WD40.

[silver fish]

Starters are fine, I have a problem with one engine - it starts for 2 seconds then cuts out then doesn't start again or 30-40 seconds. I stripped the carb and it's getting fuel, I've swopped coil, controls etc from other engine, but still the same. Am about to do the swop of rectifier and ECU unless anyone has any bright ideas.

[se7en]

Do you have a kill switch fitted, if you do it may have water in it.

[silver fish]

I considered that - I have two control lines - so I swopped them over, same result.