New sailor outboard question

[DHaning]

I am a new owner of a Mac 25. It has a 1990 Suzuki outboard on it. It has not been started in at least a year, and probably longer. I took off the cover, knocked out a ton of mud dobber nests that filled the engine compartment, pulled the plugs, cleaned them, injected some two stroke oil in the cylinders, and reinstalled the plugs.
I put some gas in the tank along with some Stabil, and a little bit of two stroke oil and proceeded to pull on the starter rope. The motor started on around the fifth pull and idled decently, obviously blowing some blue smoke due to the oil. I was getting some water out of the exhaust, and then finally got water coming out of the small outlet tube. The water was very hot, so I was worried about the impeller.
I pulled the lower unit off and inspected the impeller, two broken vanes. I am planning on replacing the lower unit oil while I am working on it.

So, my question is what other advice can you give me as to what sort of maintenance I should do before I put it in the water?

And, I am a little worried about the oil injection. Is there anyway to check it to make sure it is working?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Justin_NSA]

It's oil injected or are you supposed to use a premix? You actually have a separate 2-stroke oil tank? My 03 Merc 9.9 used premix, not oil injection.

 

[DHaning]

It is oil injected. I only put the oil in the gas for startup because it had been sitting for a while.
I plan on changing the plugs soon.

 

[DHaning]

I used to own a 2 stroke street motorcycle that had the same setup. My dirt bike had to have premix.

 

[kloudie1]

I suspect that you can download the manual that shows how to set up the pump..Do a Google search on your model number for oil pump and you should find a bunch of info.. Good Luck ! I've found that really old 2 stroke oil can kinda gel and not flow through the pump properly.. If ya pull the oil hose at the pump and have good clean flow, you are probably almost good.. then pull the pump and clean it up after getting the set-up info.. Set it up to spec and should be OK..

 

[Hydro Therapy]

Not sure if Your area uses ethenol fuel. Here in NJ all pumps have ethenol. If yours contains ethenol and you have the original fuel line you may want to purchase a new one. I replaced my 2003 fuel line this year. I noticed that the plastic internal liner on the fuel line was eaten away by the fuel. I removed my carberator and cleaned it as well as replacing fuel filter. She runs great now.

The newer lines are made to endore the ethenol fuel.

 

[DHaning]

We have both ethanol and non ethanol gas available.
But, that is a good idea. I bought a new fuel filter, but replacing the lines might not be such a bad thought.
I probably have fuel line in my garage somewhere.
I think that after the season I may tear in to it and clean every thing up, i.e. the carb.

 

[Brian D]

You might want to go ahead and do the carb. That sense of doubt diminishes when each system is fixed. Trust me, it really only takes an hour or two to pull, clean, install. I have two outboards and I hate carb maintenance as much as I hate onions and going to the dentist. So, it's a little reassurance that you won't stall while miles away from the docks.

 

[DHaning]

Good point. I like onions, but not so much the dentist.
I will probably go ahead and pull it.
Should have bought a carb kit while I was purchasing everything else.

 

[CloudDiver]

It sounds to me like you did all the right things to start off, above and beyond the average level of out-board knowledge really. I would only add that Sta-bil in fresh gas after a storage period doesn't really help (although not harmful either). Sta-bil is a fuel stabilizer so it helps mixing into fuel before lay-up, I would recommend something like Sea-foam which is more beneficial during cold start ups. Under 'normal' circumstances, a year in storage usually isn't long enough for fuel to go stale, although the smaller quantity in the carb is suspect and should be cleared before starting. In excessively humid environments I do think that fuel will go stale faster, so it really depends on storage conditions.
As far as injected two strokes... There is a test to tell if injector pumps are pushing the right quantity of oil over a given period of time/throttle setting. The test is usually published in the service manual and I am about 90% certain the test isn't difficult to perform BUT it requires special tools/equipment that most people don't have. This is why it was pretty common to see the average Joe just by-pass the oil injection and use pre-mix. When I was a Lake Ranger for NY State all of the oil injected 2 strokes we had were by-passed this way. That was 20 years ago, these days they run modern 4 strokes on everything, otherwise you couldn't really call us the 'Department of Environmental Conservation', LOL...
Plus one on cleaning the carb, preventative maintenance is the best peace of mind.

 

[No Kin Jones]

You need to account for all the pieces missing from the impeller, they might block cooling water passage.

 

[DHaning]

Actually, there aren't any missing pieces. It's just that two of the vanes are cracked at the base, but they have not actually separated from the impeller body.
But, I understand your thought there.

 

[seadaddler]

Seafoam Seafoam Seafoam and been using it in my 8 HP Yamha for many years and a few years back always had problems with it running bad or not running at all when needed it the most but took the carb off cleaned the jets and it has been running great ever since.
Nick

 

[Brian D]

Agree on the Sea Foam.

 

[DHaning]

Ok, as I am nearing putting my new Mac25 in the water, here are some lessons that I already knew, but have now been reinforced.
1. Don't ever take anything for granted:
I started this project thinking I would just need to replace the impeller. It turned out to be bad and I replaced it.
Along the way, I pulled the thermostat out to find out it had failed somewhere along the way and was stuck open.
I also replaced the spark plugs (made a huge difference) as they looked old and fouled.
As I was tinkering around I found that the lower unit drain screw was a little loose, so I thought I would change the gear oil. And, of course I found out that there was no oil in the bottom unit.
I haven't rebuilt the carb, but I did go the SeaFoam route.

Pretty scary to think that the PO was running the engine with all of these issues. Hopefully, it will not shorten the life of the motor.

I am hoping that there aren't as many issues with the boat as the motor. I know what to look for on a motor/engine, but not so much with a sailboat.