Winter storage Oil change. Before storage or in spring?

[dziedzicmj]

Mine is a 1 gallon unit that's pretty small, and has a nice soft rubber hose.

You may want to get a longer hose from Pela (around $15). I found that the standard one does not let you suck up all the oil from the engine.

 

[Justin_NSA]

How about this: https://ca.binnacle.com/product_info.php?products_id=3291

This one looks nice. Long hose too.

 

[Meriachee]

Binnacle, of course, being another horrible website, you unnerstand... It's also directly connected to your credit card.

 

[Tedd]

I cannot remember a case where motor damage could be explained by a failure to change oil in the fall - or for that matter anytime the motor sat idle for a good long time.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the failure mode is breakdown of the insulation in the alternator windings if you have an oil-bath alternator, which is common on motorcycles. I've never had a four-stroke boat engine (like OP's), so I don't know if oil-bath alternators are typical for them, or not. It's definitely worth looking into, though, if you have a four stroke.

Etching of the crankshaft journals due to acidic oil can also be observed on older engines that have been allowed to sit with dirty oil in them. I do not know of a specific example of a failure of the entire engine due to this. But I also don't considered etched crankshaft journals to be acceptable in an engine I own.