opinion

[Schmoe]

OK, here's the pre-information before giving me ya'lls opinion:
'96 3.0LX engine Alpha drive. Engine oil and outdrive oil changed end of last season. Oil was Penns. LL 15w40 and outdrive was Mercruiser premium, the brown dino, not the green smelly stuff. Filled tank up with gas last season, stablilized and now have 1/4 tank of that fuel left in it. Engine probably ran for about 3 hours so far total.
19 month old daughters' asthma has kicked up a notch and looks like I probably won't be going out to the lake anymore this summer. Hopefully she'll outgrow this stuff and we'll be ready for next summers fun.
Questions:
1. Can I get by with leaving the oil/filter/outdrive fluid alone this year for winter set up? Every year that I've drained it, no water in the outdrive at all.
2. I'm in Oklahoma and our winters aren't really bad, can I just leave that 1/4 tank in it, has stablilizer in it from last year, and not fill it up? I figure gas should come down at least some in the meantime. I kind of think I should at least make an attempt to burn off the tank and maybe put couple of gallons of fresher fuel in it, but I wonder if the stabilizer will hold out to next year.
3. I'll do the rest of the winterizing ritual, but if I could get by with 1 and 2, it sure would save me a lot of time and money.

 

[BUBBA0420]

Fill up and stabilize the fuel. Drain your lower
unit and fill with Mercruiser Hi Performance
Gear Lube (The Green Smelly Stuff). The basic
gear lube is NOT Intended for Sterndrives. The
green smelly stuff repels water much better the the regular Gear Lube. Don't forget to Winterize
and Fog the motor

 

[Schmoe]

yeah Steve.....thought about that after I posted this message. Hopefully vetteman won't banish me too much..
Bubba....the premium is good for Alpha drives on the Iron Dukes and 4.3 The Alpha's are designed to take up to 275 HP. anything below 200, your good with the premium as long as your outdrive is in good working order and you drain/re-fill every year. The Hi Perf. is the ONLY thing for the Bravo drives. I've used the premium for years on this setup and have had no issues.
No ethanol gas issues down here. Figured I'd better burn off that quarter tank. Problem is out on the water, it's hard to see exactly how much fuel you got in the boat when it's moving to and fro. Hmmmmm, what about this. Run it until it dies, pop the sparkplugs off and fog it from there and through the carb? Never tried that before.

 

[1 FMF]

If only 3 hours on engine oil and drive oil, I say leave it.

At most, pull oil drain on drive lower unit, drain out 1-ounce to see if it's milky or any water. If not, leave it. If you have the drive oil resevoir up on the engine, just top that off with what you drained out; if not then pump what was lost in thru upper vent hole.

Heard rumor about gas in boats, since gas has ethanol that it's worse to have a full tank of gas sit than an empty tank. I usually top tanks off before storage, regardless of wether what i heard was true because of gas prices they're going to sit empty. Gas gap tight, tape vent, good enough.

What I do know is regardless of stabil, my mercarb does not like to sit over the winter. I rebuilt/cleaned carb last August, then was meticulous with winterizing and I still had to pull the carb the first day this season to clean it out. Maybe you have better luck with yours, but mine this year will come off and sit in my basement dry.

On my 3.0, my fog technique is just pull the spark plugs and squirt into each cylinder, then crank engine with plugs out to disperse fog oil, plugs back in and that's it. And a little spray down the carb throat for good measure, when it stays on the engine.

 

[Steve128]

You know how “retentive” BITOG members are! Asking this kind of question may get you banished. You are very brave.

Nevertheless, gasoline will degrade much faster than the oil. Since your oil has not noticeably deteriorated in the past; step 1 may be okay. Step number 2 though, risky for a number of reasons. You did list money as a factor. Bad fuel could quickly cost you money next season.

 

[JonS]

I would leave the oil as is. But the gas i would fill it up to 1/2 to 3/4 and add new Sta-bil". I was on the Sta-bil website yesterday, and your year old gas would be pushing the limit of being good come spring time. Fill up with non-ethanol gas (if you can find it, it's tought to find in MN) and new Sta-bil. Then you can sleep good all winter.

 

[Ryan00TJ]

I would at least bring the tank up to half along with adding a new amount of Stabil. Cheap insurance for next season. Being that oil and gear lube is so cheap I would change it anyway for that added insurance. If you need that extra $30 I would at least pull the plug on the alpha and see if any water leaks out. Water will always come out first if any has entered the casing. Sorry to hear about the short boating season! I actually changed my oil in my boat today as it had 66 hard hours on it this summer and I plan on keeping the boat in the water till late Sept.

 

[wileyE]

If the tank is metal I like to store them full with some twocycle oil in the fuel.

The outdrive has some water in it, they always do, even if they dont leak. I'd go with pull the plug just enough to see the fluid and let any water out. If the fluid looks fine leave it.

Biggest problem I've had storing (fwc) boats has been thermostats FWIW.