reviving a submerged outboard motor?

[Johnny2Bad]

I've done it. I actually watched the motor go under, exhaust coming out for a few moments until it quit, still tethered to the portable gas tank.

Pulled the plugs, drained the chambers of water, dumped the water in the float bowl (carbs), re-cnnected fuel, dried the plugs and re-installed, and kept pulling the recoil until it started. Also had to pour the gas from the tank into a cooler (the gas ate the cooler, but whatever) and drain off the water than entered via the vent cap, before re-filling the tank with the remaining sort-of-clean gas.

We were in the middle of nowhere, so no shop available to help us out. Drove the boat home.

Boat sank due to wave action (very windy day), the foam under the seats had deteriorated due to age and simply wasn't present, so the boat sank to the bottom (about five feet) before popping up again once we were no longer part of the load. Flipped it over and swam it to shore. We recovered everything and kept on fishing, actually, until it was time to go. Overall the total recovery took about an hour from our fishing day.

16' aluminum boat and 25HP Merc 2-stroke. We didn't look at the engine until fall, it ran fine all summer. Drained the lower unit, filled with fresh oil and ran it again for many years afterward.

The only real issue you might encounter is if you attempted to start the motor with the plugs still installed before draining the cylinders of water. You will bend something.

 

[jeep58]

Get that motor running ASAP!!!

 

[BrocLuno]

Well, friday's come and gone ... Did it get running?

 

[Brad_C]

Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad

The only real issue you might encounter is if you attempted to start the motor with the plugs still installed before draining the cylinders of water. You will bend something.


I did this with a Johnson 8 horse. Hit a wave and the tiller extension snapped off. The motor turned 90 degrees under full power and twisted itself off the transom to disappear under the boat. I pulled it back up but the cylinders were full of water. Not having any tools on me to pop the plugs out I leaned on the pull cord until it slowly squeezed the water past the rings to clear the cylinders. It took a lot of pulls but I got it started. Lucky it didn't bend a rod when it went under, but they are tiddly little pistons and a small flywheel so I suppose I got lucky.

Bit of a different kettle of fish to the larger motors though.

 

[fsskier]

At least a couple of replies have included the most important step of all when sinking a motor in salt water.....immediate immersion in fresh water and allow it to soak....with plugs pulled you can also spin the flywheel and get the salt out both internally and off all the external parts including lots of plugs and connectors and of course the wiring for the charging system magnetos, etc. These instructions were included in owners manuals years ago for many small outboards. The salt will never go away if you just start and run it and corrosion will make all you connectors fail eventually and render it worthless.

Incidentally, our waterski show operation sunk a 200 hp Evinrude Ficht a number of years ago...really sunk it, 18 feet down. This was in fresh water, we pulled it out, drained it all....the factory rep correctly told us to also pull, dissasemble and drain the starter, it sits "Shaft up" in the motor and will never drain out on its own. Yes, it was still full of water after the motor was otherwise drying. The fuel injection had no water in it....drained and refilled the tank and it started immediately. We ran it 8 more years, about 20 hours a week and never had any problems with it.

Hope your dealer is competent and did all the above!!

 

[lbhsbz]

Old 2 strokes are easy. Dump the water outta the carbs, pull the plugs and spin it over with the starter until water stops coming out of the holes. Put the plugs back in, stick the fuel hose in a gas can of primix, and fire it up. Ideally, all this will happen within about an hour of getting it out of the water.

Your biggest problem down the road will be the electrics and the wireing. Even in fresh water, green death will take over the wires pretty soon. Take the starter apart and drain / clean that. Otherwise, you're good to go.

 

[The motor guy]

I got it going again

unfortunately I don't think the shop ever put oil in the cylinders like they said they did.

 

[The motor guy]

I took it somewhere else and he got it going. Still had some water in the cylinders.