Making sure that you are taking the time to regularly flush out your boat’s engine system is an integral part of your boat’s maintenance.
Besides helping to prevent built-up salt, taking the time to flush out an engine can also help to prevent the engine from becoming corroded.
The only question is, how often do you need to flush out your boat’s engine? If you are currently asking yourself this question, rest assured that you have come to the right place.
In this article, we are going to be talking you through how to go about flushing out your boat’s engine.
So, without further ado, just keep on reading to learn more!
Why Is It Important To Flush Boat Engines?
Before we get any further into this guide, we first think that it would be a good idea to talk you through why it is so important to make sure that you are regularly taking the time to clear out your boat’s engines.
As we have already mentioned above, if you don’t make sure that you are clearing out your boat’s engine – it can lead to a variety of problems including corrosion of the internal components of the engine.
As a general rule of thumb, you are going to need to make sure that you are providing your engine with a full flush of your engine’s motors at least once every 6 weeks.
Keep in mind that this point is especially important if you are a boat owner that chooses to keep their boat engine inside storage rather than on the water when it is not in use.
Along with this, it is also important to make sure that you are also taking the time to provide your boat’s engine system with a “mini” flush each time that you are finished using it.
This can easily be achieved by simply plugging your boat’s hose into the flush point without running the motor, as this will help to provide the engine with a quick clean.
Still, when it comes to flushing out your motors – one of the easiest ways that this can be achieved is by using your boat’s ear muffs and the hose. This brings us to our next section!
How To Flush An Engine: Step-By-Step Instructions
If you want to provide your boat’s engine with a full flush – read on to check out the following instructions to make sure that you are able to do it correctly and without causing any damage to the internal structure of your boat:
1. First things first, you are going to need to begin by taking your boat’s ear muffs and proceeding to carefully attach them to the water intake area loathed on the lower unit of your boat’s outboard.
2. After you have attached the boat’s ear muffs and they are securely fastened to the lower unit of the boat’s outboard, you can then go ahead and attach the hose to the muffs.
After you have attached, give the hose a slight tug to make sure that it is fully secured and attached to the ear muffs.
3. Once you are happy that it is secure, you can then go ahead and turn on the hose. Ideally, you are going to want to make sure that there is just enough pressure so that you can see that there is some water squirting out of the ear muff you have attached.
4. Now go ahead and turn the outboard motor to the idle setting. After you have done this, double check that the water is running directly through the entirety of the powerhead, otherwise it is not going to be able to flush out the engine correctly.
5. Proceed to run the boat’s motor until you can see that there is water running through the thermostat. More often than not, this will take around 5 minutes or so, which is something to keep in mind if you have never done this before.
6. Once you have gotten to this point, you can then go ahead and proceed to run the motor for another 5 minutes or so, as this will help to ensure that the engine has been fully flushed out prior to switching it off.
Once you are happy that the boat’s engine has been fully flushed out, you can then go ahead and switch off the outboard motor before proceeding to carefully turn off the hose.
It’s very important that you are making sure to turn everything off in this order, as you don’t want the hose to begin spraying water everywhere and making a mess!
Top Tip: If you are still unsure of how to correctly flush out your boat’s engine, we strongly recommend that you take the time to refer to the owner’s manual that you will have received upon purchasing your boat.
In there, you will be able to find all of the relevant information on how you should be cleaning out your boat’s engine, as well as how often you should be flushing, too.
The Bottom Line
You’ve made it to the end! Now that you have taken the time to read through everything that we have talked you through above, we are hoping that you now have a much better understanding of how you can go about correctly cleaning your boat’s engine.
Just to sum up everything that we have talked about above, you are going to want to make sure that you are able to flush out your boat’s engine fully every 6 weeks or so.
As well as that, you are also going to want to make sure that you are providing your boat with a “mini” flush after every use just to help prevent the buildup of salt as this can lead to corrosion.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this guide, and goodbye for now!
