FishermanDave
Member
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2006
- RO Number
- 21912
- Messages
- 11
I purchased a 1980 Sea Ray - MercCruiser last year and since I am a new boat owner was unaware of winterizing your boat. Anyway, the last time I operated it last season was in October and then it sat all winter until around April or May.
While cleaning my boat I found a manual for the MercCruiser 260 motor and so I read it which is when I found out about "winterizing" your boat, and what you need to do each year before operating it again. Well I went ahead and did all the lubricating and changed the oil and any other checks they talked about in the book.
After using my boat 3 times my starter whent out! I bought a used starter and replaced it. Now everytime I turn my boat over I can only run it for about 15 minutes before I see smoke comming from my ground wire on my battery. I also realized I had a bunch of water in my oil which I changed again! I don't see any cracks or leaks in my Exhaust Manifolds or Elbows, but I did chage 2 of the gaskets on them when I changed the starter because they looked bad, so I HOPE that was the cause of the leak and thus waster getting into my oil.
I still can't figure out why my ground wire keeps getting hot after operating my boat for about 15 minutes. Can somebody please help with that and also let me know if the bad gaskets sound like the reason I would have gotten water in my oil. THANKS!
While cleaning my boat I found a manual for the MercCruiser 260 motor and so I read it which is when I found out about "winterizing" your boat, and what you need to do each year before operating it again. Well I went ahead and did all the lubricating and changed the oil and any other checks they talked about in the book.
After using my boat 3 times my starter whent out! I bought a used starter and replaced it. Now everytime I turn my boat over I can only run it for about 15 minutes before I see smoke comming from my ground wire on my battery. I also realized I had a bunch of water in my oil which I changed again! I don't see any cracks or leaks in my Exhaust Manifolds or Elbows, but I did chage 2 of the gaskets on them when I changed the starter because they looked bad, so I HOPE that was the cause of the leak and thus waster getting into my oil.
I still can't figure out why my ground wire keeps getting hot after operating my boat for about 15 minutes. Can somebody please help with that and also let me know if the bad gaskets sound like the reason I would have gotten water in my oil. THANKS!