In the first part of this post we’ve talked about flushing the engine, filling with antifreeze and fogging the engine. You didn’t think it ended there did you?! We still have a few more items to take care of to make sure your boat is shipshape for the upcoming winter.
While the engine is still warm, it’s a great time to change the engine oil and filter. You will need a way to remove the oil from the engine, new oil and filter. Tools needed will be an oil filter wrench and an oil extractor. You can use either a manual extractor like this one or a 12 volt pump extractor such as this jabsco pump.
Follow the instructions that come with the oil extractor to remove all of the oil from the engine. Typically this involves inserting the correct size tube down the dipstick tube connecting it to the extractor and pumping it a few times to create a vacuum to remove all of the oil. The manual extractors will normally have markings along the sides to show how many quarts of oil have been removed. If your oil filter is remotely mounted i.e it’s upside down on top of the engine or off to the side wrap a towel around the base of it to catch any oil that will leak out of it before removing it and poke a small hole in the top of the filter to allow the oil in the filter to drain while the extractor is sucking the oil out of the engine. Once all of the oil is removed you can remove the extractor tube and the oil filter taking care not to spill any oil on top of or under the engine.
Replace the engine oil with the correct weight oil, check your owners manual or the engine manufactures website for the correct oil specifications. Most mercruisers will be happy with mercruiser 25W40 oil. Mercruiser also has a synthetic version of the 25W40 if you prefer synthetic oil. As always check your manual to confirm you are using the correct oil.
Replace the oil filter with a new one lubing the gasket on the filter with oil and hand tightening the filter into place.
In part 3 of how to winterize your stern drive boat we will talk about changing the outdrive oil and inspecting the outdrive.