Home Forums Fishing Saltwater Saltwater outboard maintenance?

Took my 16 ft aluminum boat into the bay Saturday. It's the only time I've had it in saltwater. There was a freshwater hose available at the dock and I rinsed boat and trailer off when I got it out of the water. Got home late but hosed it down again. Next morning I scrubbed it down inside, ran freshwater through the bilge and livewell and flushed the motor with freshwater for 15 or 20 minutes with it running per the owners manual. When I got to thinking about people who fish or use outboards in saltwater all the time, sometimes daily, I figured I'd done enough.

How often is it necessary to flush the motor with freshwater? It doesn't seem feasible to haul the boat out and flush the motor every time it's used in saltwater but that seems to be what the owners manual says.

You pretty much covered it.
I'm running a 150 Merc Optimax that's in the water for 5 months.
I have a fitting for flushing the motor which I'm pretty religious about using. I crack the hose enough so the water is pizzing out. I run it while I'm cleaning up and bringing stuff back to my truck. No problems.
Also the way my dock is set up, my lower unit is always out of the water. Still have the original zinc on the gearcase while I replace the one on the engine/transom bracket yearly.

Boats DO take a beating sitting in the salt water for months ,IMHO.

I have a Yamaha 150 2 stroke and we run it ragged, dont flush it ever time, literally beat on it. No issues ever and it sits on a lift in FL 24 7 365. I wouldnt do that with any motor other than a Yamaha though.

opinions will vary as they do on most other things. appearances
of boats will vary also especially in a salt enviornment.
wether your a polisher or not it always pays to get the salt off.
even just rinsing everything down well after each use will keep
your boat looking good. i think you did well to do a thorough
job on the aluminum hull. with the hose attachments on the newer
engines theres little excuse for not flushing them. it depends also on the ammount of use they get. i dont feel its as necessary
for engines used often. on those an outside rinse might be all thats really necessary.