Evinrude Frozen H2O outlet

J

jim bosanny

Active member
I've got an Evinrude 6 HP 2 stroke outboard. Yesterday as I was leaving the marsh I noticed no water discharge coming from the outlet. It's rubber and had ice caked in it and wouldn't clear. I ended up dunking it in what was left of my hot coffee and that did the trick. Temps were in the 20's and I broke a lot of ice to get in the marsh. I've hunted similar conditions before and this is the first time it's happened. Any ideas on how to prevent this in the future? I may not always have enough coffee left?!
 
It will thaw on it's own as the motor warms up. The pee stream is an indicator that the water pump is working. Lack of pee stream doesn't necessarily mean there's a problem. Under frozen conditions I feel safe, at least for a few minutes, that it just needs time to thaw.

Eric
 
On the back of our boat blind we have two squirt bottles filled with blue automotive windshield washing fluid, when we get to our spot in the morning we squirt 3-4 oz of this into the "pisser" and we never have a problem. We have also rerouted a horizontal "pisser" hose that wound around the back side of the engine under the cowling and drilled a new hole nearest to where the hose exitsthe engine block as we found water would freeze in this long run of horizontal hose.
When we pull out of the water for the day we tip the motor down, let it drain then give it another squirt of the blue fluid it is evident when the blue fluid exits our motor thru the prop exhaust/H2O vent. I have pictures but too large to display.
3 hour and 23 minutes, then 9 straight days.
 
Thanks Eric. I wasn't sure how long it would be safe to run w/o knowing for sure the pump was working. Didn't want to damage the motor-it would have been a long way to row.
 
bro in law does the same except uses Pink RV antifreeze.

I'll tell you another thing, don't raise your motor out of the water during below freezing temps. I did that one year out on the bay, the shift selector froze, I was an idiot and tried to get it in gear to get home as the wind was picking up and it was getting nasty...snapped the end off the cable in the shift box...

Dunk the motor, thaw 10 min, get out the leatherman, pull the cable manually to get home....the channel was froze tight but thankfully some other idiot just opened it up since I really could not switch back and forth into neutral....

Learned my lesson about cold water boating that day.
 
Hunted in Vermont for years.... I bought the biodegradable Pink RV antifreeze by the case. Put a large funnel on set of muffs. After we hunted, lowered the motor at the ramp, and poured the antifreeze into the funnel while turning the motor over. When pink came out the tell-hole shut it down. Never had it freeze on me overnight. As others say, keel the lowerunit in the water while hunting if it is cold enough to make ice.

Dave
 
If you run out of coffee you can always pee on it. (I think that's why the call it the "pee hole.")

Rick
 
Dave's advice is the best so far. If you hunt the cold and freeze up the pump either hauling the boat out or tilting the motor you can spin the impeller off the hub for the pump shaft. Ignoring the non pissing tell tale breaking ice for 1\2 a mile can cost you a power head. Ask me how I know.
Mine was about 1000 bucks, dealer cost.


You make the call.

Bob
 
I've never had the tell-tale freeze, but in freezing temps at the boat ramp in the morning, I always get the boat in the water and let it sit with the motor all the way down for about 10mins before I start. This allows water to get in around the water pump and thaw it out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top