The Outdoor Line Forum

You walk up and down the dock looking at moored boats and that's exactly what you see... outboards both in the up and down position!

I have never, ever understood leaving an outboard tilted down while the boat is moored.

Marine growth, electrolysis and cold weather problems are all reduced or eliminated by the simple act of tilting the engine out of the water.

Rather than a directed act to leave the motor in the down position, I think that most folks simply forget to tilt their outboards prior to leaving for the day.

Anyway, I would be interested in hearing others opinions on the subject!

I keep mine down most of the time in SE Alaska because I'm running all the time and there's very, very little sunlight to make critters grow. It's also a bugger for my dock mate to get around my extended lower unit when he's coming in and it's tilted up. If I were a weekend warrior I'd tilt that bugger up to keep the scuz off the lower unit though. That's my .01 on the matter, Ain't worth much more than that

I keep mine down so the nose of the boat stays under dock roof and out of the rain.

Our local repairman recomends that for outdrives it is important to leave the outdrive straight when your boat is idle for a few weeks.

On the trolling motor many guys leave the motors down but put a garbage can under the outdrive during the winter. The flush out the troling motor with fresh water and drain the garbage can with a wet vac.

Best plan is to use the boat all year

ac

I have to agree with you there AC!
There is lots of opportunity to use your boat here all year, provided you have a good heater!!!

I have heard that in cold weather engines down helps to keep things from freezing . Any thoughts?
I feel like this could go either way since engine down leaves water in the block.

Jadeo wrote:I have heard that in cold weather engines down helps to keep things from freezing . Any thoughts?
I feel like this could go either way since engine down leaves water in the block.

I can only speak to Evinrude Outboards and the Factory recommendation is to tilt them up in sub-freezing weather at the dock, tilting them fully down while dry-docked or on the trailer.
Evinrude E-TEC outboards have an over-sized, self-flushing cooling system that drains more completely than other, bulkier 4-stroke outboards.

We've all seen weather so cold that the marina froze over... even in salt water! I sure don't want my lower unit encased in a block of ice!

I keep mine up for all the reasons you listed and I have never had a problem with the cold. I do however recommend keeping them down if you are in the salt and not taking the time to flush them properly.

Rob you are right if you dont flush the engine when warm and tilt it up you then dry out the zincs in the block which will then build up with salt and then not function properly . this causes flow isues as well as corosion problems in short I guess flush them or dont tilt them up or dont Its your crap and engines are "cheap" lol

One thing to remember if you keep them tilted up is not to start them for at least a few minutes after lowering them.
On Verados it's mandatory. Lots of places in four strokes for oil to drain off to and sit while they are tilted up.

Good call Reiter Rat,
I had not considered the four-stroke oil sump issue regarding the tilted engine issue.
I guess that's just another reason to run two-stroke Evinrude E-Tecs!