Moving from trailer to saltwater slip

[Barfly1]

2004 Trophy 2052WA with Mercruiser 4.3L has been trailered and always flushed after use with muffs & salt-away. Motor has 180 hrs. Moving to a slip in saltwater. Convert to fresh water cooling? Add fresh water flush kit?

Advice appreciated!

 

[tpenfield]

You could possibly convert to a closed cooling system, but the amount of iron scale in the engine could become a problem. Maybe if you had a way to really flush out the engine block, that would help.

I do not think that the flush kits do all that much, salt has its way of working into the iron and will continue to do its thing.

 

[alldodge]

2004 Trophy 2052WA with Mercruiser 4.3L has been trailered and always flushed after use with muffs & salt-away. Motor has 180 hrs. Moving to a slip in saltwater. Convert to fresh water cooling? Add fresh water flush kit?

Advice appreciated!

If converting to fresh water cooling means going to closed cooling, then IMO it's to late to go closed. I agree with tpenfield that the fresh water flush will do little. Suggest finding a used boat lift

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,..... Welcome Aboard,.... I think with that history, yer Waayyy past goin' to freshwater/ closed coolin',...

Alota money for a heat exchanger, to plug it solid with old rust,....

 

[500dollar744ti]

You could just run it like it is in salt water as many thousands of other boaters have done over the decades. Plan for manifolds/risers in 7-10 years, don't let the salt scare you.

Bottom paint your boat if you aren't going to be on a lift.

 

[Lou C]

No Title

You sure you really want to do that? If its a high fouling area, the anti fouling paints for aluminum do not work well. Your outdrive might wind up looking like this:

 

[Barfly1]

It seemed like a good idea because the dry storage I'm in is closing and it's not that much cheaper than a slip. I spoke to a local guy that services Mercruiser and he said that because there are a lot of liveaboards in that harbor, I can expect bad electrolysis problems with the aluminum outdrive.

Right now I have to drive an hour each way, then launching, parking the trailer, haul out, washdown and flushing the motor takes me close to 2 hours by the time she's put away and covered. The 4 hours of overhead keeps me from going out as much as I'd like.

It sounds like a better choice would be to find a new dry storage location closer to home. Time for more research...

Thanks for the replies.