Running a 1959 Evinrude Lark in Salt Water ???

Greetings, I have a the above motor (35HP) and it's been a fresh water engine it's whole life. It runs great, but I was wondering what precautions I should take running it now in salt water.

Also, they don't seem to make earmuffs that fit the engine to 'rinse' it out. I was wondering if anyone knows of these or do I just have to run it in a large bucket or drum to clean it out.

Thanks!!

MC

Re: Running a 1959 Evinrude Lark in Salt Water ???

They used to make an attachment for those outboards, but no longer. Your best bet is to use a barrel. The lower unit needs to be immersed over the top of the waterpump...about halfway up the leg.

Those outboards do not have zinc anodes to prevent electrolysis, either. You may want to consider some sort of accessory zinc anodes to help with this.

That said, my father ran his 1959 Fat Fifty in the ocean all the time, but he was religious about flushing it after each use. He also hosed down the exterior completely each time. He bought the motor new in 1959, and is still using it.

Re: Running a 1959 Evinrude Lark in Salt Water ???

Thanks for the quick reply! What exactly does the zinc anodes do? What is electrolysis and how is it bad? Thanks for the newbie advise!

I've been rising the entire boat, trailer, engine off every time, but I'll have to setup a barrel to rinse it everytime.

MC

Re: Running a 1959 Evinrude Lark in Salt Water ???

zinc is a sacrifical metal that the electricity in the water attacks, instead of your motor. more important on boats that are moored rather than trailered.

Re: Running a 1959 Evinrude Lark in Salt Water ???

I'm not for sure how your lower unit is setup compared to my 57 35hp Evinrude but I don't believe there is that much of a difference. I personally don't have any plans on putting any of my motors in salt water. I did build a flushing device for mine, like CATransplant said the flushing devices can be hard to find.

I built a flushing device for 2 of my motors. All I half to do is clamp a hose to the fitting once I bolt the plate down to the water intake area. I have also made a flushing adapter for a 59 5.5hp Johnson that I sold recently.

Here is a picture of what I made for the 5.5hp motor, I don't have a picture of the one I made for the 35hp. As I have mentioned in other threads this does leak around the plate on the 35hp but does the job sure enough and with a little more modification it shouldn't leak at all. I'm just passing this idea along, running the motor in a barrel should also work but lifting the motor can be a pain.

Re: Running a 1959 Evinrude Lark in Salt Water ???

if your gonna run it in salt then start the preventative maint NOW or you will be posting about broken fasteners,heli-coils and the dreaded bolt extractor breakage.
go ahead right now and drop the lower unit, good time to replace the impeller and housing as nessasary.
on reasembly use a good water proof grease, mercs special lube 101 is about as good as it gets, on ALL fasteners, then remove them once a year and do it again.
any fasteners you need to remove for routine maint should be greased at least yearly to insure they come out when you need them to.
Tempo still makes the flushing device for that engine, it fits on the exhaust snout.
trust me here in the salt pond things corrode no matter how much you flush.
I used to hate working on some of the 60's big twins with a half a million 1/4X20 screws to remove to access the rear lower unit bolt.
biggest issue is the 10X32 screws that hold the impeller housing to the case, the corrode and break very easily if not maintained.

Re: Running a 1959 Evinrude Lark in Salt Water ???

I don't live anywhere near salt water, but one of my buds who does always runs his boat/motors in fresh water right after a dip in the brine, plus the washing/rinsing. No complaints so far.

Re: Running a 1959 Evinrude Lark in Salt Water ???

MC - OMC did not recommend flushing the outboards of your vintage, after salt water use. They even wrote a bulletin on it.

If you are bent on flushing it, you can try to use a standard flush device, and fit it over the reverse water inlet like Wildmanimal did in his picture. You will need remove one of the rubber cups and tape the water inlet above and behind the prop, to allow the water to reach the pump.

A better idea is to remove all the critical fasteners and put some Permatex #2 non hardening sealer on them. They will not corrode that way. I would not remove the head bolts or crankcase bolts. The crankcase bolts will not corrode, and the headbolts are pretty good bolts, and should last may years in salt water, w/o an issue.

Re: Running a 1959 Evinrude Lark in Salt Water ???

thanks for all of the advise... it's hard to tell weather or not when I did run it in a bucket if it was deep enough... what do you all think??



there is no port that pumps water out visbily like in the newer outboards. I'm assuming that this is standard on these older models.

she runs good, and I've had no evidence of it overheating. I have a impellor, but I haven't replaced it yet as I can't find the right LU seal kit for this engine...

Thanks again for the help.

MC

Re: Running a 1959 Evinrude Lark in Salt Water ???

is the above pic in enough water to fully submerge the water impellor? I want to run it to work on the engine, but I want to make sure that it will not hurt the cooling system...

thanks again!

Mike