submerged motor

J

jwilkey84

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 26, 2005
Messages
524
I had a 1993 evinrude 15hp motor that was given to me. It was submerged a couple years ago. It was probably underwater for just a couple days at most. I got to motor un-stuck, I had good spark, so I checked compression and it was good. So I cleaned up the carb, hooked it up to good gas, and the darn thing runs good in a barrell anyway!! The question is, should I be afaraid of it or should I drop some money into it? the tiller handle is missing, so I would have to buy one of those. Or should I just try to sell it as a running parts motor? Would it be shady to sell it as a running motor as long as I tell the new owner what it has been through?
 
rolmops

rolmops

Vice Admiral
Joined
Feb 24, 2002
Messages
5,311
Re: submerged motor

There are many ifs here.
Was it fresh or salt water? Fresh is not so good,but salt is very bad.How quickly after the motor was pulled out of the water was it drained, cleaned, oiled and then started again? the quicker the better. If it was in fresh water for a couple of days then there probably was no damage,unless the engine was very hot and took the dunk while still running.In that case there might be some warped metal.Again if it was in salt water it would be worse,mostly because salt and electronic parts do not get along.I don't even want to mention sea sand in the block.
Run it for a few trips and if nothing bad turns up,you can expect it to be fine.
 
trendsetter240

trendsetter240

Lieutenant
Joined
Jun 22, 2009
Messages
1,458
Re: submerged motor

jwilkey84 said:
I had a 1993 evinrude 15hp motor that was given to me. It was submerged a couple years ago. It was probably underwater for just a couple days at most. I got to motor un-stuck, I had good spark, so I checked compression and it was good. So I cleaned up the carb, hooked it up to good gas, and the darn thing runs good in a barrell anyway!! The question is, should I be afaraid of it or should I drop some money into it? the tiller handle is missing, so I would have to buy one of those. Or should I just try to sell it as a running parts motor? Would it be shady to sell it as a running motor as long as I tell the new owner what it has been through?
Click to expand...

Did the motor get cleaned out and run immediately after it was submerged? If not then the polished surfaces of the bearings, crankshaft and connecting rods will have etched with rust. If that is the case then eventually it will have an internal failure as a bearing comes apart.

There are probably lots of useable parts on that motor. If I were you I would pick up a service manual for it and take it apart. The only way you will kno if there is rust/pitting on the engine internals is complete disassembly.

If you are going to sell it then I'd be honest about it; a running parts motor even if it was submerged will be worth something to somebody.

Cheers
 
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