Saltwater waves swamped my engines; what action do i need to take?

[dolemite_1]

So a friend was helping me replace the water pump on one of the 350 mag engines on my boat this evening when the wind picked up dramatically and a few waves washed up and into the engine bay and on top of the engines. The engines were off and started up fine after everything was put back together.
My question is what do I need to now do to prevent complete corrosion. I'm thinking of lightly spraying them down w/ fresh water and then just spraying wd-40 everywhere. Will this be enough and how thoroughly do i need to spray down w/ water and access is extremely difficult in the back. Also is there anything I should be careful not to get wet or not spray wd-40 on?

Thx for any advice

 

[pyrotek]

Re: Saltwater waves swamped my engines; what action do i need to take?

Damn, what kind of boat? Hard to imagine a wave coming over the boat at a dock in a boat big enough for two engines. I would wipe down with a cloth. Salt sometimes doesn't wash off to easy with just light water. Also check out chemicals like salt away.may be a bit overkill here.

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Saltwater waves swamped my engines; what action do i need to take?

Rinse, maybe salt-away . . you will be fine.

 

[dolemite_1]

Re: Saltwater waves swamped my engines; what action do i need to take?

Thx for the replies. The boat is a formula 280ss and the engine hatch was open at the time so the waves came up on the sim platform and under the engine hatch into the engine bay.

How safe is it to spray down w/ a hose the back part of th engines w/ fresh water?

thx

 

[Don S]

Re: Saltwater waves swamped my engines; what action do i need to take?

How safe is it to spray down w/ a hose the back part of th engines w/ fresh water?

A hell-of-a-lot safer than not doing it. This should have been done immediately, not after days of discussing it.
Get some salt-away and use it to. Salt water on the wiring and connectors will be your biggest problem.

 

[emoney]

Re: Saltwater waves swamped my engines; what action do i need to take?

Don't sweat it. It's still water and not some form of acid or anything. I've watched boats run in the gulf with no cover, so they obviously were drenched in the stuff. Rinse it off, take 2 aspirins and call me in the morning.

Well....don't actually call me in the morning, but you get the basic drift.

 

[dolemite_1]

Re: Saltwater waves swamped my engines; what action do i need to take?

Thx for the replies. I was looking at that salt away product and i couldn't find it saying anywhere that it was ok to use on the outside of engines. But since you guys are recommending it and it is ok to use on the inside..... i guess my concern was on the electrical connections and distributor.

So all of this happened at about 8pm last night. A pure wind storm w/ 35mph winds came out of no where whipping up the waves. About 3-4 waves hit the back of the boat and each time threw about 1 gallon on the back of each engine stopping short of coming as far fwd as the air filter. So today at about 4pm I got down to the boat and dried up any small spots that had pooled up water, sprayed down w/ a water spray bottle the main areas and then covered everything in wd40. So it was sitting there about 20 hrs.

Would you guys still go back and use the salt away? Access is extremely limited unless I yank off the entire engine hatch. So if using the salt away would only be a small additional benefit than what I have already done then I may just leave it.......

What do you think?

Again thx for the advice

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Saltwater waves swamped my engines; what action do i need to take?

I poured salt water on my engine once . . . and it was fine. Didn't even rinse it off until a few weeks afterwards.

 

[emoney]

Re: Saltwater waves swamped my engines; what action do i need to take?

I'm the only guy on both sides of the channel that even flushes his outboard after use, if that tells you anything. Rinse it off with water and spray a mist coat of WD40 on it, if you're still worried. They also sell "Electronics Spray" that I've used on wiring on boats that are "new-to-me". Doesn't hurt I imagine.

My little jet boat was constantly getting "swamped" with Salt Water (that's the only water it had ever known). The guy that bought it from me is still having a blast on it. And yes, that "swamping" was usually intentional, lol. But, don't tell the Admiral because I kept telling her it was an accident.

 

[Oshkosh1]

Re: Saltwater waves swamped my engines; what action do i need to take?

Good Gawd...It's a little salt water, not Hydroflouric acid!!

Rinse it/dry it/give a blast of alcohol based brake cleaner to the electric connections to dry them(if need be)and carry on.