Salt water use

[gregadams]

I have a 1999 (or there about) 241 walk around that has been in Lake Huron since I took deliver.  I am thinking of bringing her to Florida.  I plan to keep her in dry storage, but I am wondering what I need to do to flush the cooling system and how often I need to do it?

[231CALIFORNIA]

just an opinion.
FLUSH it with muffs or a small barrel with a hose in it, maybe use some saltaway type soap if you use muffs.
outboards tend to have corosion problens with thermostats , IOs with the exhaust manifolds and elbows. if you are going to leave it in water for more than a day at a tiem between inspections and rinses
make sure your anodes are the right ones, if there are more than one type, Zinc,aluminum or magnesium .
if its an outboard you can tilt it up out of water after rinse.
its a flub not to use a boat like that in saltwater when you can.

[a7ewizard]

I keep my 251 on a lift......

Put a "T" fitting in the raw water hose that runs from the outdrive to the raw water pump (Not sure how a mercruiser with an alpha drive is rigged). There are also other flush devices which can be used. Then rig the fresh water flush line to a male hose fitting mounted on the transom or gunwale. This modification allows for flushing without attaching muffs and without opening the engine box.

Should your raw water impeller ever fail, you can run a hose from your raw water washdown to this new fitting to provide emergency get home cooling.

these are the parts you need: http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=42862&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=50632&subdeptNum=50646&classNum=50649

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=442365&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=50632&subdeptNum=50646&classNum=50648

or;  http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=112567&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=50366&subdeptNum=50396&classNum=50401

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