Can I still winterize?

My boat has trailer issues and has been in my garage since the 2nd week of October. I usually fish all year and never winterize my boat. I have a 99 merc 90 elpto 2 stoke and an 05 merc 9.9 4 stroke.

I won’t be able to move the boat until spring. What winterization steps can I take to help prevent issues in the spring? I have put stabil in the fuel and the lower units are fine. Do I still fog cylinders and all that even though I can’t warm the motors up?

I’d just fog the motor and either unhook the batteries or put them on a maintainer. You’ve already been through some subzero weather so if you had water in the LU you’d know it by now.

biggill wrote:

I’d just fog the motor and either unhook the batteries or put them on a maintainer. You’ve already been through some subzero weather so if you had water in the LU you’d know it by now.

Everything I can find online says I have to run the motor to fog them. The boat is in my garage I have no way of running it.

Could always fill a trash can or similar with water to run it in.

Jonesy wrote:

Everything I can find online says I have to run the motor to fog them. The boat is in my garage I have no way of running it.

Just remove each plug and spray a shot of fogging oil in the cylinder. Then with the safety clip out, turn over the engine for a second or two to distribute the oil. Then reinstall plugs.

To be honest, for a few month’s storage, I doubt fogging is really necessary, but I always do it anyway.

Grouse

For the 2-stroke, pull the spark plugs and spray in a little fogging oil. The crank it over a little and repeat. Put the plugs back in and stop worrying. It will be fine.
For the 4-stroke, I don’t believe there’s any need to winterize. I haven’t done anything with my 2010 Yamaha 50 since I bought it and it still fires up right away in the spring. That’s an EFI motor, maybe a carbed motor would be different.

Do what grouse suggested if you are that worried about fogging…or do what the other half does and don’t even worry about fogging at all. It’ll be fine.

I use to own a Pro 60 Yamaha 2 stroke and I fogged it with Seafoam Spray.
I felt that it started easier in the spring, vs. the Yamaha fogging oil.
As stated above I pulled the kill switch lanyard, removed the spark plugs, sprayed into each cylinder, then turned the engine over a few times.

Me personally have never fogged an engine in all my years, keep Seafoam in the tank and forget about it. Do not fog my chainsaw that can sit for months or mower or trimmer or tillers. With the newer 2 stroke oils I do not think there is any reason too.

Thanks for the tips guys.