Lost my 15hp 2 stroke Yamaha to Davy Jones today

[Marcb]

Question, lost my Yamaha engine today.,. In 45 feet freezing Halifax salted water, marked the position I was, rowed back to my sailboat, rowing a inflatable is not that fun I learned today, hired a diver, found the engine got it back up. It spended 3 hours in water, I then removed all the sand, flushed it with fresh water, removed spark plugs, emptied the salted water by cranking and then filled it with fresh water 3 times I repeated the process, didn’t do nothing to the feet, put the spark plugs back and it started the first pull of crank running a bit ruff but not that bad, left it running 15 min giving a bit of gaz, then used it to go back to sailboat, it’s was working great All the way to the boat even planning speed, what should I do next? Should I inject a bit of oil inside the cylinders? Should I now empty the feet of oil?

[44'cruisingcat]

The gearcase isn't vented and spends it's working life in the water, so should be fine. That said, it can never hurt to change the gear oil.

I'd mostly worry about the ignition system. Especially the magneto, since the magnets could rust and wreck the stator. Be sure to wash out with lots of fresh water. Might be worth pulling the rotor off to give it a good rinse. I'd also seperate and rinse out all the electrical connections, plug leads etc, then spray with WD before reconnecting.

[belizesailor]

The foot (lower unit) is likely fine as it is sealed, though an oil change cant hurt.

However, I would remove the flywheel, rinse underneath it and the components it covers, dry, spray corrossion inhibitor on all this, then reassemble. Many dont do this and have trouble later.

Also fit a saftey lanyard to avoid this again. Mine is a stainless cable with an eye on one end and a carabinner on the other. Eye end is hitched to padeye on dink, carabinner clipped to eye on engine. Make it long enough so it does not interfer with engine rotating.

[Marcb]

Ok, I will do this, shoot wd 40 in the connections and etc, will check online the Yamaha service book on how to remove different components and shoot more fresh water there, is it bad if I leave it for in a few days? Thanks a lot for the advice :-)

[Marcb]

learned a big lesson today, I will put a safety line in between the 2 holder and attach it to the transom

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Marcb

Ok, I will do this, shoot wd 40 in the connections and etc, will check online the Yamaha service book on how to remove different components and shoot more fresh water there, is it bad if I leave it for in a few days? Thanks a lot for the advice :-)

Sooner is better, but I dont think a few days will matter. As 44 points out above, if allowed to rust the magnets and brackets that hold them can cause problems.

[geoleo]

Originally Posted by Marcb

Question, lost my Yamaha engine today.,. In 45 feet freezing Halifax salted water, marked the position I was, rowed back to my sailboat, rowing a inflatable is not that fun I learned today, hired a diver, found the engine got it back up. It spended 3 hours in water, I then removed all the sand, flushed it with fresh water, removed spark plugs, emptied the salted water by cranking and then filled it with fresh water 3 times I repeated the process, didn’t do nothing to the feet, put the spark plugs back and it started the first pull of crank running a bit ruff but not that bad, left it running 15 min giving a bit of gaz, then used it to go back to sailboat, it’s was working great All the way to the boat even planning speed, what should I do next? Should I inject a bit of oil inside the cylinders? Should I now empty the feet of oil?

Get a new carb

[JPA Cate]

Man, if you had to be unlucky and drop it, you sure recovered well! We submerged our Yamaha once, but were able to strip it down right away. We're still using it, 6 or 7 years later.

Good on you for getting it back and running.

Ann

[LakeSuperior]

Make sure you get some oil in the main bearings at the bottom of the crankshaft. This is where my 3 hp Yamaha two stroke rusted out after marinating in seawater for 20 minutes. Since the two cycles are running on 100 to 1 or 50 to 1 they seem to need a heavy application of oil after a saltwater rinse.

[Compass790]

Surf lifesavers drown their outboards often. They pull the plug & submerge them upside down in a barrel of fresh water & then haul out & turn them over a few times & spray WD40. Rinse & repeat, some leave them in the barrel of water overnite.
I'm with the pull the flywheel crowd & saturate with CRC5-56 or WD-40 as well tho as that worked well for us.. 5 years & counting after outboard had a swim.
Good that you recovered it.

[a64pilot]

I sunk my electronically fuel injected four stroke Suzuki a few years back, flushed everything and it’s been fine since.
I have seen Scuba scooters that were flooded that later the wiring suffered because some salt water had gotten in the end of a wire and over time rotted the wire out.
That concerned me as this motor is full of electronics. But so far so good.

[Dave852]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I sunk my electronically fuel injected four stroke Suzuki a few years back, flushed everything and it’s been fine since.
I have seen Scuba scooters that were flooded that later the wiring suffered because some salt water had gotten in the end of a wire and over time rotted the wire out.
That concerned me as this motor is full of electronics. But so far so good.

I sunk my 20hp Suzuki 4 stroke as well. No problem after lots of rinse and WD40. I was very impressed with all the electrical connectors, took everyone apart and sprayed with WD but they were all dry.

[CassidyNZ]

Had a crew member accidentally flip our dink with a 15hp Mercury, spent about 10 minutes submerged and was running when it went under. Got it on board, spark plugs out, turned it over a few times and sprayed copious amounts of Corrosion X wherever I could get it to go in.

This was in 2007!! It is still running with the same spark plugs but a couple of years ago the ignition spark generator (sorry, don’t know the proper name) failed. Since that was replaced, the motor still runs flawlessly.

To the OP, you’re very lucky, I’ve never heard of Davy Jones ever returning anything.

[evm1024]

Sounds like you did everything right. The fresh water flush and not letting anything dry out and rust was your best choice. Then running it was a close second. Run it hard and let it fully dry out...

I tend to use Boeshield T9 rather than WD-40 for things like this.

Being cold water was a help too.

As I recall back in the day of mechanical film cameras the suggestion of what to do with your expensive Nikon or Canon camera immersed in salt water was to put it in a bucket of fresh water and take it to a camera repair man in the bucket.

Should be good to go.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by geoleo

Get a new carb

Carbs are mostly non-corrossive materials so it should be fine with a good flush and clean. Ive never replaced one on a drowned outboard and they have run fine for years.