Fogging engine out of water

[enufsed]

My marina wants me to get the boat out of the water within the next week. When the boat was in a different location I used to call a guy a knew to come fog the engine for the winter as a dock service call. I may not find someone this time before I take the boat out of the water.

Is fogging the engine something that can be done easily with the boat on its trailer? Or is it better to have it in the water?

[Catigale]

It can be done out of the water with a garden hose or " ear muffs" which provide cooling water to the engine while it runs on Dryland.

[K9Kampers]

Yes, running the OB on a garden hose with 'earmuff' flush attachment is easy and commonplace. Consult your owners manual for the manufacturers recommended fogging procedure.

[seahouse]

The e-tecs and rotax engines have a fitting that's threaded to directly accept a garden hose for this purpose, so "ear muffs" are not needed. I'm not familiar with your particular engine, but you might want to check around the exterior of your engine to see if it has one of these.

Environmentaly speaking, it's better to fog your engine away from the waterbody, (but keep away from the prop).

[Russ]

The e-tecs and rotax engines have a fitting that's threaded to directly accept a garden hose for this purpose, so "ear muffs" are not needed.

Suzuki has this also. It's SO much easier than using those earmuffs. I never could get them on securely on my I/O.

[seahouse]

Fogged my engine today. Or, to be more correct I should say, I told the engine to fog itself, which it did. Fogged in less than 3 minutes, counting the hose hook-up. No excess smoke, no excess oil. Done. (Better than I could do, I expect).

I would expect that new models from all the manufacturers will soon have the garden hose fitting built in, if they don't already. Certain characteristics of the E-tecs placed them head-and-shoulders above the competition in the areas of importance to me. I considered the other benefits just icing on the cake*, but I did not cross-shop the other brands for the self-fogging feature.

My question is, how many of the other manufacturers also have products that fog themselves? This can't be unique to Evinrude/BRP?

-Brian.

*Not to leave out that the engine is made in USA by a Canadian company.

[Phil M]

Fogged my engine today. Or, to be more correct I should say, I told the engine to fog itself, which it did. Fogged in less than 3 minutes, counting the hose hook-up. No excess smoke, no excess oil. Done. (Better than I could do, I expect).

In three minutes? What do you consider is the procedure in fogging the engine?

Phil M

[seahouse]

Less than! I was being conservative.

Procedure as follows...

-connect garden hose to engine and turn on (this takes the longest of anything)
-open fuel tank vent (added Sta-bil weeks ago)
-move throttle on fast idle to half-throttle position, insert key, start engine, run 15 secs (fuel line was already primed, it had been running days before)
-move throttle to neutral position, wait 15 secs (this throttle sequence, with the 15 sec pauses is what tells the engine management computer you want it to fog)
-engage forward gear to half throttle (the gauge lights flash in unison, and the tach stays at 0, which confirms "fog mode")
-the engine will run at a fast idle, fog itself, and then shut down in less than 1 minute
-turn off key, turn off and remove hose
-yer done! All internals (both sides of pistons) fogged for storage.
- if you have pets (or young kids who don't listen), or you are accident-prone, you might want to remove the prop for safety reasons, so this might add some time, unless you fog while still in the water. But the garden hose naturally hangs well away from the prop.

The whole thing is convenient because if we get some more warm weather in the fall I can still go out if I want, and just fog it again when I get back in.

-Brian.

[Phil M]

Fog mode?

So you do not have to remove any spark plugs to fog the engine! Hmmm. Never heard of that before.

Phil M

[Catigale]

Clever engineering. No doubt the ECU is simply overloading the fuel mix with oil to fog it.

Incidentally, I don't fog my engine at all. Last trip in November, I run engine in late January /earlyfFeb, back in water in April.

[raycarlson]

i agree, fogging is for long term storage(multiple years) 4-5 months does"t warrant a fogging, and if your engine is running a combustion event your getting a substandard fog regardless of the propaganda BRP is trying to sell you.

[seahouse]

if your engine is running a combustion event your getting a substandard fog regardless of the propaganda BRP is trying to sell you.

Huh?

How can it be anything less than a manual fogging? In fact, it has to be better because the computer and EFI can measure the oil better than a human can. Maybe you won't mind explaining that to us.

-Brian.

[Catigale]

I think rays point is the usual method requires adding a relatively large amount of engine oil to the cylinder... More than the ECU could ever deliver...ergo the auto method cannot compare to the manual method in amount of oil delivered.

[seahouse]

Any amount of oil in excess of that required to film coat the interior surfaces of the engine will run down an pool in the lower areas of the engine. That is, be wasted. Hence my comment that the computer can more accurately meter the correct amount than a human can. And hence the term "fog"! The oil naturally condenses out onto the cooler surfaces of the engine.

You're kidding about it not being able to deliver the amount of oil required, right? One of the cleanest-running engines on the market, a feat which requires extremely precise, previously unheard-of control over oil injection, (not to mention fuel injection) and they weren't able to make an oil pump that delivers enough oil to properly fog it? I don't think that could be. No engine is limited by the amount of fuel that the injectors can deliver. Internal combustion engines are limited by the amount of air that can be taken in and mixed with that fuel. Turbo, and super chargers help overcome this, but fuel (and by extension, oil) is never the limiting factor.

BTW - you can tell if you used excess oil when you fogged by the length of time the engine runs on startup before it stops smoking. Any more than a minute or two and it's just burning off the pooled oil that's remaining. The more oil you added, the longer it will smoke (= you overdid it).

I fog everything seasonally- weedeaters, leafblowers, snowblowers, lawnmowers, generators, rototillers, motorcycles, seadoos, skidoos, inboards, outboards, so I have fine-tuned the process over a considerable number of years. But I don't believe I will ever be able to match the e-tec's engine management computer.

-Brian.

[Highlander]

Some of the newer 4 strokes tell u not to fog the eng. as it fouls the sensors in the intake system, remove the spark plugs & oil the cylinders from their then turn the eng over a few times then re install the s/plugs , this is not a big feat ! 9yr olds do it to their dirt bikes !!

j