Re: why oh why....... what do i do?
his motors are all OB's, this was what I wrote him for a reply. There's something in there about inflatables because he also has a RIB that he claims has lost pressure(duh... it's 10 degrees outside, of course it's going to look flat)
Hi Josh,
Just recieved your email, I don't check mine everyday this time of the year. I'm up at loon skiing for the weekend and won't be back in until Monday, and I will give you a ring when I get back in.
Honestly your a little late for winterizing. Here's some food for thought.
1. After 30 days (roughly depending on temp and humitity) untreated cylinder walls will start to rust. If the rust is light the motor will usually still start, but the compression rings are going to scrape the walls clean and ultimately the compression is going to go down. If it goes down to far the motor becomes unusable.
If the rust is medium and uneven, the motor will still start and blow the rust out as mentioned before. But the cylinder is going to wear itself "out of round". You will have serious compression problems, and if the motor runs at all they usually develop hot spots, detonate, and lock up in short order.
If the rust is to heavy, the motor will be locked solid and unusable.
2. Untreated ethanol fuel starts to spoil after 90 days, and is typically unusable after 180 days. Your milage may vary on this one as engines will still start and run come spring time, however old, untreated gasoline loses its octane rateing over time. Effectively the 87ron you pumped in in October becomes 70ron come springtime. You can have detonation problems with old untreated gasoline.
3. Inflatables naturally inflate and deflate with temperature (just like tire pressure). You need to set the pressure in the spring/summer when you plan on using it. And adjust it accordingly with temperature. In short, don't worry about it until spring.
4. If you have any water present inside of the lower units(drive units) the bearings and gears have already started to rust. The best you can do at this point is to repair any leaks, fill them with oil, and hope they last. Gears are usually a little tolerant to some light rust, but bearings will blow themselves apart at high speed even if they only have had a bit of surface rust.
I would need a list of all of the motors you have and what exactly you need done. My parts supplier is closed for the season and I would have to source what I don't have in stock non-locally. (which isn't much, because of the economy I didn't want to be sitting on a thousand bucks of all the sprays, oils, greases, filters, gaskets.. etc for the winter, I pretty much got what I needed along the way this past season.)
Best,
I sorta lied about being away skiing
I wanted to get all of your opinions first before I wrote a real reply. Thanks for them all, and keep them coming. At this point i'm probably the most inclined to stick with Bondo's advice and call it a salvage operation.
This business has been hit and miss.
The original owner was fine and always paid COD. He sold and the new owner asked me if I could bill him and his office would cut me a check in 30 days. I agree'd to bill for the labor but any parts cost would have to be COD, cash or check, upon completion of work. He balked at first, and I told him quite frankly that's not how this business is done. When you bring your car to the mechanic you don't get the car back until everything is paid for, and it's no different with boats. Since the boat stays with you on the lake I am doing to a professional courtesy to let you bill me for any of it let alone parts and labor.
Either way, he's not one of my better customers. In the dozen times i've done work for this guy he had the cash/check for parts like half the time, and he is more like 6 weeks in getting me the labor check. Once he was late mailing me a check, and when I got it, it wasn't signed. I had to mail it back to him to get it signed then re-mailed to me. 2 more weeks on that deal.
At this point it's a punt or a COD only salvage operation at freeze my dupa off rates.
Thanks guys!!
JJ
