Winterize 2 stroke Speedster help

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AnviL Man

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Hey everyone, I've got a pretty basic question here. What are the list of steps to winterize my boat, engine and body? This will be my first winter with a boat and I want to treat it correctly so it continues to treat me good :)

I have come across several posts about winterization but they are slightly differing from one another and some do not specify if the method is for 2 strokes which mine is a 2 stroke boat.

My boat is a 2003 Sea Doo Speedster Bombardier 240 EFI. It's a 2 stroke and right not has an almost full 2 stroke oil reservoir and a 3/4 full tank of gas. I'd love a step by step tutorial or if anyone can point me to a video to watch. Thank you in advance. The more detailed the better as I am still learning the boat.

The boat will likely be stored outside since it won't fit in my garage.
 
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You would follow the winterizing procedure for a mercury sportjet engine, completely different animal from these jet skis and more like an outboard engine.

There's an important distinction, I can understand why it's confusing! :)
 
Cover it with a good tarp. Tied down / to it, well. The sun and weather will do evil things to it.
 
The boat will likely be stored outside since it won't fit in my garage.
Last edited by AnviL Man; Yesterday at 09:58 PM.
 
I need to winterize the engine and whatever needs to be done on the body as well. It's a 2 stroke boat.
 
Am I correct this is the 240EFI Sportjet by Mercury engine? All of the cooling water will run out of the engine so there's no danger of freeze damage. But you should peridically and especially for winter, perform some preventive maintenance.

If I have time and materials it's best to wash and wax the entire hull, inside and out clean the vinyl seats with vinyl cleaner or mild soap and water, then spray and wipe with 303 vinyl conditioner.

As for the engine, I would remove the spark plugs and squite each cylinder with fogging oil or 2-stroke non-synthetic, a shot about the size of a quarter will do, maybe 1~2 seconds from an areosol fogging oil. Then before reinstalling the spark plugs turn the motor over by hand preferably, to distribute the fogging oil. Don't use too much, just enough to coat the cylinder walls with a mist.

Hopefully you already put fuel stabilizer in the fuel tank for last outing, to get the stabilizer circulated throughout the fuel system. If not then put the stabilizer in and fill the fuel tank. Filling tank helps to avoid condensation and water trapped in the bottom of tank What does that boat hold, about 20 gallons of fuel?

Replace the spin on fuel filter either now, or in the spring (I prefer AFTER spring startup, but in any event pouring the contents into a glass jar allows you to inspect for water that might have accumulated. Water in your fuel system will cause corrosion thus it's undesirable. Many times water enters through the fuel filler if the rubber gasket or o-ring is missing or damaged. Anyway, check the spin-on fuel filter for water before winter layup and then again in spring. Some 2-stroke oil as lubricant on the gasket of the filter helps getting it on and off.

Spray over the engine to make a light coating of fogging or preservative oil, this will help to reduce external corrosion due to moisture in the bilge.

You may remove the battery and take it indoors for maintenance charging if you have a good quality battery maintainer or leave it in boat if there's a built in battery maintainer. I have a 12v accessory socket installed directly connected to the battery in my boat for this purpose, I plug the maintainer into this socket. This allows me to once a month plug it into AC and observe if the battery has discharged. Usually if the battery is in good condition, the charge light flips to green quickly within a minute, if it takes an hour or more to turn green (float mode) this raises a red flag.

You should also change the jet pump stator oil in case it has gotten water in it, and the jet pump gearbox oil should be checked for signs of water or changed if that wasn't done recently.

After 1st startup in spring, you should replce the spark plugs with new ones. The reason to do this AFTER 1st startup is the plugs will be coated with fogging oil during startup and might foul, so preferably replace them with new AFTER 1st spring startup.

For further info, here's a link to a previous discussion for what needs to be done for the Mercury Sportjet EFI

http://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?55882-Winterize-and-De-Winterize-2004-Islandia
 
Am I correct this is the 240EFI Sportjet by Mercury engine? All of the cooling water will run out of the engine so there's no danger of freeze damage. But you should peridically and especially for winter, perform some preventive maintenance.

If I have time and materials it's best to wash and wax the entire hull, inside and out clean the vinyl seats with vinyl cleaner or mild soap and water, then spray and wipe with 303 vinyl conditioner.

As for the engine, I would remove the spark plugs and squite each cylinder with fogging oil or 2-stroke non-synthetic, a shot about the size of a quarter will do, maybe 1~2 seconds from an areosol fogging oil. Then before reinstalling the spark plugs turn the motor over by hand preferably, to distribute the fogging oil. Don't use too much, just enough to coat the cylinder walls with a mist.

Hopefully you already put fuel stabilizer in the fuel tank for last outing, to get the stabilizer circulated throughout the fuel system. If not then put the stabilizer in and fill the fuel tank. Filling tank helps to avoid condensation and water trapped in the bottom of tank What does that boat hold, about 20 gallons of fuel?

Replace the spin on fuel filter either now, or in the spring (I prefer AFTER spring startup, but in any event pouring the contents into a glass jar allows you to inspect for water that might have accumulated. Water in your fuel system will cause corrosion thus it's undesirable. Many times water enters through the fuel filler if the rubber gasket or o-ring is missing or damaged. Anyway, check the spin-on fuel filter for water before winter layup and then again in spring. Some 2-stroke oil as lubricant on the gasket of the filter helps getting it on and off.

Spray over the engine to make a light coating of fogging or preservative oil, this will help to reduce external corrosion due to moisture in the bilge.

You may remove the battery and take it indoors for maintenance charging if you have a good quality battery maintainer or leave it in boat if there's a built in battery maintainer. I have a 12v accessory socket installed directly connected to the battery in my boat for this purpose, I plug the maintainer into this socket. This allows me to once a month plug it into AC and observe if the battery has discharged. Usually if the battery is in good condition, the charge light flips to green quickly within a minute, if it takes an hour or more to turn green (float mode) this raises a red flag.

You should also change the jet pump stator oil in case it has gotten water in it, and the jet pump gearbox oil should be checked for signs of water or changed if that wasn't done recently.

After 1st startup in spring, you should replce the spark plugs with new ones. The reason to do this AFTER 1st startup is the plugs will be coated with fogging oil during startup and might foul, so preferably replace them with new AFTER 1st spring startup.

For further info, here's a link to a previous discussion for what needs to be done for the Mercury Sportjet EFI

http://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?55882-Winterize-and-De-Winterize-2004-Islandia

This is awesome, than you man! Sorry took so long to respond back. Yes it is the 240 EFI engine. I plan on winterizing it one of these weekends coming up. I have a couple of questions.

After cleaning the entire boat inside and out with a cleaner, do you wax the inside of the boat like the floor or just the outside only?

I think it's a 30 gallon tank and I did not put stabilizer in the last outing. Should I add stabilizer now and run the engine on the garden hose to circulate it through the system? Should I drain some of the fuel before adding the stabilizer?

You mention to change the jet pump stator oil and the jet pump gearbox oil, are you aware of any tutorials on those procedures? I was considering changing the impeller and wear ring since both are a little worn, the impeller is worse as it has some chunks missing. Would changing the wear ring and impeller also involve replacing the jet pump gearbox oil and jet pump stator oil? If so I can take care of all that at once.

Everything else you mention I think I can follow, thank you again man I really appreciate it.
 
I would wax inside and out, the wax helps protect the gel-coat from atmospheric oxidation and will help keep it clean. Especially the outside below the waterline should be waxed to keep water and stains from absorbing into the gel-coat, this makes it easier to keep clean and stain free.

I think if you aren't going to run the engine again this year that's fine, leave as is. Hopefully the storage period won't be terribly long. To preserve the fuel in the tank, mix some stabilizer to treat 30 gallons with gasoline in a 1 gallon can and pour that into the fuel tank to keep the fuel tank contents from going stale. Hopefully the fuel tank is near full, to help keep condensation from forming in the top of tank and then dripping onto the fuel and trapped on the bottom of tank.

Remove the spin on fuel filter and pour contents into a glass or clear bottle to check contents for water. Hopefully there's not an appreciable amount.

If you will remove the spark plugs and fog the cylinders, this is all you need to do to the engine, I wouldn't start and run it just for the purpose of pumping the stabilizer through but you certainly can. Normally we will do that but our customers are paying us and we give them what they pay for. Preferable way to stabilize is during last run of the year.

In the case of 4-stroke boats we have to run the engine to warm the engine oil before changing it.

Under your boat is the sportjet M2 gear case of the jet pump, there are two plugs for draining and filling the gear oil there. I've forgotten which one but one is for draining and filling the gear oil, the other has a tube that runs up to the top of the gear case and is the vent while filling. Gear oil is pumped into the hole that has no tube until the oil begins flowing out of the hole that has the tube. This ensures the box is filled and limits the quantity to the proper level.

Use Mercury High Performance Gear Oil for stern drives.

I've forgotten exactly how the impeller stator oil is replaced, perhaps someone can fill in the blank.

The reason you want to change the oil are maybe it's never been done and the oil may have some amount of water contamination in it. Also, changing oil is a good way of learning the condition of the driveline, sometimes you can catch problems early on by examining the oil.

Certainly when you replace the impeller and wear ring, it will be necessary and convenient to replace the oil.

I believe this link will be the M2 Jet Pump Service manual in PDF format, if not let me know.

http://download.brunswick-marine.com/filereader/file/pdf/4/enen/outboard/2010/jet/10271090.pdf
 
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