Salt descaling

1marko

Active Member
What works best... in small outboards
9.9 if that makes a difference..
Some say deleted vinegar and
Starfritz has been mentioned.....
 
Salt away has been my go too for the last 6 years. But I have heard diluted vinegar works.

Salt away is pricey but concentrated and last me a season. Cost of doing business in my opinion
 
http://www.saltawayproducts.com/

I use this system at the end of the season on both motors. Not sure how well it works but it is cheap insurance given what motors cost to replace and repair.
I see they also suggest it for flushing and desalting trailer brakes and for vehicle road salt removal.
 
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I also understand Saltaway is tested to ensure it does not harm motor and cooling systems components and also acts to protect those components. Even if acids like diluted vinegar is proven to work, one wonders what the long term effect of using a corrosive on the motor components would be.
 
Should I be using salt away every time launch / pull my boat? I always flush the engines with fresh water after a day on the water but is salt away needed dat trips?
 
I use Saltaway on my outboards with great success so far as a form of preventive maintainence.I believe how it works is it leaves a protective layer throughout the internal water passages so that the salt crystals can't adhere to them.The last time I did an
impleller on my Evinrude,I was very impressed to see no salt buildup whatsoever.This is much different than the crusted up mess I've dealt with before using the stuff.You use 4 oz. per 30 second treatment which gives you 8 treatments per 32oz. bottle.Works out to about$3.00 a treatment which is cheap insurance for a few minutes of your time as far as I'm concerned.My 2 bits.
 
If I am launching and retrieving my boat I only flush the engine by running it in fresh tap water in half a 45gal barrel. If moored in salt water I use the flushing attachment and flush with fresh water for five mins and then use salt away for about a min. At one of the places I moor there are no standpipes on my dock, so i use a 5 gal bucket filled with tap water from the campsite and pump it through with a waterpuppy using salt away until the bucket is empty. About every 100hrs I will take the thermostat out, run the engine for five min, and flush with salt away for a few mins. and then reinstall the thermostat after soaking it in a solution of salt away. When I pulled the leg at the end of the season the enterior looked like new, with just a couple of very small salt deposits.
 
Unless you pull the heads off and inspect the blocks passageways clossst to the hottest part of the engine...you can’t tell how effective any rinsing methods are. The closest most people get is changing out a thermostat which is usually fairly close to the hottest part of the engine. If you take engines apart you will find the most salt build up is around the heads and passageways around the clyinders. (speciifically closest to the spark plugs where ignition takes place). I personally think pulling the head(s) every 5 years and manually removing any salt is the only way to be sure there is no salt build up and preventing hot spots wbere water flow is restricted.
 
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