03-04-2010, 10:17 PM
You should be fine. Just change the oil at the end of the summer from now on. Our boats in AK always looked about like that when we changed the oil. Of course we ran the motor for 90+ days in a 4 month period. (We also changed the lower unit oil every 150 hours of running which worked out to be about every 6 weeks depending on areas we were targeting.)
What bear lake fisher said is true though, the water in there can freeze and cause problems, that is why we changed the oil out at the end of the summer, regardless of if it had only been in there 2 weeks or 2 months.
If all of your oil turned milky then you would need to get your seals replaced. Keep in mind the leakage may have come from a screw that had worked loose, or that was put in at an angle. There are many points at which water can enter your lower unit, the screws, the exhaust vent has a minor seal that can bust, or the entire lower units seals can go bad. If you ran the motor the whole season, and that is all the discoloring you got, I would say that one of the more minor points of entry, the screws or vent, is where your seepage came in.
PM me if you have any other questions, I am no mechanic but I ran a lot of boats over a 5 year period in AK.
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What bear lake fisher said is true though, the water in there can freeze and cause problems, that is why we changed the oil out at the end of the summer, regardless of if it had only been in there 2 weeks or 2 months.
If all of your oil turned milky then you would need to get your seals replaced. Keep in mind the leakage may have come from a screw that had worked loose, or that was put in at an angle. There are many points at which water can enter your lower unit, the screws, the exhaust vent has a minor seal that can bust, or the entire lower units seals can go bad. If you ran the motor the whole season, and that is all the discoloring you got, I would say that one of the more minor points of entry, the screws or vent, is where your seepage came in.
PM me if you have any other questions, I am no mechanic but I ran a lot of boats over a 5 year period in AK.
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