Engine Flush after Salt Water use

Sea No Evil

New Member
May 24, 2008
41
Flagler Beach, FL
Boat Info
280 Sundancer 2002, "Beach Runner"
Engines
Twin 4.3's
Hi, I am new to the forums and this is my first post. I purchased a 2002 280DA in July. I live on the Intracoastal so all of my use is in salt water. I keep the boat in a boat house on a lift. I am concerned that I do not have a way to flush the engines after using the boat. I can not reach the outdrives to use mufflers. My question is about installing a fresh water flush on the manifolds. Is this practical and will I get much benefit from using this method. Any suggestions on how best to maintain and protect the engines would be greatly appreciated. I have twin 4.3's on Alpha drives.

Thanks,

Sea No Evil
 
Do alpha drives still have the raw water impeller in the drive? If YES, I dont think there's an alternative to flushing with muffs. You cannot run that impeller dry. I know that Bravos have an engine-mounted raw water pickup so you can tap into the hose coming from the drive with a inline seacock, then a T with a valve on top.
 
I'm pretty sure Alpha's have the impeller in the drive unit so muff's are the only option.

You'll need a raft or ladder or something you can put in the water to get the muff's on
 
See no Evil;

you will need to use One of my tricks to flush you engines. Just for info. I'm on a salt/Brackish water canal in tampa bay up on a lift with tidal flow water under my lift that can be anyware from 3' to 6'.

trick 1.

get a ladder. cut float nodel in half with a razor and duck stape to one end of the ladder. this is the bumper that will keep you from damaging your gel coat. bring the boat up out of the water just far enough to get the drive out in the down position. raise the drive into the trailer position and put the ladder behind it, then climb down and install the muffs. climb back up, move the ladder out of the way and dro the drive all the way down. turn on the water and run that drive for 10 minutes. repeat the process on the second drive. this process is long and requires climbing up and down the ladder a bunch of times. i used to use this with an aluminum ladder.

trick 2
(Much Easier). get your self one of these
flush%20muffs.jpg


it's called a "Large Flush Muff". bring the drive up into the trailer position. with the drive up you should be able to lie down on the swim platform and place this over the intake holes in the outdrive. lower the drive, turn on the water and flush for 10 minutes. then repeat on the other side.

I do this with my 240DA and it has a center mounted Bravo III. My neighbor has a 32 crownline with twin Bravo III's and uses the same procedure to flush his.

this should work for you.
 
I installed a fresh water flush kit that doesn't require the operation of the motor. It takes about 10-15 to flush and you're done. It costs about $750 for a single engine. I had the hose bib installed in the locker and then attached a quick connect hose. I pull it through the locker line hole and flush away.
 
From what I've found you can buy all those parts at your local hardware store and for a little cheaper also you don't have to pay shipping.
 
Probably true and looking at the website gives someone that doesn't know a pretty good idea where to install in the system.
 
the problem with all these flush kits is they don't flush all the salt out of the Drive. just lie down and put on the muffs. the large muffs are like $20 and you flush the hole system.

Also Fishnut;

I'm not sure who told you; you could flush the system without starting the Motor; but to my knowledge thats impossible....
 
Last edited:
See no Evil;

you will need to use One of my tricks to flush you engines. Just for info. I'm on a salt/Brackish water canal in tampa bay up on a lift with tidal flow water under my lift that can be anyware from 3' to 6'.

trick 1.

get a ladder. cut float nodel in half with a razor and duck stape to one end of the ladder. this is the bumper that will keep you from damaging your gel coat. bring the boat up out of the water just far enough to get the drive out in the down position. raise the drive into the trailer position and put the ladder behind it, then climb down and install the muffs. climb back up, move the ladder out of the way and dro the drive all the way down. turn on the water and run that drive for 10 minutes. repeat the process on the second drive. this process is long and requires climbing up and down the ladder a bunch of times. i used to use this with an aluminum ladder.

trick 2
(Much Easier). get your self one of these
flush%20muffs.jpg


it's called a "Large Flush Muff". bring the drive up into the trailer position. with the drive up you should be able to lie down on the swim platform and place this over the intake holes in the outdrive. lower the drive, turn on the water and flush for 10 minutes. then repeat on the other side.

I do this with my 240DA and it has a center mounted Bravo III. My neighbor has a 32 crownline with twin Bravo III's and uses the same procedure to flush his.

this should work for you.

I installed a fresh water flush kit that doesn't require the operation of the motor. It takes about 10-15 to flush and you're done. It costs about $750 for a single engine. I had the hose bib installed in the locker and then attached a quick connect hose. I pull it through the locker line hole and flush away.


Fish, are you using the Perko Flush PRO?
Fig%200456%20Flush%20Pro.jpg
 
Last edited:
I don't think so. I looked through my boat binder and didn't see any paper on it. I am going to the boat tomorrow and I will check it out.
 
Here it is, check this out. But just know that apparently MM was installing these and Mercury got wind of it and wasn't happy. MM has now switch to the Mercury flush. I just found this out this morning! :smt021

I have no idea what that means for the warranty and neither does anyone else. :smt100

In order to keep the lawyers at bay and the administrator happy I will not comment further.

http://www.superflushsales.com/index.html
 
What I don't get is everyone post these flush kits and only that brass one that you can build yourself actually will flush the outdrive all the others only flush the engine, is no one concerned about salt in their outdrive?
 
The flush kits are designed to be used on slipped boats with strendirves or inboards with RAW water cooling. Some protection/prevention is better then none at all. anyone who trailers or hauls out is going to put on the muffs and flush out since they are out of the water (or at least thats the idea). If done right it should take about 10 minutes per engine. get the boat up to operating temp, if it has cooled down and then let it run for 10 minutes.

I have neighbors who can't understand why their boat never wants to run when they want to go out (they haven't flushed in the 4 years they've had it) and have spent nearly 6K repairing it constantly.
 
Thanks for all of the information. I installed two of the Perko Flush Pro's with connections in the rear locker. This will be okay for the times when I am using the boat a lot but for longer periods of storage I am going to use Tom's advice and try the muffs from the swim platform. The flush from the Perko does a nice job but I think you need to run the engines to get a good flush.

I love the response from the forum. I hope that I can repay the favors to all of you in the future. Thanks for taking the time to give this advice.


Jerry
 

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