'04 Opti Winter prep

[chuckybaby]

Hi, first year putting an Opti to bed for the winter. I will change the LU lube, stabilize the gas etc. How do I prep the power head for the winter ? Is there anything else I should know or do to keep baby happy 'till the spring ? It will be in a non-heated garage.

[Euroski]

drain the fuel tank on the engine and add some fogging spray through the sparkplug holes.

[AwesomeBullet]

Do not use fogging oil on an Optimax! It will mess up the air injectors.

After you stabalize the fuel, change the lower unit oil, and grease all the grease points, remove the plugs and put 1-2oz of either Merc Premium Plus or Merc Opti/DFI oil through the spark plug holes. Turn the motor over by hand a few times to distribute the oil over the cylinder walls, then put th plugs back in. Store her vertical through the winter, then when you go to wake her up next spring, remove the plugs again, turn it over by hand to make sure she is not hydro locked from the oil in the cylinders, reinstall the plugs, and fire her up. It will smoke a bit the first start....

[Euroski]

Thanks for the advice not to use fogging stuff. That's what I will be doing tomorrow.

[AwesomeBullet]

On the Carbed and EFI models the fogging oil is still ok to use. But on the Optis, as it sits all winter, it gels in the nozzles on the air injectors and can lead to a partially restricted air injector and a consequent misfire....

I am glad we don't have to worry about that chit down here! I'd go crazy if I couldn't get out at least once a week and burn some of that liquid gold!:eek:

[chuckybaby]

So, now that I have fogging oil in all the cyls, I guess I'll have to fire it up to clean it out before I put it away ? I can use the practice R&R'ing the plugs and my hands are used to the cold from walleye fishing.

Do the Opti plugs have to be indexed ?

Euroski, care to come up to Canada and go for a ride when I burn this stuff out of my motor ?

[sosmerc]

IMHO....Optimax engines benefit from having a good fuel conditioner such as STARTRON, or 2+4, in the gas at ALL times. For longer periods of storage I run a 50:1 mix through the engine for about 15 minutes to get it well into the engine to leave an extra coating of oil on all parts. I also reset the BREAK-IN mode so that the engine will add extra oil under load for the first 120 minutes next season. I have been using this procedure on all my Optimax customers for several years now and have had no problems with fouled plugs or injectors. I do run the engines on my dyno to clear out the double mix prior to sending the boat out for service in the Spring.

[hsbob]

use oil not fog in each cylinder. be sure to buy a 2'length of of 6/16 gas hose. use it to unscrew the plug as well as starting the plugs. heat it up and straighten it up for improved usage. i use a use a 3/8 drive plug socket converted to 1/4 as quick as possible.

[chuckybaby]

I have already fogged all cyls. Can I pull the plugs and give each cyl a shot of opti oil, turn it over by hand a few times and put it to bed or do I need to run it to burn the fogging oil out and then prep it ?

Do the plugs need to be indexed ? Can I reset the break in mode ?
New to the Opti. Used to run a carb'd Johnnson 200. Different animal altogether.

Appreciate the advice.

[sosmerc]

You need the DDT diagnostic tool to reset the break-in. FYI, CDI/Rapair Inc. has just come out with a software/harness package that will allow you to access your 555 processor so that you can perform all the same functions as the DDT. You will need a laptop with Windows. They call their system MEDS.
Check out their website for more info. cdielectronics.com

[Faster than ever]

Hi SOSMERC,
Where can we find the MEDS ?
I'm from Belgium ... not a lots of dealers or shops ...

[sosmerc]

You can purchase thru cdielectronics.com