Oil change on the water

[drsm]

Anyone have a great technique for changing oil while on the water? Since I'm on a mooring, I'm looking for suggestions. I thought of placing a plastic garbage bag under the motor, then lowering it, so the motor is essentially contained in the bag. That should catch any spills, then drain the oil into a small bucket held within the bag.

Any thoughts?

Steve

[Ron]

Steve -

Several companies make a vacuum based oil extractor where you can stick a skinny tube down either the oil fill or dip-stick hole, then suck the warm oil out by either electric motor or a bicycle type of air pump (to create a vacuum in the device). I've been doing this for many years, but have not tried it out on a Honda outboard yet. It should work - especially thru the dip-stick hole. It's the only way to get the oil out of an inboard boat motor which is installed near the bottom of the hull - although many of them have a rubber tube installed at the oil drain, so you just attach the vacuum can to that tube.

If you pass by a Honda Marine dealer, you may want to pick up a few O-rings and a spare metric drain / fill bolt. The boat has 3 of them - one for the engine oil drain, and two for the lower unit fill and drain. These small bolts have to be torqued fairly high for a screw driver and it is very easy to destroy the head of the screw. You'll need a big screwdriver as well, with a lot of vertical pressure on the slot to keep the driver from jumping out and damaging the screw head. The idiots should have used a 5 point torx type of screw for this. Use a new O-ring when you replace the screw. You won't have to do this if you suck the engine oil out, but that still leaves the lower unit. I think I have 3 or 4 spare drain screws and a dozen O-rings on board - just in case.

Pick up a few spare oil filters as well - they are hard to find.

[Pat Ross]

Anyone have a great technique for changing oil while on the water? Since I'm on a mooring, I'm looking for suggestions. I thought of placing a plastic garbage bag under the motor, then lowering it, so the motor is essentially contained in the bag. That should catch any spills, then drain the oil into a small bucket held within the bag.

Any thoughts?

Steve

I have heard of others, Gemini Cats, doing what you described, certainly a low tech approach.

Pat

[drsm]

Thanks for the tip on the plugs and O-rings. I wasn't aware of that issue. Didn't know the filters were hard to find either--guess I'm about to find out.

Do you find those vacuum units at an auto parts shop?

Steve

[Ron]

Steve -

You can probably buy the oil extractors at marine stores, some auto supply stores, maybe even Harbor Freight tools. There's got to be about a hundred of them on the market - all sizes, shapes and methods (manual pump, electric pump, etc.). There's no need to go crazy and spend that much on an electric one. The bicycle pump and similar versions work just fine.

There's a bunch of them at this website - http://www.iboats.com/Oil_Extraction_Pu ... _id.246638

Most marine stores don't stock the Honda oil plugs, O-rings and filters, so pick some up if you're driving past a Honda dealer.