Forgot to drain my Outboard.....

[Swangin]

Last fall I forgot to put my motor down and drain my outboard. I realized it after the 1st round of 30 below. I lowered the motor, tarped it in, put a space heater on it and ran the Herman Nelson in the storage tent for about 3 days.

I'm pretty new at boats and motors, what are the odds I screwed my leg? It's a Johnson 100

[harrydude]

Did u get any water to come out of it after u heated it up?

U need to look at the motor and leg for cracks. Ice is very powerful and will crack the case when it expands

[Chief16]

My uncle had this happen to him last winter but on an inboard. The stress plugs (I'm drawing a blank on the real name for the right now for some reason) popped on his and luckily no motor damage

[coors04]

As long as the leg wasn't full of water you should be fine. I'm new to boats also but as I understand it your leg can slowly fill up with water ( where there should only be oil ) over the summer and if it does and if its not drained before winter it could freeze and crack or split the leg. If its not full of water and just has the leg oil in it there won't be any problems. Hope this helps

[Kim473]

I have seen freezing water split a 2" pc of mild steel (44W) Very powerfull. Your probably ok if the motor was sitting a while before winter came. Good luck tho.

[cube]

You should be fine.

[Tannerdog]

As long as there was no water in the leg oil, you should be fine. The only water sitting in there would be in the low spot created by having the motor tilted. If it was damaged you would see cracks in the leg housing. Should be OK.

[Dirt2oil]

Water once frozen expands 7.5 times equally in all directions! Brutal on legs, I always run r v antifreeze through mine no hassles. Might be ok

[RavYak]

Water once frozen expands 7.5 times equally in all directions! Brutal on legs, I always run r v antifreeze through mine no hassles. Might be ok

No it doesn't... Water expands roughly 10% when freezing... Imagine what your ice cube tray would look like if water expanded 7.5 times when freezing...

OP I take it you just took the boat home after a day on the lake and parked it for the winter??? You should always change leg oil(in case water got into leg) before storing for winter and to do so you would have had to have the leg vertical which is a good way to know you also have drained it.

As others have mentioned you should be able to visibly tell if there was damage done. I would think you should be fine unless there was water in your leg oil.

[Pudelpointer]

Water once frozen expands 7.5 times equally in all directions! Brutal on legs, I always run r v antifreeze through mine no hassles. Might be ok

So, 1.0 litre of water becomes 7.5 litres of ice....? Hmmmm.

[Puma]

My uncle had this happen to him last winter but on an inboard. The stress plugs (I'm drawing a blank on the real name for the right now for some reason) popped on his and luckily no motor damage

Frost Plugs :)

[Dirt2oil]

So, 1.0 litre of water becomes 7.5 litres of ice....? Hmmmm.

Never said 1 liter becomes 7.5 liters it EXPANDS trapping air in the molecules making it less dense which is why Ice floats. Basic science and every Pipefitter in alberta will agree its what is taught in school.

[cpppark]

When I went to school it was ten percent expansion. I guess things have changed since then...new math maybe.

[Dirt2oil]

When I went to school it was ten percent expansion. I guess things have changed since then...new math maybe.

Actually my original post was wrong it was 7.5% not 7.5 times. But it's weird because same with water expansion when it changes to steam it was expands 1700 times once it changes state then it changed to 1500 times

[Ebrand]

Change the leg oil in the spring.

Put in it the water ( or put water ears on ) and check to see that water is coming out of the places water normally comes out when it is running. It that all looks good. Run the boat for a short time and check leg oil. Murky and pasty you have a problem. Not murky and pasty top it up and run it.

Dump leg oil in fall. Do this every fall without fail. Keep leg erect to drain all water from the exhaust. Plug exhaust outlets and cover prop to keep snow or rain out of exhaust before storage if leg is not stored erect.

I suspect you are ok.
I hope you are ok.

[Swangin]

Thank you all for the help :)

[overparr]

Change the leg oil in the spring.

Put in it the water ( or put water ears on ) and check to see that water is coming out of the places water normally comes out when it is running. It that all looks good. Run the boat for a short time and check leg oil. Murky and pasty you have a problem. Not murky and pasty top it up and run it.

Dump leg oil in fall. Do this every fall without fail. Keep leg erect to drain all water from the exhaust. Plug exhaust outlets and cover prop to keep snow or rain out of exhaust before storage if leg is not stored erect.

I suspect you are ok.
I hope you are ok.

I agree with dumping oil out of leg everyfall , if you have water mixing with oil that also depends on the type of gear oil you are using. Not all oils will show a merky colour, Oil and water will seperate if left suspended for a period of time. I began to use the shell products for my upper & lower units on my leg and noticed the merky colour you talk about if a seal is cracked. This is my personnel opinion

[Habfan]

Last fall I forgot to put my motor down and drain my outboard. I realized it after the 1st round of 30 below. I lowered the motor, tarped it in, put a space heater on it and ran the Herman Nelson in the storage tent for about 3 days.

I'm pretty new at boats and motors, what are the odds I screwed my leg? It's a Johnson 100
If it's screwed you will see oil underneath the motor and a crack in the leg. After last use in fall always change leg oil and lubricate plugs if it's a 4 stroke. Water will drain as you should always have a slight angle downwards when transporting home.