Although boating in salty water is an exciting experience, the damage saltwater can do to an outboard motor should not be underestimated. Fortunately, there are several preventative care and maintenance precautions outboard motor owners can take to ensure their outboards keep running well for years.

It's the heart of your boat -The Outboard Engine.You don’t need to be a mechanic, or hire one (unless you want to), to take care of this integral part of your boat, but for practical and safety reasons, you can’t afford not to!

Outboard engines have been around since 1896 and have done a good job of getting smaller craft from point A to point B with simple efficiency. As time has gone by the simplicity of these motors has diminished as the technology advanced.

Two stroke motors function by completing a power cycle (intake, compression, power and exhaust) with one turn of the crankshaft and a resulting two strokes of the piston.

Over the past couple decades, outboard engines evolved from cranky, dirty, and somewhat unreliable devices into fully modern machines that rival or exceed the sophistication of auto engines.

After a long winter indoors many 2-stroke outboards are reluctant to start. A simple service should make yours more reliable.