Raise or lower your motors in salt

[RobLL]

Suzuki mechanics in Everett told me to store with the motor up, except in freezing weather. Rain can get in parts of the lower unit, and later freeze. Not a worry this winter - about two days just a little below 30 degrees F.

[Foggy]

I have twin Honda 90s.

This from the manual:

"Wash the outside of the outboard motor with clean, fresh water, and flush the
cooling system as follows.

Disconnect the flush port connector (FPC), attach a garden fresh water hose,
flush 10 minutes, reconnect FPC.

Tilt up the outboard motor and move the tilt lock lever to "lock" position."

While the units are in the "up" position, I rinse all exterior portions especially
the lower units, exposed zincs, props, etc.

It does not make sense to me to leave different metal parts of something that is
important to you in salt water when not doing so is so simple.

Aye.

[Kushtaka]

We went through this debate at work a couple days ago!

Because of the temps we see, often with freezing temps at night through winter, and on some days (not too many the last few years!) we have tradeoffs.

I've discussed this at length with our dealer/service provider and there is no real solution for winter storage. You trade one problem for another and just have to choose.

In the summer we flush our motors with FW, let them drain down, then tilt up. In the winter we leave salt water in the motor and leave the motors down. This gives the greatest chance of nothing being destroyed by ice as SW resists freezing better than FW. The lower units in the water won't freeze, and won't evaporate, and with the motor tilted without flushing the passages keep the SW in them and don't freeze like they would if flushed with FW.

This risks some salt in the lines, but it hasn't been an issue. We flush very thoroughly and run our motors regularly if not in use.

There is no real right answer. Whichever works best for your situation and peace of mind.