This is a public service announcement for anyone out there that happens to have one or several ETECs hanging off the back of your boat.
Do yourself a favor and every year when you’re doing your annual readiness checks and preps, take your thermostat covers off, clean and lube them, and put them back on.
Here’s why: for whatever reason, Evinrude/BRP decided to use a plastic thermostat cover with a built-in hex head for (I think) a 13/16 socket, which threads the cover into and out of the housing. If it gets salted and seized up over time, it’s almost assured that the plastic cover will break before you can put enough torque on it to break the crust seal. Then, you’re in for a frustrating afternoon. I was lucky, so to speak, in that I had already removed my injector assemblies so I was able to get some channelocks on one of them and ease it off. The other one kept snapping and I ended up having to chisel the plastic remnants out of the thermostat housing. Not fun. If this happens to you with your injectors still on the engine, guess what- you’re gonna learn how to remove them, which isn’t a super fun process. There’s just no access at all with them in place.
So, to reiterate: save yourself six hours and a parts order and just loosen your ETEC thermostat covers once a year.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Do yourself a favor and every year when you’re doing your annual readiness checks and preps, take your thermostat covers off, clean and lube them, and put them back on.
Here’s why: for whatever reason, Evinrude/BRP decided to use a plastic thermostat cover with a built-in hex head for (I think) a 13/16 socket, which threads the cover into and out of the housing. If it gets salted and seized up over time, it’s almost assured that the plastic cover will break before you can put enough torque on it to break the crust seal. Then, you’re in for a frustrating afternoon. I was lucky, so to speak, in that I had already removed my injector assemblies so I was able to get some channelocks on one of them and ease it off. The other one kept snapping and I ended up having to chisel the plastic remnants out of the thermostat housing. Not fun. If this happens to you with your injectors still on the engine, guess what- you’re gonna learn how to remove them, which isn’t a super fun process. There’s just no access at all with them in place.
So, to reiterate: save yourself six hours and a parts order and just loosen your ETEC thermostat covers once a year.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
