Winterizing 4 Stroke Engines

I’ve owned Many boats and have never winterized any of my boats. All have been 2 strokes. I use Boat year round at least once or twice a month. Never had any problems. I bought a new boat with a 4 stroke engine and I put yamalube and a stabilizer every fillip. I’ve heard that it needs to oil fogged and other things. Who can tell me what is necessary, thanks for the help.

I'm running a 150 SHO and never heard of oil fogging. I change the oil and filters ( oil & Gas ) every 100 hrs. but don't know what needs winterizing.

I have 90 on the toon, made me go huuuum. I always drop the motor down all the way in winter, and with all my 2 stokes.. I believe they both cool in the same manner.. Should be fine, has been thus far.

think of it this way....if you had a car you drove once or twice a month (Ferrari or Porsche), would you do anything other than check the air pressure in the tires and keep a battery tender on it?

If there was a problem with any brand of 4 stroke outboards freezing we would have heard about it before now. I have personally seen 2 outboard blocks cracked from freezing. One was a 125hp Force and a 70hp Johnson. Both froze and cracked behind the exhaust cover plate. Seen lots of lower units freeze.

This is my SHO’s 3rd winter outside. Only need to lower motor and get all water out. Then plug in. I use mine year round.

Fog the cylinders? Maybe if you are going to store it for years. “Winterize” your 4 stroke like I “winterize” my 2 stroke: lower motor off motor toter/transom saver so all water drains and pull drain plugs so bilge and live wells are drained and your motor/boat is winterized until next time out! Oh ya, plug in the battery charger. Really that simple!

Only way for that to happen is to have them tilted up all the way. If tilted all the way down all water will drain. As far as winterizing goes, fogging oil is used to coat the internals and cylinder walls to prevent corrosion not to prevent freezing.

TMD is correct.

I have learned pard from experience to never say never. Or in your case "only way"

While I agree with the "Never say Never" philosophy all outboards be it 2 stroke or 4 are designed to drain all the water when tilted down. Only way water can stay trapped in the block is if there's a blockage. In that case it would have over heated rather quickly when last ran. Lower units on the other hand can and will crack if the oil is contaminated with too much water.