On Board with Mark Corke: Winter preparations

I've spent a good portion of the day getting Mallard ready to go into the barn for the long winter ahead. Part of that entails changing the oil and filters so that the engine will sit with fresh in it oil during the cold weather. Although it is very tempting to simply roll the boat into the shed or cover with shrink wrapping and then forget about it all until the spring recommissioning it is always best to service the engine before the boat is laid up for any length of time.

Engine oil holds impurities in suspension and sucking out the oil removes these. One of the main contaminants is sulphur and if left stagnant in the oil will combine with condensation which forms within a cold engine and turn into sulphuric acid and thus begin eating away at your very expensive motor from the insides out.

Read the complete blog entry.