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Outboard motor - abused by movers?

I have a newer four-stroke 4hp outboard that is stored indoors in the winter. I winterized it and we just moved into a new house this last weekend. I had planned to move the motor myself as it still had engine oil and outdrive oil in it. The movers ended up moving it and then left it in my garage, balanced, prop pointing upwards. Luckily, the move was just down the street and less than a 5 minute drive. And luckily there is no apparent damage to the casing. So once I saw it standing inverted in my garage, I placed it back upright on a saw horse. A few hours later I saw evidence of an oil drip, coming from the underside of the engine housing. It was a relatively small amount, probably no more than a tablespoon. The next day I brought it inside and it dripped about the same amount of oil, maybe a little less. Do I need to have this serviced because there is engine oil where it shouldn't be? Or will simply having it back in the correct position let the oil settle back to where it should be.

Thanks

Update:

To clarify, the prop shaft was pointing upwards.

2 Answers

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  • 8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    It should be fine, you may want to open up the engine cover and clean up any oil inside, and check the fluid levels before running it.

  • Anonymous
    8 years ago

    If 4 strokes are inverted the oil gets where it shouldn't be , I learned that expensive lesson tipping one upside-down to get stale petrol out of the tank , the drippage indicates that has already occurred , so yes I'd get it serviced .

    Bloody nuisance , you never got that with 2 strokes , problem is tree-hugging environmentalists got them banned as uber-polluters , when many sailing yachtsmen only ran them for a few hours each year as auxilary power units -- now instead of tough , reliable and bombproof , we have temperamental bloody things that will not run , even on a steady input of violence and oaths .

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