How to change the oil on the Yamaha

From: Damon Fodge [mailto:damon_fodge @ hotmail dot commie] Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 1:08 PMTo: Franklin AdamsCc: andy at dcjob dottie comSubject: RE: ches bay

It may be better to give tips on the phone, or to actually show you. I'll try though:
- Make sure you have a good socket. You'll need an extender, cuz the drain bolt is lodged up into a sort of compartment. I have an extender, and think it should fit your engine cuz ours are both Yamahas. you can use it. Just go onto my boat, and open my tool set (old tan tackle box)
- locate the engine oil drain bolt while the engine is in the upward position. you might even want to give it a couple of cranks to loosen it here. the oil won't start to drain until the bolt is almost completely unscrewed.
- it's easiest with 2 people. lower engine prop into water, then unscrew the cap. have one person hold a 5 gallon bucket under the drain bolt in order to catch the draining oil (unless you don't mind it going into the bay!). Also, this is useful in case the bolt drops out of engine -- it'll go into the bucket, not the bay. For your boat, the engine might be so far away from the transom that you'll need a little barge from Chilly, or you can borrow my canoe. Who knows.
- keep unscrewing with the socket wrench until the bolt is out. you might be able to finish it off with your fingers, but the bolt is positioned very high up into a comparment, making it difficult to grab with fingers.
- Once bolt is out, just let the mother fucker drain into the 5 gallon bucket.
- once empty, obviously, replace bolt.
- re-filling might sound easy, but it might not be. MAKE SURE you don't overfill the oil pan, because draining it back out is a very tedious process. i found this out the hard way. I wouldn't trust what the manual says, because mine called for WAY too much oil---and that can damage the engine. I'd sight the amount you think it needs and on the dip stick prior to draining, then just re-fill by sight and by putting the dip stick in and out 'til it's full enough.
Oh, and don't just use car motor oil. Go to West Marine and purchase some good oil that clearly says for four stroke outboard engines. The marine oil has some extra fancy stuff that protects it from the salt and elements.
So I assume your engine's oil hasn't been changed yet. I'm SURE you have at least 10 hours on it, so it's time. For mine, it ran so much smoother after replacing the oil, that I literally felt guilty. But yours runs so smooth as it is ...

Does that make any sense?