How Many Anodes Does Your Boat Need?

Robbie wants to know how many anodes do I need for a 14-foot aluminum tinny

It has pitting, starting, and I need to clean and stop the problem

Well, Robbie, I appreciate to subscribe and thank you for the question. It's a great topic, and there is not, unfortunately, a solid answer that I can give you

You are going to need something like this. This is a corrosion reference electrode

It's from boatzinks.com. you just go there and get this thing because on your boat, the zincs

it is going to depend on the, what they call haul potential

And so your whole potential is going to be basically, you know, the

I'm trying to think of the right way to put this that way. Everybody could understand it because if you just read something like this

it's a silver, silver chloride, you know, reference electrode. and I guess just best way to say it is that between your bonding system and the engine and the

battery and, you know, shore power and just all the things that go into, you know, that can

are electric conduciveness or that can conduce electricity and the way they all work together

there is like, you know, there's electrical current and everything basically. And so the potential of the hall, you use the anodes in order to

to like level all that out and you get it to a certain level where it's not like any electrical

current is not eating your hole which is what you got right now you've got an aluminum tinny

that's got you know it doesn't have enough anodes or it might have too many anodes or it doesn't

have the right anodes or you have another problem going on that is allowing electricity to start

to corrode your hull or you have um you know you've got an engine

which is dissimilar metals from the aluminum and your stainless steel propeller, the lower unit

and like all this other stuff. And then depending on where you keep it and the water that's around there, is there

shore power or something like that? Do you charge the boat? Is there a problem within the boat

There's so many different factors there that are going to affect it

That's why you're going to need something like this. So what I'm going to say is that with this, they say it right here, is you've got different

like here's the hull so whenever you put this thing in there your aluminum hall is going the

recommended like voltage that's what you're supposed to have so based on that number if you

you know have one of these and you take your boat and you put this in the water that's the reading

that you should get and then based on that reading as you're going to know do i have too many anodes

do i not have enough anodes or if the number is like you know super high

then you know that you've got a stray current issue and there's, you know

something going on where maybe you've got a bad wire with a bilge pump or maybe, you know

something else could be a problem that's like getting electricity and it's getting into the

hole and it's just eating your entire haul up. So you really need something like this in order to figure out the amount of anodes that you

need to put on your boat because every boat is going to be different because every boat has

different, you know, the amount of through holes that are through the hole, like anything that's

metal. So basically you take a boat, anything that's metal that's sticking through the boat

including the engine and your through holes and your shutoff valves, the transducers, water

pickups, like all these things that conduct electricity. That's why you have a bonding system

inside the boat. So that way they're all attached on its own grounding circuit. So that way

if there is a problem, it kind of spreads it out over all of those things

and taking any kind of dissimilar metal and then putting it into water

you're creating, you know, an environment where you're going to have galvanic corrosion

And so it's just a problem. You need something like this in order to test it and see the whole potential

and whether or not you have the correct halt potential and everything is, you know

evened out. Also, the different types of anodes. There are different types of anodes

You've got zinc, aluminum, magnesium. they each have their own properties and uses based on where you keep the boat and, you know

how you use the boat, what's in the boat, like for power, like what kind of power are you running in

there? Do you have, you know, a transducer? I mean, you could have a transducer that's leaking

and it's just sending electricity into the water and, you know, boom, it's getting, it's eating up

your hull. So you kind of need a corrosion reference electrode to figure out how many

anodes you need to put on your boat. There's, there's not really any other way to do it other than that

So, sorry about that, Robbie. I wish I could give you a like straight up, you know, this is the

answer. You need four anodes. But like, you can't do that without getting the numbers from

the corrosion reference. Like, that's how the boats set them up. Like, that's how they figure all that

out is they use stuff like that in order to figure out the whole potential and then what's the whole

potential. Then they add anodes to the boats. And this is what the boat manufacturers do

Pretty much all of them, when they build their boats, that's part of the research and

development of the boat is they check, you know, they put the whole boat together. They put in the water

and they check stuff like that. And then they go through and they fix out, you know, they build

the bonding system and the way the electronics are in the boat. Like all that is figured out at

the manufacturer level. So by the time you get the boat, like that's already been figured out

you know, obviously people when they get the boat, they put a bunch of stuff in it. They change electronics

They change this. They change that. So that's when you can get into having other, you know, corrosion issues when you start

changing a bunch of stuff. And then the manufacturers, like, you know, they set it up to be the way it is

And then when you go and change stuff, that's when you need to have a reference electrode

in order to figure out, you know, what exactly did that change do as far as changing the whole

potential and, you know, the whole potential for corrosion. Honeycut says how often does impeller need to be replaced? Well, depends. Manufacturers, most of them all say three years. And then there's a lot of people, like if you're in South Florida, a lot of people do them every two years. So it kind of depends. There's more to changing the impeller than just the fact that the impeller can go bad. So like up north, people have not done impellers for 15 years and not had a problem. So down, it all depends. The heat and impeller is a rubber component. When it heats up

it can get hard. So when it heats up and cools down, heats up and cools down, that rubber can get hard

which it's going to lose its flex. When it loses its flex, it's going to lose its ability to move the same volume of water

to cool the engine. Again, up north, you know, you might not see a problem for a long time

especially on smaller engines, but on bigger engines where you need more cooling water

to cool down a bigger powerhead, you can see problems quicker. If you're in salt water

especially warm salt water, like South Florida or anywhere down here, it not just the fact that like okay the impeller physically might last for five years and not wear down But if you don take your lower unit off for five years

when it comes time to take that lower unit off, you're going to have a problem getting it off

And you might end up destroying your lower unit or having to destroy the lower unit

to take it off your engine because it's corroded itself onto the engine

especially certain models. I mean, like a 3-3 Yamaha or some of the other ones

some of those drive shafts are exposed and you can get like if it's on a catarine that has a lot of

spray that goes up in there where that drive shaft is that drive shaft can weld itself basically

into the crank if you run low on oil you same thing the drive shaft can weld itself into the crank

so removing the lower unit and putting grease on there and then putting it back up and

greasing all the stuff that is also part of the reason why you do the impellers but i would say

every two to three years change the impeller if you're in south florida

I dropped that lower unit every two years just to drop the lower unit

I mean, but at the same time, if you drop the lower unit, I mean, what's a $20 impeller

You might as well just change it. Adam Chico says I have a brand new boat when installing a composite transducer block

A screw broke off into the transom. How should I fix this? Well, Adam, one, you can drill around the screw and get the screw to come out

Once you pull it out, you're going to have to make epoxy, mix it up, and then fill that hole with

epoxy so that way it's you know it's it's it's fold composite transom you're not like you're

you're going to um have a rotting problem but you know delamination stuff like that could be a problem

but drill it out and then fill it with epoxy and then boom that's going to fix it or you could

leave it like um you know that's just it so a lot of change a lot of times that's broken you could

just leave it the screw hopefully you put um some sealant on there when you ran that in

there, but my guess is that the hole that was drilled for the screw was too small. And when you

screwed it in, uh, the actual bolt itself was just so tight in that hole that it just snapped

the bolt, uh, or the screw, obviously. That's usually what happens. So one, you could leave it and you

probably never, ever see a problem with it. Uh, it, the one problem that you're probably going to see

eventually would be a little bit of de-elamination with the gel coat around that screw. But most likely that

screw is going to be behind the bracket that's holding your transducer onto the transom

So if you fill that full of sealant and then screw that bracket on there, that screw is going

to be broken off inside the transom, but yet the screw is also going to be surrounded with

sealant with a bracket over the top of it. So it's kind of sealed

So you can leave it or you could drill it out and fill the hole with epoxy

And then either way, if you drill it out and fill it with epoxy, you're going to be able to see it

again, this is on a transducer below the water line and the bracket's going to be over it so you'll

never see it. So those are basically two options. Leave it or drill it and fill it. Jack says in the

control box, which cable goes to the throttle and which goes to the shifting gears. It depends on your

control box. It depends on your engine. Generally, there's a bunch of different control boxes out there

so I can't really tell you, Jack. I don't know what engine you have and I don't know what control box you have, but one of them, it's really easy to tell. When you open it up, just move the handle

boom, and you're shifting it into gear. One of those levers is going to move, and the other one isn't

Whichever lever moves, that's for the shift cable, and then the other one is going to be for your

throttle cable. But the bigger question is, depending on the engine and how that is, is it a push to pull

or is it a pull to push? Meaning, the throttle cable, do you pull the cable to move the throttle plate

or do you push the throttle cable to move the throttle plate

That's what you're going to need to do. And that's also very easy to figure out is you look at your engine

You pull the calling off and you look at your throttle. Does it need to be pulled in order to open the throttle plates

Or does it need to be pushed in order to open the throttle plates? And then if it's push or pull, you can go to your control box

And when you put it in the gear, boom, it'll shift. and when that shifts, now you know what's in gear

Now move the cable and one of that, you know, that inside that control box

it's going to go like this. So one's going to pull, the other one's going to push

Based on the engine, if you need a pull or push, that's which one you're going to put it on in order to be a push or pull for the throttle cable

But that's pretty much it. Duane Roberts says, what's a good filler for the lower

It has some corrosion, but not a lot. there's bound to be some pitting and sanding

You can use a lot of different stuff, Duane. You can use an epoxy with a faring filler

You can use total boat fare, you know, that total fare. You can use a fiberglass bondo

You know, any of those are going to be fine because it's just a filler and they will all, you know

stick to aluminum. But on a lower unit, you're going to have to make sure that you prime it and prep

and prep it really good. So you're going to want to prime it with a zinc chromate

because you've now got that faring filler on there, especially if you use the Bondo

Even though that Bondo fiberglass, technically, I mean, I think that one should be fine

And the total fare, same thing. Because it's under the water line

you know, epoxy and a faring filler is going to probably be the most resilient

But any of those are going to be fine to fare it and fill those holes

And then you're going to prime it, say three, three coats with a zinc chromate primer

and then you're going to put another primer on top of that with two to three coats, and then you're going to paint it, two to three coats

and then you're going to put a clear coat on top of that. So you're going to have like nine, ten, twelve layers of paint on top of it

So you really shouldn't, I don't think you're going to have a problem with any of those

faring fillers. NTJ says I have a 2011 40 quorcephorferoferoed, four stroke

The Quicksilver replacement thermostat I found online says 120 degrees. Is that too cold

I thought it would get hotter than that. I don't know. I mean, I'm not 100% on, you know, a 2011 40 horsepower 4-stroke, what the thermostat

should be. 120 degrees definitely sounds a little low to me. Like most outboards are in the 140 to 151.50 degree range

And depending on where you run the engine, if you're running in really cold water

then you definitely don't want 120-degree thermostat because your engine, is never going to get above 120 degrees

Like when you think about it, so, I mean, also, I don't deal a lot with cold water

So, you know, my experience is going to be theoretical. Don't take everything that I say as gospel

You know, I'm going to try and give you a couple of things that I would think about whenever I do it

But obviously, you know, I don't deal with cold water all the time. And then 90% of the people out there are not going to be dealing with, you know, freezing water temperatures and the adverse effects of that

But when I'm thinking about it, I'm thinking, okay, so for one, if the engine is running too cold

then you risk, you know, building carbon condensation, you know, those kinds of problems

If you just idling the engine So if you just idling the engine the thermostat should close which should get it to whatever temperature that may be 120 degrees seems pretty cold to me

And if you get to 125, the thermostat's going to open up and it's going to move more

more water, which is going to cool it quicker. And especially when you've got super cold water

When you're running, say, wide open throttle, think about the temperature inside of an engine

And inside the combustion chamber, in order to, you know, burn carbon or do any of this

you know, for a full combustion, burning carbon, cleaning the engine, and getting it hot

when you're running it idle, say 700 RPM. You're creating, you're lighting that combustion chamber on fire 700 times in a minute, basically

And then if you're running wide open throttle, say 6,000 RPM, you're lighting that combustion chamber on fire 6,000 times per minute

So a wide open throttle, you're going to be creating a lot more heat and it's going to be able to

to clean that cylinder out a lot better, even though that thermostat, like, you know

your thermostat's going to open up. Like if you're creating that much heat, it's going to open up and it's going to allow more water volume in

which is going to cool it down a lot quicker because it's cold water. But at the same time, you know

if it gets below 120 degrees or whatever the thermostat is, the thermostat's going to close regardless of the temperature inside the combustion chamber

It's going to be a lot hotter and a lot better for, you know, burning off carbon, stuff like that at wide open throttle than it is at idle because, again, it's just, you know, think about it

You're 700 times versus 6,000 times. But 120 seems a little low

Like Avrado, most of those are 143 where the thermostat opens up. A lot of other ones are anywhere from 140 to 160 is generally where an outboard thermostat is set to

If you're running in really cold water temperatures, you might need to run a different

thermostat in order to get the engine temperature to be where it should be

But 120 does sound low to me. So, you know, but I don't know, I would have to look it up in the service manual to figure that out

Nagal Wolf says, hey, I commented about my sunken 26 foot panga a bit ago

I do remember that. You were wanting to put the jackplate or the, oh shoot, now I can't think of it, the

whatever that other one is. I ended up going with an Atlas jackplate due to wait

the project is going great. I added the 10 foot power pole

and a brand new 140 Suzuki with digital controls, gas tank cleaned, every wire replaced

Boats been out close to a dozen times, smoothed and dry running

One thing I notice is that the boat is super tippy, does better with four people

but with two can be a pain, rides amazing on plane. Can we talk about the panga design being tippy

and also weight slash center out, center of gravity in boats? I believe the deck is high

and need to mount the battery lower in the hall might help. So yeah, that has to do with the beam

Panga's, you know, obviously they're, they've got their long, they're narrow, they got a big bow that's flared out

Anything that has a really small beam is going to get tippy

And even worse when you get a bigger dead rise. So your dead rise is, you know, the V of the boat and the, the sharper it gets

the tippier the boat's going to be. And especially when, you know, the more

dead rise that you get like this, it's going to be sharper, so it's going to be tippy. But if you've got a

really wide beam, it's not going to be as tippy. If you've got a really small beam, then it's going to be

super tippy. And especially, so it's going to be super tippy. And the more weight you put up top, the more

tippy it's going to get. So if your deck's high off the water line, then it's going to be even more

tippier. That's why when you put four people in the boat, you know, that higher deck and that super tippiness

whenever you push that down in the water, it's going to be a little bit more stable, because

because it's, you know, you're pushed down in the water and the water is going to be higher on the

size of the boat, which makes it less tippy. But anything that's got a small beam, like if you've got a narrow beam being, you know

anything below eight feet is going to be considered a narrow beam, I guess you would say

depending on the length, obviously. But the longer the boat is and the skinnier it is, the tippier it's going to get

Yeah, if you could get some batteries in there or even add the weight, you might even, I wonder if you've got, you know, what's your life wall situation

And do you have a freshwater tank and how much is your fuel tank? So you can add weight by doing stuff like that, which helps the ride

Obviously, the more weight is going to require you to burn more fuel to go the same speed that you want to go

Like, you know, as you add weight, you know, go slower or you need to go higher RPM to get the same speed that you were getting, you know

where you like to run the boat based on that. But the actual like weight of the boat, like if you're running with two people, like you said

said the boat's going to be sitting higher in the water and it's going to be tipier because that

deck is higher and you've got a narrow beam. But if you've got a live well and a freshwater

tank and a fuel tank, if you can run with a full tank of fuel and you can fill up your live

well and you could fill up your freshwater tank and mount your batteries in the center, all that stuff

is going to, you know, add that weight. So like if you're running the boat by yourself or with one

of the person, if you can add that weight, but then at the same time when you got four people

people, if you can, you know, take some of that weight out of the boat being regulating

you're basically using your live while and your freshwater tank and your fuel tank as a way to

ballast the engine or ballast the boat. Being, you know, with four people, you run half a tank depending on where you're going

If you don't need a full tank of fuel, if you can run half a tank of fuel, then, you know

you're going to be regulating the weight on the boat using those three items

So that's awesome to hear about the pangas. I like pangas. I don't know what a 26-foot pangas beam is

but yeah, they're narrow, they're long. I mean, you know, and I think they have a

I don't know the dead rise of a pangue. I can't say whether or not it do. And Hank says

Mercury 50 horsepower marine engine fuel is not coming to the spark plugs

I am thinking injectors are solid DCUs, solid when you add a few drops of gasoline

into the cylinders, the engine starts and then stops. Cylinder pressure is very good

When you press the start to start the engine, oily gasoline comes out the exhaust

Can you help me? Also, there are syringes inside the log. I don't understand

I have no idea what you're saying here. Surringes inside the log, I don't know what that means

Oily gasoline comes out the exhaust. It's probably a two-stroke. But you've got injectors on it

Whenever you put gasoline inside the cylinders, it starts and runs. You've got a fuel delivery problem, obviously

because if you put fuel, to it, then it's going there, but I don't know

I really, so you got a 50 horsepower engine with oily gasoline coming out the exhaust

which means it's probably not sparking. But then at the same time, if you're saying that you put fuel inside of the intake

and then the engine starts and runs, you know, if you put, it doesn't matter anything

Okay, start there. You've got the intake and you add fuel to the intake and the engine starts and runs

you have a fuel delivery problem to begin with So whatever that may be I mean you think your injectors are good You think that what do you say You think that the injectors are solid and the ECU is solid but yet you

adding fuel to the intake and it's starting. One of those isn't either the fuel pump or whatever

something, maybe you don't have the right fuel pressure, something fuel delivery side. You don't have

the volume of fuel. Something is a problem there because if you add fuel to the intake and the

engine starts and runs, you have a fuel delivery problem. I would start there. Other than that, I'm not sure how else. Oh, greetings from Turkey. Okay, there's a language barrier here

I don't really know what you're saying with the syringes inside the log. The oily gasoline coming out the bottom is probably that something's not firing right, but you definitely have a fuel

delivery problem. America coming together. What about that corroded steering arm? I'm looking at a

Merck 94 cylinder that has corroded like an old railroad spike. Big project to change it. I'm sure

How safe are these things if rusted heavily? Um, you know, if it's rusted heavily, then obviously it's a problem

But you can, you know, you can run until it breaks. So, you know, when it breaks, it's going to be a problem

But I would, this steering arm probably is, yeah, it's going to be a pain to change that because that's usually, um

I don't know about a 94 cylinder, like a 90 mercury, but on most of them, you got take

take the engine off and that steering arm is like part of the. swivel bracket and the bracket assembly. So, yeah, it's definitely a pain to change

Especially if that's corroded, think about all the other parts that are going to be

corroded along with that. So it's, if you're doing it yourself, you're probably, you know

it's going to be fine because as far as cost-wise, like, you know, it's going to be a pain

It's going to take you a long time to do it, but it's not going to cost you, it shouldn't cost

you that much. If you got to pay someone to do it, it's going to take them a long time, and it's going to probably be expensive, probably not worth

doing it, but the steering arm depends on the corrosion, you know, how bad it is

You might hit it a little bit and see, you know, see how strong it looks. But if it looks like it's about to break, then it's going to break

So usually if you hit on it and, I mean, surface rust and actual rust, like, you know

look what, you know, if you hit it and chip off that rust, it might just be surface rust

but I don't know, you know, without looking at it, I can't really tell you. Garbage man, hey brother, does the starter needs to be hooked up

to the trim to go up and down. Does the starter need to be hooked up for the trim to go up and down

Generally, no, but on some engines, the power going to the engine

the power will go to the starter, and then from the starter, it will go to a distribution block that then feeds all your relays

like your trim, tilt relays, start relays, that kind of thing. So depending on the model engine that you have

some of them, you would need power to that for the trim to go up and down

but other ones, no, you don't need power to the starter for the engine to go up and down

depending on the model. So if your engine model has the power going to the starter

and then from the starter goes over to a distribution block that feeds those trim relays

then yes, you will need power to your starter for the engine to go up and down

Otherwise, if not, then, no, you don't, you know, the power to the engine

Power needs to go to the engine no matter what. And then that power to the engine, usually the engine where the power hooks up

will definitely feed power to your trim relay, so that'll allow you to trim the engine up and down

Low tide says, I wish you were close to where I live, Miami Beach, so that you will be my boat mechanic

I have a 2021, Kobe 320. I've noticed some vibrations at low RPM 2000

Any suggestions? I look at your propeller first. Did you hit something

Because if you hit something and you've got a ding in your prop and you've got vibrations

then that would probably be the first thing I look at because of a 20, 21, 320

Cobia, vibrations. Now are you saying vibrations on the engine? Are you saying vibrations at the boat

Like what, you know, what are you saying? Where is the vibration at

Because other than that, yeah, I would check your propellers first. And then other than that, you know, look at the, look at the propeller first

Greg, so why did the base gasket need to be replaced? The base gasket on that 90, we had to replace it because we pulled the power head

Anytime you pull a power head, you need to change the base gasket

so base caskets don't generally go bad, but anytime you pull a power ed

you need to change the base gasket, just because it's basically a one-time use thing

Edo says, just curious, why we don't just disconnect the main fuel line

and hook up fuel injection cleaner to the engine side and let the low and high fuel pumps do their job

same as you just did, but not going to be a lot quicker and less chance of ruin your injector seals

and possibly damaging injectors by prying them off, talking about trying to clean injectors

and generally the problem, the reason that you can't do that is because the fuel pump doesn't make the same amount of pressure, usually on a fuel injector cleaner or, you know, cleaning them on the bench, something like that

You can get a lot more pressure to clean them out and let them soak

So you can soak them in a solution as well as put pressure behind them

So if you put them on an injector cleaning, you know, thing, it has a lot more pressure

Your high pressure pump is only going to be making like 45 PSI

which generally isn't enough pressure even with cleaner in order to clean them out

You kind of need a little bit more pressure without air pressure or the pressure on the injection cleaning machine to help in cleaning those injectors out

Duane Roberts says, oh wow, I thought you could flush the motor using muffs connected to a flush bottle connected to the hose

It kind of makes sense that it wouldn't work as well as reversing the flow. it would be a lot harder to get larger pieces of rust or cruising, even salt out of the tiny peahole

Geez, can you have a flush system put into an old two stroke? Yeah, you can put a flush system onto an old two stroke, depending on, you know, how big it is

On some of them, you can just put it right there on the water jacket. And then also, yeah, when you're trying to flush something out, generally you want to take the lower unit off of it

Because, yeah, as you're cleaning all that stuff out, it's going to come out the exhaust and you want it to be able to come out

You're trying to just do it on the flush attachment. All that's going to be going down in your lower unit

and it's not going to work as well. You can flush an engine

Like if you're just talking about flush in the engine, then yeah, you can just run it on the hose

But as far as cleaning it out, trying to clean out your cooling passages, using a cleaner

Generally, you need to go directly to the water tube, one for the volume of cleaner and the two

so everything can come out of the engine. And we'll do one more from Rob

He says, what should someone expect to pay for a, 90 horsepower two-stroke outboard motor as far as, you know, right now in 2024

Depending on the engine, I would say like, you know, a couple grand

I wouldn't go spending $6,000, $7,000 on a used two-stroke engine. I would say a couple grand should be pretty good

But above that, you know, say, I would say two to four thousand somewhere in there

If someone's asking $5,000 for a used outboard, it better be in really good condition

But, you know, anything above that. Also, it's going to depend on the horsepower. How big is the engine

And, well, in 90, yeah, I would say two, three, four grand tops for a 90 horsepower two-stroke outboard