Mercury 300 Verado

[Joe]

My father has a pontoon with a 300 Verado. His salesman told him in the winter to dry fire it on the lift (no water or muffs) and burp the throttle ever so slightly to remove any remaining water from the impeller. This goes against everything I have ever understood about proper impeller care. What is everyone else’s opinion? Any professionally written articles on the subject?

[Big Block Power]

That's crazy. I guess I would call Mercury or I'm sure he got a manual with it. I'm sure they have a self winterizing process for those.

[thunder550]

Isn't one of the big selling points about outboards that they don't need to be winterized since they self-drain?

[Ytmsn]

I don't think it would cause problems or be an issue if you fired it, burped it and shut it off. The problem is starting it up and letting it run for more than 10 or 12 seconds, certainly no longer than that. Counting one thousand one, one thousand two, etc. Thats a long time.