Where to start???

I wandered into the back of the shed over the weekend and noticed a large fluid spot under my boat. It was a few feet forward of the motor, but I may have pushed the boat back at one point. I haven’t used it since 2017 and I thought I winterized it, but perhaps I didn’t.

When I’m able to get it out in a week or two, what should I do first before attempting to start. I was planning on changing lower unit oil first and inspecting the shaft for leaks/cracks, but curious if there is anything else I should look at? Motor is a early 1990s two-stroke oil injected (can’t remember if it’s a Johnson/Evy/Merc – man I need to stop having kids and get back to fishing!)

I should have crawled under to see if it was just excess fuel that got pushed through the carb, since I believe it had a full tank when I put it away almost 2 years ago.

What did the fluid look like? It may be gear lube, trim/tilt fluid or it could be just unburned exhaust mixed with water. That is pretty common on 2 strokes.

If it’s leaking from the lower unit, there will usually be wet oil on the skeg. Run your finger down the bottom edge of the skeg and see if you find oil.

As Blackbay says, it could be just dripping of old oil from the exhaust.

Change the lower unit oil by draining the old fluid into a clean container. Let the oil stand and inspect for water contamination. I like to put the oil in a clear glass jar and put the lid on and let it stand so the water is easier to see.

If there’s not a lot of water in the lower unit, I’d change gear lube and see what hapens.

IMPORTANT. I know you’re bringing this boat out of cold storage, so be aware that running it on muffs can produce some black gunk drainage after it’s shut off. Don’t panic if you see an oil spot under the outboard AFTER you start it up and run it on the muffs.

Grouse

Few feet in front of motor? Possibly something spilled in boat and drained out drain plug?

Depending on your motor, there’s a good chance it has an oil reservoir under the cowling.

That could be another thing to investigate for a leak.

Thanks for the information. Hoping to get enough stuff cleaned out this week to get it moved from the shed to the garage for closer inspection/monitoring.

Looks like it is just excess fuel/oil based upon the blue hue to it. Furthermore, there was a blueish drop on the bottom of the line. I was a little surprised that it leaked that much though since I had the fuel line unhooked. Maybe I saw the puddle last year and unhooked the line. Who knows. I CRS these days…

What is the line below the fuel attachment? Is that the oil injection port from the external oil reservoir?

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