Tilting a four stroke engine

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SPO England
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Tilting a four stroke engine

Post by SPO » 04 Oct 2022, 20:34

I'm reasonably familiar with small 4 stroke engines (the terrestrial ones at least!), and understand why you can't tilt them very much from the horizontal: oil from the sump will leak into the cylinders, and also, if you have a float-style carburetor, it will not be able to function.
This is so much of a problem that, on my lawnmower, the instructions suggest that I don't tilt the engine to any more than 45 degrees.
What I've never been able to understand (and I can't seem to find an answer on the net), is how 4 stroke outboards are tilted to almost horizontal (1) when launching, and (2) when they are laid down.
Does anyone have any books that have diagrams of outboards that demonstrate how this is possible? I understand that outboards would not use float carbs, but that still leaves the problem of fouling the cylinders with sump oil.

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Re: Tilting a four stroke engine

Post by Martin » 07 Oct 2022, 11:19

Hi SPO,
Most outboards have arrows of orientation for transport.
They have a plate/baffle in the sump to keep the oil in the correct position if the outboard is lifted/tilted to the recommended level.
If you exceed that level or indeed store it on it's wrong side, you will have oil leakage issues.
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SPO England
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Re: Tilting a four stroke engine

Post by SPO » 07 Oct 2022, 12:04

So there's a baffle keeping the oil in the sump.
Does anyone have a diagram of that? - I'm having trouble visualising how it would work.

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