How serious is the polution issue in practice?

[Robert Hickman]

Having seen a number of these outboards run in water tanks on youtube, the water appears to rapidly become yellow/grey from emulsifying with oil. How serious is this in practice, what impact does it have on wildlife?

[Oyster 49]

No idea, but it the same rules should be read across to diesels too!

In reality I agree that a 2 stroke can be a messy oily thing, particularly when running on a 10:1 mix. However there are easy things that can be done such as
1. Fit a drip container hanging below the carb.
2. Convert to 25:1 where possible.
3. 10:1 can be leaned off a little to more like 12:1 or even 16:1. I have discovered no issue when doing this.
4. Use biodegradeable 2 stroke oil.
5. Adjust villiers carbs in particular to not run too rich.

All this will help, particularly the bio 2 stroke.

[Keith.P]

My water tank will do the same thing, as I use the tank to run most of my outboards, this has no effect on wildlife what so ever.
Yes they do leak a small amount of oil from the gearbox, but we are mainly talking about outboards designed and made 60+ years ago here.

[Hugz]

It is worth doing some research on natural oil seepage which occus to the level of thousands of tons a year. Most of it gets gobbled up by microbes. The Exxon spill was small by comparison. Sure our leakage looks unsightly (particularly in fresh or still water) but in reality doesn't constitute a hazard. Minimise our oil output as above and have facts for discussion on hand. How much unburnt fuel does a jet turbine spew into the atmosphere? How much of a footprint does a new motor create during production? etc

[haventaclue]

I sometimes laugh at the environmental readings.They take their samples from the top of the water/lake/reservoir.It is fair to note that most bacteria is existing on the top four inches/one hundred mm's of the water reservoir/lake.Where as most of the potable water is drawn from ten plus meters below.
I do not disagree that water pollution is not prevalent,but I do think that on SOME occasions it is exaggerated.Oil and water do not mix, ,therefore oil floats to the top,it is not getting into the potable water.So our old "Seagull's" don't interfere with the basic water that flows out your tap/faucet.

[Grumpy]

One must also take into account the utterly immense amount of fuel ,petrol ,diesel and variations used etc by the modern large outboards that neccesitate the ongoing drilling for oil that has caused a touch of pollution here and there. Not to mention shale.
How much more pollution is created here than that created by an ever diminishing number of seagulls and like outboards,
One modern ally boat with say a 200hp or larger outboard can easily chomp through 100's of litres in a days trip.
And if anyone thinks they are all clean and green may their brightness shine down my way.
I choose to run my seagulls and hug a few trees when the opportunity arises.