cowling insulation

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txneal

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I haven't posted on here in a long time. It's getting to that time of year when my focus starts shifting from hunting and guns back to fishing and boats. I seem to go through this same cycle every year. Anyway, I'm focused on the boat again and am starting to look things over to get ready to go back out on the water...

I have a 1973 25hp Evinrude and have noticed that the foam insulation inside of the cowling seems to be sort of flaking off as little tiny pieces of "foam dust" seem to be settling on my engine. I'm concerned that this stuff is going to get inside of my carburetor, so I need to do something about it. I'm thinking of simply scraping it all out and just using the cowling without the insulation, but I'm not sure how good of an idea that is. I'm assuming that the insulation is in there to reduce noise. Is that correct? Is there any purpose for it other than noise reduction? If I were to scrape it all out, is there something else I could replace it with that would serve the same purpose?

Any suggestions from you guys would be much appreciated!
 
My understanding is that it is purely for noise reduction and removing it will not do anything to the performance of your motor. It will just be a little louder is all. I am thinking about removing the foam in my 88' 25hp also, but I will be finding something to go back in. I want to make mine a little quieter than it is now and my foam is also getting deteriorated.
 
You can replace it with some 'egg crate foam' That's what I did on a 25 merc I used to have. I'm also using the same stuff inside the engine compartment of my jetboat.

Go to McMaster-Carr's website, and check out sound insulating foam, they sell it in various size sheets.
 
Thanks for the responses. I just looked at the sound absorbing insulation on Mcmaster-Carr and may decide to go with something like that eventually. However, I'm not overly concerned with the noise reduction so much as I just don't want all of that foam junk getting into my carburetor. I still have plenty of insulation in there so that its not too loud, so if there was a way to preserve my existing insulation and stop it from deteriorating, I think I'd be perfectly content. Having been thinking about it a bit today, I've hit upon the idea of painting the inside of the cowl with shellac. I've used shellac for various purposes in the past and as I recall, it will stick to anything and dries hard like glue. I'm wondering if I could just blow out the loose foam dust with compressed air and then spray the whole inside of the cowl with shellac to stop it from falling apart any further. Anybody see any reason why that wouldn't work?
 
I had the same problem - scraped it all off and it is a little louder - that is all


No other problems and no annoying dust
 
txneal said:
Thanks for the responses. I just looked at the sound absorbing insulation on Mcmaster-Carr and may decide to go with something like that eventually. However, I'm not overly concerned with the noise reduction so much as I just don't want all of that foam junk getting into my carburetor. I still have plenty of insulation in there so that its not too loud, so if there was a way to preserve my existing insulation and stop it from deteriorating, I think I'd be perfectly content. Having been thinking about it a bit today, I've hit upon the idea of painting the inside of the cowl with shellac. I've used shellac for various purposes in the past and as I recall, it will stick to anything and dries hard like glue. I'm wondering if I could just blow out the loose foam dust with compressed air and then spray the whole inside of the cowl with shellac to stop it from falling apart any further. Anybody see any reason why that wouldn't work?


I would not do that - you might end up with a huge mess inside there - if you want the sound insulation that replace it correctly - if not, just remove it and be done with it
 
well, Capt. Ahab, your solution does sound pretty reasonable and simple. I really hate the dust, but I honestly couldn't give a rat's *** if my motor were a little louder, so scraping it all out and being done with it sounds like something I could do right now! It's a 2-stroke to begin with so I can't really imagine that that thin layer of insulation is going to do enough sound absorption to make a huge difference.
 

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