I was hoping somebody could give me some tips when I use my boat in the cold weather.  I keep it inside but like a couple weeks ago I went to mountain lake and I had a little freezing problem.  When I started my boat the next morning I saw I was,nt pumping water so I pulled it out and took the cover off the motor and let the sun hit it for awhile.  It ran great after that  and nothing was damaged. Does anyone know how I could prevent this? I have a mercury 90 optimax and its a 2012.  Thanks for reading my post and good luck.

Use an antifreeze fuel additive, change oil to a low tempature viscosity and maybe wrap an electric blanket around the motor before putting it in the water and DON'T forget to completely drain all water out of it when you pull it out of the water.

i run stabil marine formula year round for ethenol issues. and when im done running in cold weather, i have a plug in the top of my motor , i dump in rv antifreeze. keeps impeller soft and keeps what little water that may be in there from freezing. for winter you can also add isoprpol to your lower unit to disapate water. we do that with snow plow pumps.gas line antifreeze like heet brand will work. i like the heated blanket idea ! hope it helps ! happy fishing !

My advice would be to trailer the boat at night. That way you can drain the water out of the pump and lower unit. Like previous guy said once the boats out of water pull the cord or run the engine a second and make sure all the water is out of the motor. I've done this for years during deer season and when there was no ice in the winter.