from Volvo's web site...

...The new QL Neutra-Salt Engine Flushing System is now available for installation on all gasoline inboards and sterndrives. This system is designed for both freshwater-and saltwater-cooled engines that have an engine-driven raw-water pump. As a saltwater boater, you are continually challenged by the corrosive effects of salt -- both inside and outside your engine -- particularly when the boat is sitting unused in the water. Now, with the installation and use of the QL Neutra-Salt Engine Flushing System, you have an effective and simple solution to combat internal corrosion and help extend the life of your engine.

Benefits of our flushing system:

Flushes your engine while the boat is sitting in the water -- there is no need to trailer your boat or hook up to a freshwater supply in order to flush and protect your engine
Helps protect your engine from saltwater damage
Helps prevent corrosion by removing salt deposits, leaving a protective corrosion inhibitor on all metal surfaces, including: Power-steering and oil cooler, engine block, exhaust manifold and risers, thermostat housing, circulating and raw-water pumps...

I trailer boat. I moved the boat to salt water this past spring. I purchased the $200 kit from Boat US last year. After reading up on the installation, I figured it would not be tood bad of an installation. After running the boat on muffs a couple times I found running on muffs to be pretty painless that I have yet to install the NS system. Maybe this spring. My biggest issue is that to use it properly you need to view the amount of liquid before and after the usage or you have no confidence its working. Lifting up the engine compartment with passengers can be rather cumbersome. I think its might just be easier for me to run it on muffs when I get home.

Melnic,
You might be better off waiting until you get home to flush out, but you should at least use one of the similar products to ensure that ALL the salt in the engine, on the drive, on the boat, the trailer, the trailer brakes..etc. gets rinsed completely away. I use "Salt Away", the chemical content (non-toxic by the way) of Neutra-Salt or the other products out there ensures that all of those little salt crystals are dissolved. Now you don't have to use it every single time you take the boat out, especially if you are like me and boat for two or three days in a row, then you can just use the salt dissolvers on the last day. But definately use one...salt destroys nearly everything it touches.

Yes, I use Salt away on the outdrive, boat and trailer every time I boat. I have the attachment that puts it inline with the hose and flip it on at the end of the rinse so salt away stays in the engine when I'm done. I do prefer this because I KNOW its in there when I'm done.

I'm stuck with a painted trailer so I'm trying to get it to last as long as I can till it needs replacing. I tried to look into selling it or trading it in but the trailer dealers wanted pennies on the dollar for the painted trailer. So far, I have very little rust on the trailer after the first season. Mostly just the fastiners.

I like Salt Away and a garden hose for trailerboats out of the water. And with it, you can get the salt off the entire rig. I use ASAP once the rig is out of the water.

I look at this system as a way to protect the drive system while in the water. Plus, once installed by a dealer, do-it-yourselfer, or ordered on your new boat, its just a push button operation while the engine is running, just before you shut down for the day.

Works while the boat and engine are in the water!

How much of the the Nutrasalt solution do you use and how much does it cost?

Has anybody installed it themselves?

seabuddy - i've heard of the netra-salt before before but thought it was for i/o's only. any idea if it's designed to work on the raw water circuit of a typical fresh water cooled engine with v-drives? on my boat, the raw water circuit is a thru-hull, then strainer, then v-drive, all connected by short hoses. from the v-drive there's a long hose to the raw water pump, which is belt driven from the engine crankshaft. past the raw water pump is the oil cooler, heat exchanger, risers, and finally exhaust.

Bruce, it should work fine on your engines, since you have engine mounted, belt-driven pumps. The key is, it's a piece o' cake to shut off the seawater supply to the pump and let another fluid take it's place.

However, it seems that poor Mercruiser is left in the cold, since their raw water pumps are in the drives, not on the engines...

Which leads to this question, and/or an idea...

It would be extremely(<emphasis!) easy to rig up some quickie disconnect or fluid re-rout fittings and/or valves which would block any seawater inflow, and allow a small, battery powered pump of some sort (portable or fixed) that would pump the salt neutralizing solution thru the engine. And the engine wouldn't even have to be running...

Patent it and you're a rich man FR! If anyone can fabricate something out of nothing, you can.....I'll buy the first share of stock when you go public.....

FR - i thought a small amount of netra-salt might be sent along with the raw water. if it's sent instead of the raw water, i don't see how the liquid in that small canister can last 15-20 engine shutdowns if each shutdown is 45 seconds.

Well, then I need to understand better how the thing works--does the neutra-salt thing just add itself to incoming seawater, and neutralize it on the fly? Upon actually reading the info ( ) it seems it DOES, then the neutralized water is 'at rest' in your engines...okay....

If so, then my idea is moot, because it should work with Merc the same way, it would just require different valves & fittings, that's no big deal...

Either way, it should be fine for your Crusaders, Bruce. Just a matter of how it's plumbed into the raw water system. Seems it could be injected into the line just before the pump intake, sounds straightforward enough!

i did a little more digging and although their marketing material says it's for inboards also, the only diagram and istructions i found were for an i/o. one line in particular says to press the button for 45 seconds when the engine is at idle "making sure the engine has an adequate supply of raw water". so it seems it adds it's mixture to the raw water, at least on i/o's. i would love to know of someone who has one installed with fwc inboards, and v-drives and i wonder if the stuff is introduced before the v-drives or afterwards. the marketing stuff says QL Neutra-salt by volvo. guess i should give volvo a call.

BRUCE--*as I see it*--- As long as you can install the neutra-salt injection valve (I guess that's what to call it!) between (a) the thru-hull and strainer, -OR- (b) between the strainer and the V-drive, then your V-drives would be taken care of!

I assume the 45 seconds is the amount of time they've determined to be enough to replace the untreated water with treated water...sounds like a good system!