3126 Winterization

D

DagoBy

New Member
Sep 20, 2010
22
Osage Beach, MO
Boat Info
1996 450 Sundancer
Engines
3126 CAT
Winterizing my 1996 450 DA w/ 3126 CATs (fresh water cooled).... Planning on sucking 6-7 gallons of pink stuff through each engine and filling strainers w/ pink as well. Also checking anti-freeze in the closed side of things. Is this ok or is there a need to drain the raw water side of the cooloing system on each engine?
 
Did the same thing on my 2002 410 DA and it went very well. Boatdiesel.com has articles on this and I feel good about both flushing the raw water side and having the plumbing antifreeze in the system. First year with the boat and sure hoping I have been reading good advice. Only negative I once read was about antifreeze impacting the impellor and causing it to somehow breakdown. I cannot imagine this to be the case so I went for it.

Have you now done the same?
 
Just a little semantics......your 3126 CATs are "Closed Cooling" Cooled....not "Fresh Water" Cooled.....just one of my pet peeves....no offense intended....unless of course, you boat on a lake, then they are mostly the same.

There are a few ways to suck the 'pink' through your RWC circuit. I've posted here my 'big bucket' system and crash valve method. You can search and you'll find it....a few pics to go along with the description. I do the whole process, on two motors (some prefer engines), in less than an hour...and that includes setup and breakdown.....by myself.

Some folks just open the lids on their strainers and pour in AF there. That is typicaly a two person job. One guy in the bilge, with buckets filled of pink, carefully pouring into the strainers, while somebody topside confirms that Pink is coming from the exhaust and is ready at the ignition button.

It's your decision as to how involved you want to make the process. The bucket system also has the advantage of serving as a means to regularly flush the RWC circuit....especially the heat exchangers.... with a rydlyme type of product.
 
Last edited:
osd9 said:
Just a little semantics......your 3126 CATs are Raw Water Cooled....not Fresh Water Cooled.....just one of my pet peeves....no offense intended....unless of course, you boat on a lake, then they are mostly the same.
Click to expand...

Well, my 3126 engines are fresh water cooled. The fresh water recirculates though a heat exchanger via which the engine heat is passed to raw water.

:smt021
 
ktcanuck said:
Well, my 3126 engines are fresh water cooled. The fresh water recirculates though a heat exchanger via which the engine heat is passed to raw water.
Click to expand...

I'll guess that you mean your "Closed Cooling" circuit.....and, if in fact you only have fresh water in there, you'd better go add some CAT Antifreeze....and quick....
 
osd9 said:
I'll guess that you mean your "Closed Cooling" circuit.....and, if in fact you only have fresh water in there, you'd better go add some CAT Antifreeze....and quick....
Click to expand...

Which, of course, it does but, by all means, try to find something else....the point is that fresh-water cooling and closed circuit cooling are both perfectly acceptable terms for the same thing and the OP did not need to be corrected.
 
Last edited:
It really is frustrating the way these terms are used interchangably by many people. It makes things confusing.

To me, "fresh water cooling" means the cooling water is not salty, and the boat was used in "fresh" water

"Closed cooling" means the fluid in the block is circulated through a closed circuit, and fluid does not enter or leave the circuit.

wish we could all standardize:smt009
 
I wouldn't disagree with that. I disagreed with the OP being corrected. Our language and its grammar is being debased every day with ambiguities.
 
I'm a newbie poster, but I'm not new in any way to boating or winterizing. I don't want to start anything, but I have to go with ktcanuck. Fresh water and raw water have nothing to do with salt water or fresh water, at least as far as a cooling system is concerned. If that were the case, I could really muddy the waters by asking what is it called when you're in brackish water? :smt001

BTW, I'm closed-cooled, and I winterize mine by checking the captive cooling water/anti-freeze, draining the mufflers, and dumping water through the strainer.
 
There's raw water and closed cooled. Fresh water is a type of raw water.
 
DagoBy:

I hope you can read through the banter and I hope that my first post above is of some use to you with regard to your original question. And again, as I said in my first post, I meant no offense and I hope you didn't take any.....
 
I always thought fresh water and closed cooled were the same. The other type..raw water cooled I always call it "seawater cooled" even though I'm on Lake Superior and it's fresh water. So now I ain't sure what I got, so if anyone asks what I got I'll just say I do not have a closed cooled system and they can call it whatever they want.
 
Pants/trousers
lunch meat/cold cuts
ground beef/chop meat
cap/crown
soda/pop
hat/tuque

You say tomatoe, I say tomato. Let's call the whole thing off.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,215
Messages
1,428,738
Members
61,111
Latest member
OhanaTime
Back
Top