Engine winterizing

[tfhyndman]

I have a 95 37' DA that was pulled from the water this week. I just opened the sea strainers and poured anti freeze while running the engines and noticed the anti freeze wasnt comming out the stern sides (like it did in the water) but from the underwater exhaust fitting. Am I doing this correctly?
Thanks for any help.
Tim

 

[scoflaw]

As long as you drained the water out of your system before you added the AF

 

[Skuza]

I have never winterized inboards but would say no. We have closed cooling which involves simply removing the drain plugs on the raw water side. Block has coolant like a car.
In your case I would imagine a hose connected to a 5gal bucket of antifreeze would be the best way. Connect the hose before the sea strainer and then start the engine and run. The bucket will act as a resevoir to supply plenty of antifreeze to the system as it runs. I can't imagine your able to pour antifreeze in the strainer fast enough to keep up with how fast the engine will pump it. Again the bucket of antifreeze takes care of that. It also ensures a good mix in the motors. Also don't want to burn up your impellers running them dry.
I use 2 gallons in the bucket for the gennny and 3 for the air conditioning(2 units) to give ya an idea of how much antifreeze.
My contraption is a bucket with a ball valve attached to the bottom. The ball valve has a standard garden hose attachment on the end. I use a 5-6ft length of hose on the end of that. The threads on the end of the hose fit into the generator raw water hose tightly enough on their own. For the a/c I have a reducer that I thread on which allows a snug fit in the smaller pickup hose. Has made Winterizing a breeze!
Also once the boat is out of the water I give the sea cocks a quick open and close to let the remaining antifreeze in the lines back flow out through them thus Winterizing the valve in them. I leave them closed for the winter so the remaining antifreeze stays in the system.
Hope this helps and gives ya some ideas!

 

[Jimmy Buoy]

If your engine blocks are cooled with sea-water (not glycol) it is best to drain all the water first as already mentioned. Then you can add the proper 50/50 water/antifreeze mix to the raw water pump system to winterize. The method you have used so far will probably result in a very low concentration of antifreeze vs water in the block.

My last boat had engines that were "raw-water" cooled (sea-water in the blocks). I successfully did my own winterization for years (with the help of a friend - it is a 2 man job) with the following method...

First invest in a 3-4" diameter sanitation hose and a shut off valve for each end along with a barb fitting that will fit your raw water supply hose going to the engine.

Drain the engine block and exhaust manifolds of water by removing the brass drain plugs. Stick a short piece of wire in each drain to ensure they are not plugged with rust. Reinstall the plugs.

Mix 5 Gallons of 50/50 antifreeze and pour in a tall, thin bucket. Fill the hose with AF too and shut the valve. Place the bucket under the boat where the engine coolant naturally exits the boat. (I had through-hull exhausts)

Attach one end of the sanitation hose to the water supply hose going to the engine's raw water pump, then open the valve. Drape the other end of the hose in the bucket but keep the valve shut for now.

Instruct your helper to start the engine while you are at bucket with the hose and the very moment it starts, open the valve while keeping the end of the hose submerged in the antifreeze. Lower the hose fitting to the bottom of the bucket. You should immediately see the hose draining the bucket of antifreeze. If not - stop and recharge the hose with AF.

Hopefully you have enough AF in the bucket so it won't run out before it is replenished by AF coming out of the exhaust port. Each boat is different. I made notes for the next year as to how much AF needed to start the process.

Once the boat is running and the AF is cycling through the engine, use a small cup to take samples of the AF coming out of the exhaust and quickly use a testor to ensure it is a good enough mix to withstand winter temps. Keep an eye on engine temp too and be ready to shut it down once up to 170 degrees. It helps to have the helper ready to close the valves on the hose or you'll have to recharge them with AF for the second engine. Repeat for the second engine.

AF is NOT CHEAP, but I can be. My bilge was clean enough that I would drain the block and exhaust risers in the spring and recover most of the AF from my transom drain and use it again the next season to reduce my costs.

This method ensures that your block receives coolant and that the coolant is not watered down to the point of being insufficient to protect during the cold cold winter!

 

[tfhyndman]

My engines are fresh water cooled not raw.

 

[Adam1]

West Marine provides an Engine Winterizing Kit that is convenient to use. Uses your existing flusher and a garden hose to winterize your outboard or sterndrive engine, even while it is on the trailer. Kit includes a five-gallon jug, hose fittings and instructions for winterizing. You supply five gallons of nontoxic antifreeze for each engine. Complete instructions are included. It is reusable and is sold for $39.99. The link is:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...toreNum=50218&subdeptNum=50293&classNum=50297

I spoke with a MerCruiser technical advisor and I was informed that you can simply flush your engines without necessarily draining it provided you can see that the antifreeze flows out from the water exhaust ports. I used 7 gallons of antifreeze just to be sure I had sufficient antifreeze in my block.

 

[Xplicitlnck]

I used the kit from west marine. It worked great I used just around 6 gallons for a single 7.4. I remembered somebody telling me to add af by pulling all hoses off the thermostat housing and fill them with the pink stuff. So I got curios and even after draining water from block and running with pink usuing the kit the hoses were dry. So I started pooring more pink into the hoses and immedialty clear water started coming out of the thermostat hzousing and the rest of the hoses and not just a little water a lot. Even after using the kit the engine drank another 3 gallons of pink. All in all after my experience I do not trust the kit from west marine. Next year I will drain the block and just poor pink into all the hoses as well as the raw water pump intake hoses

 

[Jimmy Buoy]

My engines are fresh water cooled not raw.

Tim,

Thanks for clarifying. You don't have to worry about getting the block winterized at all since the engine constantly has AF runing through it - just test its strength to be sure. What you have already done to winterize the raw water side of the system should be just fine!

 

[Adam1]

Did you run the engine long enough to allow it to heat up so that the thermostat valve opens (around 170F)? I ran my 6.2L with fresh water for nearly 10 minutes until the engine temperature reached 170F and then applied the AF. This is necessry to ensure that the AF circulates throughout the block.

 

[Xplicitlnck]

Yes. I ran on the hose until the thermostat opened shut down and transferred to the pink. Ran on pink at 170 until I went thought 6 gallons of pink.