WHITE SMOKE While Winterizing the Engine

[Alex F]

While winterizing the engine I’ve noticed something unusual. With engine warmed up and running connected to a garden hose with earmuffs I switched to the bucket filled with antifreeze positioned on the swim platform. Reconnected the hose from the bucket to earmuffs (15 seconds process) I expected for the water pump to start pumping the antifreeze right away. Learning from the past that with BIIIs I need to apply more throttle, to provide more circulation since there’s no impeller in the outdrive like in Alpha-1. So I had raised the RPMs, but still no suction. Applied more and very slowly the antifreeze started to be pumped from the bucket. The problem is that a WHITE SMOKE started to come out from the exhaust. I asked my wife to give me a signal when the pink stuff will start to come out from the exhaust while I’m working the throttle and watching the bucket level. The antifreeze level in the bucket started getting low, but instead of the clear pink going out of the exhaust it was a mix of white smoke and dirty water (just a little bit of pink). As soon as the bucket got almost empty I turned off the engine.

Since the antifreeze was pumped out of the bucket I’ve concluded that the engine should of gotten enough of the pink stuff. But, I ended up with two concerned items:

• Why did I see the white smoke? Was the impeller burning?
• Why there was no obvious pink stuff coming out, but what looked like dirty pink?

I’ve done the procedure many times. When I switched from Alfa-1 (older boat) to BIII on my current 240DA I was told that it was the right thing to do to apply more RPMs for BIIIs to provide more suction. The same method worked for the past two winterizations, what was different now?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Alex.

 

[H2ONUT]

I would say the pump smoked... same thing happened to me last year.

 

[Dave S]

I would see white smoke on my 240SD with B3 also when I winterized even though I did things a bit differently than you.

I used the CAMCO winterizng kit shown below.

But once I got the water in the engine up to temperature, I would turn off the engine and drain the block. Then I switched from water to antifreeze and restarted the engine. It takes quite awhile for the antifreeze to fill the block (it empties the container very slowly as you observed) so in the meantime smoke (water vapor) comes out the outdrive and the temperature rises as well and may even set off the high temperature alarm.

Two observations here. As long as you did not let the water pump run dry when you switched over to antifreeze your water pump impeller is probably OK. Secondly, when you use the method of not draining the block you should use -100 antifreeze because the -50 stuff will get dluted with the water in the block. (In fact the instructions that came with my kit recommend you remove the thermostat first if you use the -50 stuff.) I emailed Camco and they are the ones that said using the -100 stuff should give you sufficent protection if you don't remove the thermostat. Of course they also added the standard disclaimer that you should check the antifreeze mixture comming out of the outdrive with a Refractometer to be sure you have adequate freeze protection.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Dave

 

[Alex F]

I would say the pump smoked... same thing happened to me last year.

h2onut,
How can I verefy the pump condition? I was thinking that next season I would run it and observe the temp. hopefully it stays normal.
Also, when you say pump, you mean impeller, right?

Thanks,
Alex.

 

[Alex F]

Dave,
Sorry delay, I didn't get any email alerts on the postings.

I'm glad that you also observe smoke, this gives me some positive hope that I'm ok. Although, I don't remember seing it preveiously, or may be not so much.

What you've stated makes total sence. But, I try to use the shorter version to accumplish the same results in shorter time.
1. I run the enigine until it gets to 170 to make sure the thermostat is open (this way I don't have to take it out).
2. I switch to the bucket hose (15 seconds - unscrew first one and screw in earmuffs the one that is in the bucket).
3. I have the bucket full of the -60 antifreeze (-50 I use only for water system). I usually wait until the bucket is empty. It usually took some time, but reasonable and I don't recall the smoke.

Since I've used this method at least in the past two winters before this one and all was good, I assumed I'm doing the right thing. BTW, I picked this method from a seminar they held at local West Marine.

Would you agree that if next season the temp is holding good than no damages occurred?

Thx,
Alex.

 

[Dave S]

Would you agree that if next season the temp is holding good than no damages occurred?

Thx,
Alex.

Alex

You mention it took you 15 seconds to switch over to the antifreeze. Did that mean you had no water or antifreeze running into the engine for 15 seconds with the engine running or did you turn the motor off until the switchover was complete? If you didn't turn the engine off, there is always the risk of damaging the impeller and you may want to consider replacing it even if everything seems to be OK. All you can do in the spring is try the engine on muffs again. Check to be sure it is pumping water out the outdrive when you start the motor and if it is bring it up to temperature and make sure it isn't overheating.

If you didn't run the pump dry you are probably OK as I mentioned earlier.


Dave

 

[Alex F]

Dave,
I don't stop the engine while I switch from one hose to the other. But, I could be a little off on te timing. It's more like 5-10 seconds with no cooling supply.

Thx,
Alex.

 

[Dave S]

It may be OK and it may not be. Without water in the pump, impellers have been known to destruct or be damaged in just a few seconds. Obviously it worked well enough to suck in the antifreeze so it may be OK. Just test it out in the spring as I mentioned in my previous post.