winterizing?

[boatman37]

2006 Mercruiser 5.7 TKS (turnkey start) in a 2006 Crownline 250CR. I have the manuals and in the past I have always used my Campco winterization kit where you fill the jug with pink then connect your garden hose to the T on the jug and warm the engine off the garden hose. Once warm you flip the T so it sucks the pink out of the jug. I store in an underground mine so it never gets cold enough to freeze but usually bring it home mid March and have got some pretty cold days after coming home.
So I can only find 3 drains on mine. First is down low on the front of the engine on what I guess is the water distribution block? Then IIRC there is one on the bottom of each manifold. None on the water pump that I can feel for. Was thinking this year about just pulling hoses and pouring directly into the hoses cause I'm not 100% confident the t-stat is opening to get pink all through the engine.
The only thing my manual says is to pull the 2 plugs on the sea water pump (mine doesn't have any) and the one of the front bottom of the engine. Then just says to let it drain and leave the plugs out?
Not mentioning outdrive, oil, etc as I'm ok with all that.
Wondering if maybe the blue plugs for the sea water pump got lost along the way and they replaced them with bolts? I can't see in there to see anything but can't feel much there either.

 

[Pirate Lady]

Cant comment on drain plugs, different engine. i always left the drain plugs open and hoses disconnected, figured I’d give room for expansion in case ice pocket forms. Never cracked a block…. Yet.

 

[William R. Thomas]

I store my boat in an underground mine also. (Wampum, Pa.) I still fill the block with anti-freeze to prevent internal corrosion in the cooling passages.

 

[Lazy Daze]

In addition to your concern about the t-stat not opening, there is still another concern with your current way of doing things... when you flip the switch to suck in pink stuff, you end up with "some mix" of AF and water inside. You'll have no idea what that mixture is. You would STILL need to drain everything before sucking in the AF. Don't always trust what Youtube says...

Not all sea water pumps had plugs - earlier versions did not. In that case, remove the output hose, flip your kill switch to off and turn the engine over a few times to evacuate all water.

But, back to getting the wate out of the engine/manifolds... even with that "quick drain" set up, there's still the risk of the small drain lines that come from the block/manifolds could be clogged up and not draining. You should still remove them - or at least feel them to ensure they are warming up after running the engine.

But, yes, after fully draining, "best practice" is to simply backfill the system through the t-stat hoses. If you disconnect (it's easy) the small drain lines, you can verify that pink is flowing through, thereby making sure there's no clogs.

Are you sure you have a carb'd engine? I'm surprised that in 2006, Crownline wasn't using a fuel injected engine.

 

[boatman37]

Yep. It's a 2bbl TKS system (turnkey start). No choke. There is a solenoid that engages to squirt extra fuel into the engine when cold.
Engine ID number is 0W383495

Most were fuel injected in 2006. There are 2 others at our marina identical to ours. One is a 2004 and the other a 2005 and both are fuel injected.

And yes, I have considered that there may still be water in the system diluting my AF. Technically I don't even need to winterize due to storage but would rather be safe just in case it gets too cold after we bring it home.

 

[boatman37]

I store my boat in an underground mine also. (Wampum, Pa.) I still fill the block with anti-freeze to prevent internal corrosion in the cooling passages.

Yep, we keep ours in Wampum too. We finally got in the climate controlled this year. The past 5 years we were in the 'general storage' area.

We dock in Bridgewater at Bridgewater Landings

 

[paulswagelock]

I think I recall 5 plugs total, 2 manifold, 2 block, distribution housing. But, there is a low point at the water pump and cool fuel module if equipped. Hoses need disconnected to drain those properly if they are not the newer versions with blue plugs.
I call the Camco diverter bucket Russian roulette winterizing. Might be good, might not, pull the trigger and hope for the best.
Storing in those mines keep you safe, but if you are going through the work, might as well be thorough.

 

[Juliery]

I use a big plastic tote and a small, 12 volt submersible pump with muffs on my Bravo 2. The tote is partly filled with pink, R.V. glycol and the leg is immersed to the cavitation plate with the prop removed. The pump ensures that the glycol is pushed up to the seawater pump and there is good circulation. Let the idling engine warm up to operating temperature. Shut it off and pour the glycol back into the jugs for next time. Yes, it is now somewhat diluted, but from a minus 50 concentration so not a worry in our mild Pacific N.W. climate. This method ensures that every passageway has R.V. anti-freeze in it and it is inexpensive, by recycling the pink stuff. If you are concerned about concentration, replace a jug of the recycled solution with fresh each year.

 

[blaster]

Be careful removing the plugs if you haven’t had them out. I can’t comment as to how many to find but I can tell you all about frozen drain plugs or broken plastic plugs.

 

[boatman37]

Got all 5 plastic plugs out tonight. Found SS replacement plugs from Hardin Marine for about $25. Seems pretty cheap. Might order a set of those

 

[paulswagelock]

Did you pull the hoses to drain the low point accessory items?

 

[MoonRiver]

What's the trick to draining (winterizing) cabin heater/defrost heater core that is under the helm seat on 330DA?

 

[boatman37]

Did you pull the hoses to drain the low point accessory items?

No. I have a plug in the front at the bottom of my recirculating pump. Pulling that drains the hoses

 

[Lazy Daze]

No. I have a plug in the front at the bottom of my recirculating pump. Pulling that drains the hoses

This isn't reliable - see my post above.

 

[boatman37]

man...too many hoses...lol. so you are saying to pour AF into one of my t-stat hoses to see if it comes out the manifold drain? there are 5 or 6 hoses going to the t-stat. just the ones that go to the manifolds?
i guess that would be a good idea but my manual just says to open the drains. nothing about adding AF anywhere. also had another guy say the same thing. but i'm ok with having that extra insurance of verifying the lines aren't plugged.
anything else that needs done or anywhere else i need to pour AF? was just going to leave the block empty this year with no AF. aside from pouring it directly into the hoses i can't see any way of being sure all water has been cleared and not diluting the AF

 

[paulswagelock]

Since you store in climate control, none of this really matters. However, if you want to do it thoroughly, then you pull the 5 drain plugs, pull any low lying accessory hoses and verify all those things are clear and relieved of any water. At that point, you could leave it dry. However, I had some motors that there were still low spots that I could never be sure drained completely, like oil coolers, power steering coolers etc. So I never used the air method. After thorough draining, I used a method similar to a poster above. Large tote, 6 gallons AF and a sump pump connected to the muffs. When you start the pump and then the motor, the first 3 gallon roughly are drawn in but nothing is exiting the exhaust ( that is the block filling with AF), at the fourth gallon the AF is exiting with exhaust gases from the drive. I continued to run it for a few minutes recirculating the last gallon and a half, usually up to 168 degrees or so, that is the insurance that low spots have been cleared and replaced with AF. There could be a quart or so of water left in the hiding places, but mix that with 6 gallons of AF and the dilution was negligible. Alternately, I have pulled the hoses and poured AF in each one, filling the block, then out to all the other flow paths using various hoses. A quick look and you can see which ones run where and it becomes intuitive where to pour.
This sounds like a lot, but the whole process was 30 minutes.

 

[Havana Shamrock]

I was told to remove the t stat from my 5.0 TKS and drain everything I then ran 6 gals of AF through the muffs it took a while to see a full flow as it was filling the block up. As there was little in the bucket I hit it with fogging oil DONE .

 

[boatman37]

Got that pump off today. Noticed the one hose connection had the lip broken off on a small part. I did not use any tools to pull that off so guessing it had been like that. Gonna check it over to make sure there are no cracks but aside from that will replace the impeller this spring then re-install the pump. Pulled all 6 hoses off the from block and poured pink into all of them until it ran out from somewhere...lol. Reinstalled all the hoses but left the blue plugs out. Boat is all done and ready to drop off at storage Thursday. And pulled the B3 today. Need to replace the cone clutch over winter too.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Reinstalled all the hoses but left the blue plugs out.

The way you worded that sounds like you poured the pink stuff in there with the plugs already out. That kinda defeats the purpose of making sure to flush out any small pockets of water (yes, there can be some). Plus, that's a waste of the pink stuff - it has anti-corrosion inhibitors in there to help combat that. Even though you're storing in a climate controlled place, the inside of the engine is bare metal. It can ONLY help to leave it in.

What about the small drain lines from the block and manifolds to the water distribution block?

It's not clear what you did or if you did it correctly - hence the questions.

 

[boatman37]

When we had our 1986 250DA I always just drained everything and left it empty. Air doesn't freeze. With this one I was trying to do a little better with the rust inhibitors but also keep hearing to leave it empty. So yes, I drained everything then poured the pink in with the plugs out to make sure there were no blockages and that it came right back out. Leaving the block empty this year. Keep hearing of issues with alcohol in the pink stuff and how hard it is on seals, etc so was kind of on the fence there.