Winterizing questions

[viper1216]

Couple of quick questions on winterizing. This will be my first year having to winterize my boat. I went through the process with the old owner last year on what he does, but just want to make sure it is correct. Engine is a 2010 3.0 Mercruiser with an Alpha 1 Gen II. There are 2 small drain hoses that drain the block and manifold on this engine. We drained those and then took off the large hose at the tstat and poured some antifreeze in there as a precaution. Disco'd the battery and took out and added some Stabil to the gas and that was it. Aside from cleaning and covering obviously. I have been reading and seeing a lot of folks using a fogger in the carb. I also saw my local marine store has an Engine winterizing kit...which basically injects antifreeze in through the muffs. Just looking for some input on what others think and if the above procedure is sufficient or not.

Thanks!
Dave

 

[oldjeep]

Your procedure is fine. Never use one of those antifreeze through the muff kits.

Only other things you may want to consider is replacing your impeller and changing the oil in your lower unit.

 

[roffey]

I have a 4.3 tks with a Alpha one. The out drive makes no difference as it will drain as soon as you put the drive in the down position. Injecting antifreeze is not a good idea as you will have to run the motor and heat it up to until the stat opens. You end up using copious amounts of antifreeze and still not know for sure if its completely through the motor. I drain my motor of all water and do not use antifreeze. My motor has 5 blue plugs to open and drain water from. I do not fog the motor but I do use stabilizer in the gas. I change the oil and filter. I check the gear oil as I have a clear cylinder on the transom (can think of the name of it) I can check to see the level and add some if needed.

I got my information from you tube and Iboats. My advice is wait and see who pokes holes in my process or corrects me, LOL.

 

[viper1216]

Your procedure is fine. Never use one of those antifreeze through the muff kits.

Only other things you may want to consider is replacing your impeller and changing the oil in your lower unit.

Awesome, thanks! impeller and lower unit oil was changed beginning of this season. I know the impeller is 3 years, but should the lower unit oil be done every year?

 

[oldjeep]

Awesome, thanks! impeller and lower unit oil was changed beginning of this season. I know the impeller is 3 years, but should the lower unit oil be done every year?

You would have to look at the book to be sure for years/hours. When I had an I/O I liked doing the lower unit oil every year just to make sure there wasn't any water intrusion.

 

[roffey]

oil reservoir, that's what I was trying to say....

 

[oldjeep]

I have a 4.3 tks with a Alpha one. The out drive makes no difference as it will drain as soon as you put the drive in the down position. Injecting antifreeze is not a good idea as you will have to run the motor and heat it up to until the stat opens. You end up using copious amounts of antifreeze and still not know for sure if its completely through the motor. I drain my motor of all water and do not use antifreeze. My motor has 5 blue plugs to open and drain water from. I do not fog the motor but I do use stabilizer in the gas. I change the oil and filter. I check the gear oil as I have a clear cylinder on the transom (can think of the name of it) I can check to see the level and add some if needed.

I got my information from you tube and Iboats. My advice is wait and see who pokes holes in my process or corrects me, LOL.

Checking the gear oil in the reservoir can tell you if you are leaking but doesn't really tell you if there is water in the lower unit since it wouldn't migrate up there.

 

[roffey]

I hear ya, I just unscrew the lower screw and let some oil leak out. I just don't change it yearly like some do.

 

[viper1216]

You would have to look at the book to be sure for years/hours. When I had an I/O I liked doing the lower unit oil every year just to make sure there wasn't any water intrusion.

So 5 months and 15 hours on it this year, so I'm good there. I will probably just pull the drain a little to check for water, and if all is good change it out next year.
I'm going to have to check the manual and see if there are additional drain plugs for the engine, but I think it's just those 2 drain hoses. As for engine oil, I like to do that in the spring right before it goes out so it's not sitting all winter.

 

[oldjeep]

So 5 months and 15 hours on it this year, so I'm good there. I will probably just pull the drain a little to check for water, and if all is good change it out next year.
I'm going to have to check the manual and see if there are additional drain plugs for the engine, but I think it's just those 2 drain hoses. As for engine oil, I like to do that in the spring right before it goes out so it's not sitting all winter.

For the 3.0L it is just those 2 hoses, used to have one just like yours. One drains the block and the other drains the exhaust manifold.

 

[jkust]

With my boats, I tend to go all in. I would change the lower unit oil as well as opposed to just dripping a bit out and topping it off. I've had good luck overkilling the preventative stuff. I tend to think in a breakdown situation on the water whatever the issue is, how much I would wished I would have just done xyz when I had it out of the water. While your engine is pretty much new still, keep in mind when you remove the blue plugs, sometimes there can be a bit of rust or debris that can stop all of the water from coming out. I would poke around a bit in there. Not sure what it means to disco a battery, but I would put a smart charger on it as well wherever it is sitting.

 

[wrvond]

Put in the proper amount of fuel stabilizer and top off with fresh fuel. Run the engine for ten minutes to get stabilizer into the carb. Some folks drain the bowl, but I've never done that.
Change the oil and filter. You do not want engine parts sitting in dirty, contaminated oil all winter. Your owner's manual will tell you to change the oil and filter when winterizing and when commissioning.
As you noted, there are two lines that drain the block and the manifold. After which I remove the hoses on both sides of the thermostat and pour plenty of pink stuff in. Both sides probably isn't necessary, but the stuff is cheap, and I feel better.
Remove the battery (if practical) and place on a quality float charger. Remove all the upholstery you can and store indoors. Unless you are shrink wrapping.
Put a good coat of wax on the boat and the trailer. You could even go so far as to put the trailer on jack stands, though I've not really seen any negative effects from leaving the tires on dirt, grass, gravel, or concrete (tried 'em all one time or another).
That's about all I can think of off hand.

 

[oldjeep]

With my boats, I tend to go all in. I would change the lower unit oil as well as opposed to just dripping a bit out and topping it off. I've had good luck overkilling the preventative stuff. I tend to think in a breakdown situation on the water whatever the issue is, how much I would wished I would have just done xyz when I had it out of the water. While your engine is pretty much new still, keep in mind when you remove the blue plugs, sometimes there can be a bit of rust or debris that can stop all of the water from coming out. I would poke around a bit in there. Not sure what it means to disco a battery, but I would put a smart charger on it as well wherever it is sitting.

It isn't blue plugs on a 3.0L. It is 2 blue hoses that are a couple feet long. You disconnect them from the carrier at the top and shove them down into the bilge to drain.

 

[jkust]

It isn't blue plugs on a 3.0L. It is 2 blue hoses that are a couple feet long. You disconnect them from the carrier at the top and shove them down into the bilge to drain.

Looks like you can't make a mistake with this.

 

[wrvond]

Looks like you can't make a mistake with this.

Unless you call pulling on the T-handle without removing it from the bracket a mistake... :facepalm:
Don't ask me how I know.:nonchalance:

 

[viper1216]

Awesome!!! Thanks for all the info everyone!! I will add the oil change as part of my process as well. WRVOND...you mentioned topping off tank...I would have thought near empty tank was better...is that not true?

 

[poconojoe]

I do the overkill thing. I run the boat on muffs to warm it up to operating temperature. Then shut it off. Then I have a home made bucket filled with RV non toxic antifreeze which I connect to the muffs. Restart engine and as it sucks in the pink stuff, I keep adding more into the bucket until I see it coming out of the drive. I use about 4 gallons. I then fog the carb until it stalls. I then remove all the plugs to drain everything out. I know, as some say, air doesn't freeze so the pink stuff isn't needed. But I fear that untreated water may end up in some corner of the block and for the price and trouble , I'd rather be over cautious than have a cracked block.
I keep the drain plugs and the garboard drain plug in a ziplock bag taped to the steering wheel.
Mine is the 4.3L and has 5 blue drain plugs.
And as already mentioned, I probe in the drain holes for any debris that may prevent proper draining.

 

[Starcraft5834]

as stated, drain out water from block and manifold ( after it's drained, clean out drain holes in case debris clogging flow of water out, (plug plugs back in) if you leave them out all winter the threads can corrode, causing thread chasing and nonsense to get them back in.... "air dont freeze", change outdrive oil, place drive verticle for winter... antifreeze is a waste of $, and it does freeze by the way.... "air wont".. it will sleep nicely all winter...

 

[H20Rat]

I do the overkill thing. I run the boat on muffs to warm it up to operating temperature. Then shut it off. Then I have a home made bucket filled with RV non toxic antifreeze which I connect to the muffs. Restart engine and as it sucks in the pink stuff, I keep adding more into the bucket until I see it coming out of the drive. I use about 4 gallons. I then fog the carb until it stalls. I then remove all the plugs to drain everything out. I know, as some say, air doesn't freeze so the pink stuff isn't needed. But I fear that untreated water may end up in some corner of the block and for the price and trouble

So you can't really flush it completely like that. There is an inner water loop that mixes outside water with what is in the block. 4 gallons isn't NEARLY enough to get enough water out of that loop to the point that the antifreeze is actually going to do anything. If you caught some of the water that comes out of the block in your final step and tossed it into the freezer, you would have ice cubes.

If you really want to use antifreeze, drain the block first, then refill it with antifreeze. Might potentially give you some rust protection, but is absolutely not needed for freeze protection. If there was a problem with hidden water pools, you would have heard about it LONG ago from everyone that uses the 'air don't freeze' method.

 

[roffey]

to add to the debate here, first year I had my current boat I did the antifreeze in a pail. What I did was run the boat up to running temp and then hooked up the pale with antifreeze and the water mufs. I ran to motor until the water was pink. Next I drained the water from the 5 plugs and the only one with pink water was the water pump.