Winterize - Garaged Boat - Should I drain water?

[mrfizban]

Just wondering. My first season with my new 18' 3.0L I/O runabout and I'm storing it in an unheated but insulated garage, in our temperate Oregon climate (our low temp for the year is in the mid to high 20's and that only happens a couple days a year if lucky). My garage is insulated, but not heated, so it does get cold from the outdoor air sneaking in through cracks here and there around the garage doors, but I'd say it never gets close to what it feels like outside with the wind chill.<br /><br />My question is, my wife and I are debating the drain the water out of the lower unit, I also read about draining water out of the block and manifold. Does anyone know if that is completely unnecessary for a boat being stored in an insulated garage? Or is it still pretty easy maintenance that is a "better safe than sorry" type of thing? <br /><br />Any advice? Thanks.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Winterize - Garaged Boat - Should I drain water?

20 degrees is 12 degrees below freezing. Consider what a cracked block or cylinder head costs vs the few minutes it takes to drain the engine. This is a "no brainer". An draining the water from the lower unit means what???? If the lower unit has water in it, it two can be cracked and you don't want to know what that repair costs. Every fall the lower unit should be drained and lub replaced. If a bucket of water never freezes in your garage, you will likely be safe. If it does freeze -- what I said earlier.

 

[Richard Petersen]

Re: Winterize - Garaged Boat - Should I drain water?

If you can not or do not know how to do it correctly, have a marina do it on the trailer and get a itemized receipt in case next spring a long cold winter storm freezes it solid. You are being VERY lazy and or foolish.

 

[mrfizban]

Re: Winterize - Garaged Boat - Should I drain water?

OK. I was still wondering more about the idea of a lower unit AND draining water out of the block. Is one safer than the other. I suppose I misrepresented the facts by saying it is "20'". In looking at my local temperature the lowest temp is 28 degrees in the last 3 years. And my pet's water dishes out in the garage have never frozen, I was just doing a cost/benefit ratio of draining a block or a lower unit since I assumed most of those generic winterization guides were for outdoor stored boats. <br /><br />And you're right. I'm very lazy and foolish. I don't want to do more than I have to since my time is booked 6.9 days a week during the winter and I'm too lazy and cheap to drive my boat 10 miles to the nearest boat winterization and pay some guy $200 to drain some water. Good call by you. You nailed it.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Winterize - Garaged Boat - Should I drain water?

I would not be concerned about it MrFiz. My garage is attached but not insulated and the jug of distilled water I keep up by one of the doors has never frozen. Even when we had an arctic freeze (5f at nite and 18f during the day for two weeks) back in the early nineties, a pipe in the garage wall froze but the jug, sitting on a shelf never did.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Winterize - Garaged Boat - Should I drain water?

On a 3.0l,..... The Cost of Draining the Block,+ Manifold,......... Is about 5 Minutes of Your Time...............<br /><br />If it Does happen to get Down to 28* in your Garage for about 6 Hours,.........<br />And,.........<br />If you Don't take the 5 minutes of Your Time,+ Drain It,.........<br />The Co$t$ could Easily Exceed $3000.00 to Replace the Engine...............<br /><br />BTW,........ There's NOT Supposed to be Any Water in the Lower Unit AnyWay,..........<br />But,..... It Should At Least be Checked..........

 

[Richard Petersen]

Re: Winterize - Garaged Boat - Should I drain water?

That is why most marinas change the oils in the fall . So any water does not seperate out of the oil soup and split the bottoms of any castings.

 

[craze1cars]

Re: Winterize - Garaged Boat - Should I drain water?

My thinking is this: As normal annual maintenance you gotta change the oil in the engine, oil in the drive, and ideally lube and inspect the gimbal bearing and U-joints anyway. So all that has nothing to do with freezing as it appears there is little to no risk of that happening for you. But there's normal annual maintenance that makes the most sense to do at the end of the season...so you get the old, dirty, wet, and possibly corrosive oils outta your boat. So as long as you're spending the time/money to do that, why not spend another 15 seconds to unscrew 2 drains from the block? Or are you skipping annual maintenance for some reason, too?

 

[mrfizban]

Re: Winterize - Garaged Boat - Should I drain water?

Thanks. I have been 50/50 with the oil since it was a new boat (couple years old w/ only 85 hours on it) and was fully serviced when I bought it. I bought it late into the season and it only had about 5 hours on it for my test runs. So I was thinking I could probably skip a season of oil changes due to the unique "half-season" it got. But that would solve some of the other issues. Thanks for the reply.

 

[6 balls]

Re: Winterize - Garaged Boat - Should I drain water?

you stated in your first post that the temp inside the never gets close to what the temp outside feels like with the windchill keep in mind that 32 deg is freezing the windchill is just what the cold feels like so water will freeze at 32 deg no matter what the windchill is. So it may be 45 deg outside with a windchill of 32 deg (water will not freeze) and a temp of 32 deg with a windchill of 0 water will freeze not because of the windchill but because it is 32 deg so yes yes yes and yes drain the water! not just for the protection but have you seen what stagnant water looks like after just sitting there for 3-4 months (you dont want all that crap in your motor either)