Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

[JimKW]

Basically I have been reading about winterizing my boat and was really wondering about the cost of doing it myself. I read the thread about doing it through the muffs and learned to not do it that way. When I had a Wellcraft 20 years ago I swear I did it that way, but it might have had a closed system, not sure though.

I have found a local guy that seems to really know what he is doing and has three levels of winterizing: Basic for aound $150, another level around $225 and Deluxe for $286. If I don't do it myself, I will go for the Deluxe where he winterizes it, fogs it changes the oil in both the motor and the outdrive and checks the engine alignment. Will also grease U joints, but is pretty sure they are sealed on my boat.

This guy really sounds like a Good ole boy that knows what he is doing. How much would I really save by doing it myself? I asked if he would teach me how to do it myself if I paid him and he basically said he's not a teacher and pretty much said he would not. Since I just bought the boat this past summer I am leaning heavily to having him do it at least this year so he can tell me if I have any problems with the boat that I probably would not recognize.

What do you guys think?

I will fill the gas tank and put either Seafoam of Stabil in the tank before taking it to him if I go that route. Hope to get out on it 1 or 2 more times before having it done. I am keeping it in my garage now so I think I'm safe for a few more weeks.

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

That's not a bad price to not have to fuss with it be it ready to go next year! As long as the guy is good and honest.

 

[ziggy]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

I asked if he would teach me how to do it myself

sounds like you'd rather do it yourself. and i say go for it. you've got great help here on the forum if you have questions. ya can get the s/m and it has winterizing instructions in it too.
personally, good ol boys worry me. maybe he's good, maybe he's not. but for sure he won't care as much as you do. when i do my winterizing, it's a chance for me to go over everything on my boat to make sure it's like I want it. this just makes me feel better about the job in question. i know if i did right or not. not having to rely on someone else saying, oh yeah, i did it all... we've all heard that before only to find out differently the hard way.... just my 2 cent...

 

[JimKW]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

Maybe good ole boy was a bad term to use. He really sounded like an older guy that knew what he was talking about and has been doing it for over 30 years. It's his own business that he runs at his place which is only about 10 miles from where I live. Says he's about $100 less than the local shops that do it.

One of the Marine shops I talked to wants about $80 more for the Deluxe. I did spend some time reading my manuals today and looking at the boat very closely and pretty sure I could do it, but not sure I really want to the first time it's done. I really wish I could just take it to him, pay him and watch him do it. I might try and talk him into that.

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

Jim, what engine and drive do you have there?

 

[concordsteve]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

Jim don't feel bad I have thy same issue. I just bought my first boat it has the 305 merc and I just can't decide to do it myself or take it in. I bet I read my owners manual a 100 times and looked at the motor for hours. I am just scared I'll miss something.

 

[JimKW]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

Jim, what engine and drive do you have there?

It's the 4.3 Mercruiser.

 

[steddy]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

One of the big things to make sure of: does he have insurance or a replacement guarantee if something gets missed and freezes/breaks the engine?

No satisfaction like that you get from doing the job right yourself, though.

I've always thought the owner of a piece of equipment or anything else should know how to work on it, but it is also important to know your limitations.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

Basically I have been reading about winterizing my boat and was really wondering about the cost of doing it myself. I read the thread about doing it through the muffs and learned to not do it that way. When I had a Wellcraft 20 years ago I swear I did it that way, but it might have had a closed system, not sure though.

Ayuh,...
The main reason the Muffs/ Antifreeze method Fails so miserably is everybody Skips the Most Crucial step....
You've gotta DRAIN it 1st,.... Then add the alcohol.....
Cold antifreeze closes the T-Stat all to often, resulting in Cracked blocks otherwise....
And,....
It's My belief that if you've already got it Drained,.... Why Waste the antifreeze.....

 

[myoldboat2]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

when i was a bit younger (dumber), ok a lot younger, i had a good ole boy rebuild the engine in my beloved full size bronco. it lasted about 18 months, and i later learned that i could've gotten a rebuilt for what i paid that guy.

i do all of my own maintenance on my i/o. i knew nothing about them when i bought it used 10 years ago. i used marina mechanics for the first three years or so, they created more problems than they solved. i think here in the midwest the boat mechanics are just not as good as the guys on the coasts.

do it yourself. read the winterizing thread in the adults only section, then take your manual out there and do the work. no big deal. any questions, just post them here and you'll get answers from true gurus.

 

[enginesilo]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

I'd say do it on your own. You have to do it your "First Time" eventually, so why not make this year the first. I've watched the pro's winterize in the past and they weren't very particular or careful. I'm doing my own and then i'll know it is done complete and right.

 

[schankla]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

Do it yourself. Ive only owned my boat for about 2 years, when i first got it i didnt know a thing about it. The shop i talked to wanted to charge me 300 dollars to do a winterization, with the help of this forum and the owners manual i was able to do it myself in about an hour. It was satisfying to know that it was done right. The last shop that worked on my boat didnt put one of the block drain plugs back in and left a drain plug out of the outdrive. Another nice thing about doing your own work is you notice problems before they are expensive problems. For example my gear oil was a little milky now i know that it needs attention in the spring, for some reason I dont think the repair shop would have told me. My boat is an 87 larson if i brought it to the shop everytime something broke I'd probably have to live in it.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

Jim, It is real convenient to do the winterization yourself. You can work on your own schedule. if it is late in the year, pull the boat out of the water and winterize it that day. Sometimes working to the mechanic's schedule can be risky, if he doesn't get to it, and it freezes overnight.

The drawback is that winterizing an I/O yourself takes most of the day, due to the many steps. For example, these are the normal steps, if nothing is broken:

Put fuel stabilizer in fuel tank. Run boat to ramp and pull it out. Hose off the boat and brush the barnacles off the AF paint. Remove prop and run boat on muffs to warm it up and flush the salt out. Change the oil and filter. Run the motor and fog it. Drain the block and manifolds and fill with antifreeze. Clean the spark arrestor. Change the gear oil. Change the water seperator. Pull the OD and grease the U-joints. Grease the other zercs, steering rod and trailer buddies. Spray motor with corrosion control stuff. Cover the boat.

The most fun I had winterizing the boat was in sub-freezing weather. The swim platform had water on it from the cleaning. This water kept freezing into a sheet of Ice. it was slip and slide time for me.

 

[myoldboat2]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

...and then...

"call two friends to help you get the %*#&$^@ outdrive back on with everything lined up right." arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 

[Lou C]

Re: Been Reading About Winterizing, Still Have A Question

...and then...

"call two friends to help you get the %*#&$^@ outdrive back on with everything lined up right." arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Well if you build one of these....it's not so bad....

About the winterizing....I just followed the OMC manuals when I first bought this boat...tried the suck the Af up the drive and after checking the mix in the block just drained and backfilled it...and have done it that way ever since...The best advice I can give you is to get the Merc OEM manual and read through it...you should have it anyway....and see if you think you can do it...there are a lot of steps...first you prepare the boat...by putting stabil in for your last run or you can run it on the hose to get the stabil in the system...
Next you turn off the engine....change the motor oil and filter
Then run it again...check for leaks....proper oil level....if all is OK...you fog it..
After fogging...you DRAIN...all the drain points....follow the manual ...
Then (optional) backfill with -100 AF through the hoses...
After that I like to drain the drive...while it's draining I change the fuel water separator...and then go back and refill the drive....
Then if I'm not too tired I pull the drive to check the bellows...gimble and ujoints...also check to see if there is water in the gear oil...if so I take it to my mechanic for a re-seal....I leave it on the the drive cart till spring and then put in a new impeller and reinstall the drive....

I'd estimate that if you use the best AF the parts cost is about 120 or so for everything...the AF adds a lot to the cost...the oil change for the drive and engine is not that much money wise