Should I winterize in Central Texas?

[DaNinja]

How cold could it get? I'm counting on my Global Warming. She should be fine...

 

[DaNinja]

Re: Should I winterize in Central Texas?

BTW...what's the metric conversion for a 383? I've learned it has the same mounts as a 5.0/305.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Should I winterize in Central Texas?

383 cubic inches = 6.27 liters. If it freezes where you are you absolutely need to winterize. It is inexpensive, simple, and a heck of a lot cheaper than replacing a cracked block, heads, manifolds, or all of them.

 

[rallyart]

Re: Should I winterize in Central Texas?

Just drain the water and you'll be fine. If you have a cold snap forecast put a trouble lamp, turned on, in the engine compartment near the block and you'll have no worries even if you don't drain the water, unless you go back to record cold weather.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Should I winterize in Central Texas?

there are two aspects to winterizing. One is protection from freezes--remove all water if you have that risk. If you never get below 30, do nothing in that regard.
The other is stabilizing fuel and clearing the fuel path, which has nothing to do with temperature, just sitting idle--so to be correct, that's "storing" not "winterizing." In fact, it seems that the folks in constantly cold areas have less to worry about with fuel degradation. The temperature swings and humidity gets you.
Let me add, however, that it may be better to drain water even without risk of freezing, for storage; the I/O guys will have to comment since I am an OB guy and our motors drain themselves.

 

[security6]

Re: Should I winterize in Central Texas?

I always get a kick out of these posts. The part of winterizing that we do to protect against freezing is the easiest and quickest part. The rest should be done for any boat that is sitting, or is part of yearly maintenance. Winterizing an i/o involves:

Draining risers, blocks, circulation pump hose and oil cooler - takes 30 minutes tops

Adding stabil to gas - required for any boat that will sit for a while
fogging engine/carb - good idea for any boat that will sit for a while

Changing engine oil and filter - yearly maintenace
Changing drive oil - yearly maintenace
Changing fuel filter - yearly maintenance
Pulling drive to lube u-joints, and align engine - yearly maintenance
Lube gimbal bearing and trailer bearings - yearly maintenace

So yeah, if you want to save yourself 30 minutes (at most), don't drain the cooling system. On the other hand, it's so easy and quick, I don't know why you wouldn't do it. Everything else should be done whether your boat is going to sit in Alaska or Hawaii.

 

[DaNinja]

Re: Should I winterize in Central Texas?

Yeah, I'd hate to be the author of this thread...

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=388961

What a moron.

 

[stic88]

Re: Should I winterize in Central Texas?

Daninja- did you get everything straightened out?

 

[DaNinja]

Re: Should I winterize in Central Texas?

Daninja- did you get everything straightened out?

Just wrapping things up with the Missouri house and boat. The SeaRay will get new power over the winter. With the great info that I've found here, I plan on doing much of it myself.

The thread was just a fun poke at the other "Should I Winterize in..." threads.

 

[Firefox11]

Re: Should I winterize in Central Texas?

I'll bite on this one...

I have never winterized my boat in Texas!!! First off I always run the motor out before I leave the lake. (I.E. - Don't like to store it with fuel in the carbs no matter what! I don't wanna clean them everytime I use the boat!)

Until recently I have always stored my boat outside in the weather as well. But when u get back I made sure and dropped the lower unit and let the remaining water run out of the lower unit. Heck, my boat sat through 20 degree weather for weeks and fired up on first flip of the starter. Maybe it is a little easier on outboards, I'm looking at a Wellcraft I/O right now, that may be a little bit different. If you store the boat indoors I doubt it will get cold enough to worry about if the garage is insulated. Even in the 20's the garage was in the 40's. Unless your in the panhandle of Texas, I wouldn't be worried about freezing too much, its so sporatic!

 

[Bondo]

Re: Should I winterize in Central Texas?

its so sporatic!

Ayuh,.... Outboards are self-draining, as long as they're stood upright...
I/Os need to be manually Drained of water...

As for the occasional sporadic Freeze,....
It only takes 1, for an Undrained I/O to require Replacing the block....

It takes me a total of Maybe 5 minutes to drain mine at the boat launch...

 

[Beefer]

Re: Should I winterize in Central Texas?

Although I live in Florida, I think my rule on winterizing would be; If my locale historically gets snow in the winter (even once a winter), then winterize. Why risk it to save the little time and effort involved. Just remember how much time you have to spend working (no matter what you do) to earn enough (before taxes) to replace what may be damaged.