Have a mercruiser 3.0 I/o - do we drain the antifreeze before we start the engine for the first time this season? Or do we just hook up a hose with the muffs and start it?
Re: summerizing - does the antifreeze need to be drained before start up?
if it's green anti freeze. drain it into a bucket and save it. it is dangerous (will kill them) to animals and they like to drink it.
if it's pink anti freeze. it is environmentally safe and can be drained down the drain. when i used anti freeze i used pink and would flush it.
as for why anti freeze is there. ya can winterize with or w/o anti freeze. what's critical is that all the water is drained out. after that. either method is satisfactory. personally, i've done it both ways. more lately i just been using air. easy and cheap and safe.
The manuals winterizing procedure says nothing about putting in antifreeze - you drain the water out air doesn't freeze
And yes I was assuming that someone hadn't actually put car antifreeze into the system - that would be really silly since there is pretty much no way to recapture it all.
