Longtime boater with some nagging questions. We have a new boat this year. A 1989 13m express with Detroit Diesels 671's, winterizing is complete.
Background
The diesels are closed circuit cooling
In this part of the Midwest, the boats are stored in the water with bubblers, We have winterized many boats for in water winter storage through out the years.
We will see overnight lows in the -15 to -5 and single digit day times highs for part of the winter
Concerns
1) The mufflers were drained; however, the bottom edge of the port exhaust opening is approximately 1/2" below waterline and fresh water does feedback into the muffler. The port muffler will drain forever. The starboard exhaust port is 1/4" above the water line. Approximately 12 gallons of pink was pumped through the raw water system on each each side with engine running. The starboard muffler is full of the pink. The port muffler has some pink, but how much is unknown.
2) The engine seacocks are substantial with large strainers. The small drains on the seacocks are for the ball portion only and do not drain the remaining water. Thus there is about 3"x10" water column (before the strainers) holding fresh water. The strainers were drained and back filled with pink antifreeze. While antifreeze is slightly heavier than water, it may not mix or displace the fresh water. Unfortunately, we didn't have a good way of pumping the water out of the strainers when we winterized, considering several options.
Questions
1) Experiences with the exhaust design at water level or slightly below
2) Mufflers freezing
3) Winterizing the seacock
What's been winterized
- Fresh Water System - pumped pink throughout
Fresh Water Tank - pumped dry and added pink
Toilet system - pumped pink throughout
Holding Tank - pumped as low as possible added pink
Raw Water wash down - pumped pink
Windshield Fluid - directly supplied from fresh water
Generator - antifreeze temp verified, heat exchanger drained and filled with pink
Diesel Engines - antifreeze temp verified, raw water cooling pumped 12 gallons through fully heated engines (used a dump bucket connected directly to water strainer)
All sea strainers drained