Trojan Boat Forum

Unfortunately it is that time of year and I had winterize my two Crusader 454's yesterday. The boat has a closed system so the process is very simple. I had one question around fogging I was hoping someone could answer. During the process of sucking the pink stuff through the system I was fogging the engine. I sprayed quite a good bit of fogging oil down the carb but never really got any smoke out the back. In fact the engine really didn't bog down at all. Each engine had the same response to the fogging oil. Don't you usually see a lot of smoke?

Some folks won't like this comment but personally, I wouldn't worry about it. IMO, people stress too much about fogging. I don't feel it's that big a deal for the amount of time we are layed up given today's oils and the metallurgy strides of the last 50 years. If you feel the need to do it now, spray some down the carb while cranking the engine with the ignition grounded. This will prevent the engine from firing while ingesting the oil droplets to coat the cylinders. If it has to be done, running the engine IMO is not the way to do it given that you burn most of it which kind of defeats the purpose. While some will say pull the plugs and pour in some oil, you need to be cafefull with this method and also keep in mind that in a V engine, you will only coat the lower section of the cylinder, spray is better, then turn over the engine a couple of times. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it but that's just me!

I fog my 454 Crusaders every year (for the past 22 years) by trickling some Marvel Mystery oil down the throat of the carb as I'm shutting it down for the last time. My engine will complain a little as I'm trickling, but I never give it enough to kill it. I usually don't see smoke on shut down, but it will smoke for a short while on the spring start up.

Probably the wrong way to do it. Probably potentially harmful if I let too much pour in at once - but it seems to work.

Landlocked wrote:I fog my 454 Crusaders every year (for the past 22 years) by trickling some Marvel Mystery oil down the throat of the carb as I'm shutting it down for the last time. My engine will complain a little as I'm trickling, but I never give it enough to kill it. I usually don't see smoke on shut down, but it will smoke for a short while on the spring start up.

Probably the wrong way to do it. Probably potentially harmful if I let too much pour in at once - but it seems to work.

Roger that Landlocked. Thats how I have been doing it since I got my first carbbed I/O when I was 14. I learned to do it that way from watching my dads Trojan and Chris Crafts being winterized as a kid, and see no reason to change my ways either.

That being said I got a helluva deal on storage and winterizing of all systems from the yacht club and they will have me back in early April. My haul date is 11/2. So it looks like I'll have a 5 month layup. It comes to just under 300 bux a month including winterizing and recommissioning. I'll surely be watching to see if the proceedure used today has evolved or stayed relatively the same in the last 30 years.

I have to agree with Big D hat it probably doesn't matter if you fog or not but I do fog every year and have always done it, I use two cans at the same time until the motor is barely running then have my wife shut off the engines. i used two pull the plugs on my other boat and spray the cylinders until one time the red straw came off and shot into the cylinder, took me hours to retrieve it, that was it for pulling the plugs.

If you turn the engine over once in a while , that would do more good then fogging IMO .

prowlersfish wrote:If you turn the engine over once in a while , that would do more good then fogging IMO .

BINGO! Exactly what I do about once every week or two. Also for the same reason that I don't like all the hardware sitting in the same position for so long; including the impellers that I'm just too lazy to remove for the winter. Don't get me wrong, fogging has it's place, but for the amount of time the average boat is laid up for winter, no need IMO.

Fogging procedure:

- remove flame arrestor
- bring engine up to operating temp
- at idle, spray fogging oil (without tube) into front two barrels of carb until light smoke appears from exhaust
- turn off engine
- clean & replace flame arrestor
- pour glass of cognac
- light Cuban cigar
- toast the end of a good season

This procedure works well for me every season.


PS The engine is usually running on a -37°F mix of Prestone while fogging.

Like Paul's Idea, If you have twins I guess you are entitled to two drinks and two Cubans or facsimile/

larryeddington wrote:Like Paul's Idea, If you have twins I gues you are entitled to two drinks and two Cubans or facsimile/

I would say so or the other engine could feel like a redheaded step child and really act up next season!