Trojan Boat Forum

Going to winterize the engines Friday. Have Merc closed cooled engines so the engines themselves are not an issue. Plan on pulling raw water pumps and covers on heat exchangers, dumping water from raw water lines and strainer. Going to pull the raw water hose that exits the cooler and heads to the risers (Merc center rise exhaust). Will pour antifreeze into the line so it runs down exhaust hoses to muffler and out until it tests good. Any worries about the antifreeze getting into the manifold???? Seems as long as the risers are ok that should not be a problem. Thoughts??????
Thanks!

Do you have a full system or half system? Are your exhaust manifolds part of your fresh (closed cooling) water side? If its a full closed system, your raw water side will not touch your manifolds, just your risers.

I will drain the Raw water side, and then run the motors while pouring the pink (or purple) antifreeze through the sea strainers until I see the same color exit the exhaust. Once it turns pink (or purple), pour some oil down the carb and turn off the engines. It takes a couple of guys, but it ensures you are getting all the trapped water spots that didn't get drained. Some guys say to pull the impeller, but I've never done that, and haven't had any issues. I check my FWS side to ensure my antifreeze is within my temp limits, and call it a day.

It is full system (manifolds have anti-freeze only risers see raw water) Just need to winterize risers and mufflers unless I am missing something. All other hoses before heat exchangers will be blown-out/empty.

You should be all set. You can hook up some air or vacuum to the system to help push the water out.

It's common practice to simply pour the antifreeze in but one does in fact need to consider that there can be a risk of some getting into the engine through the exhaust side of the manifold under the right conditions. Personally the only time I winterize without actually running the engine is if there is something that prevents me from being able to start the engine such as a major component having been removed for repair, or something fails to work. I prefer to have the antifreeze take exactly the same route that the raw water takes to ensure every inch of the circuit is covered including pump, oil coolers, etc. It also ensures that none will run into the exhaust side of the manifold.

Big D wrote:It's common practice to simply pour the antifreeze in but one does in fact need to consider that there can be a risk of some getting into the engine through the exhaust side of the manifold under the right conditions. Personally the only time I winterize without actually running the engine is if there is something that prevents me from being able to start the engine such as a major component having been removed for repair, or something fails to work. I prefer to have the antifreeze take exactly the same route that the raw water takes to ensure every inch of the circuit is covered including pump, oil coolers, etc. It also ensures that none will run into the exhaust side of the manifold.

That is exactly what I have been thinking. Maybe I will run it thru the risers with it running. The pumps are coming home with me so below the heat exchanger all will be drained and dumped. I have winterized others by pumping thru the whole system but always thought about the what if..... Sounds like my thinking isn't all wet, and valid to be cautious.

Some elbow designs are more susceptible than others to the problem but why take the chance when it's completely avoidable by simply running the engines when winterizing. You can kill several birds with one stone by simply running them; adding antifreeze, running stabilized fuel through system, fogging, etc....oops, don't even get me going on fogging

sounds like your doing allot of unnecessary work, i have one FWC and one RWC and all my boats regaurdless of cooling system, on my Trojan F32 and Silverton 26 Sportfish I disconecct only the hose at the thru hull and then I run them to normal operating temp so I know the thermostates open on a hose then pour the pink antifreeze till it comes out the exhauat and then because im OCD a little green and stall the motor out pouring mysery oil down the carb, 15 yrs and often more than 3 boats a year no issues yet, o and I add stabil and make sure that runs into the carb

The idea was to save some antifreeze since I will end up removing the water pumps and taking them home. Therefore all coolers will be empty an all lines would be too. Engines will still have antifreeze in them as they always do. My thinking was just to keep from dumping all that pink antifreeze in the bilge when I pull the pumps.

K4282 wrote:sounds like your doing allot of unnecessary work, i have one FWC and one RWC and all my boats regaurdless of cooling system, on my Trojan F32 and Silverton 26 Sportfish I disconecct only the hose at the thru hull and then I run them to normal operating temp so I know the thermostates open on a hose then pour the pink antifreeze till it comes out the exhauat and then because im OCD a little green and stall the motor out pouring mysery oil down the carb, 15 yrs and often more than 3 boats a year no issues yet, o and I add stabil and make sure that runs into the carb

Hope you're draining the raw water cooled block first.

Big D wrote:

K4282 wrote:sounds like your doing allot of unnecessary work, i have one FWC and one RWC and all my boats regaurdless of cooling system, on my Trojan F32 and Silverton 26 Sportfish I disconecct only the hose at the thru hull and then I run them to normal operating temp so I know the thermostates open on a hose then pour the pink antifreeze till it comes out the exhauat and then because im OCD a little green and stall the motor out pouring mysery oil down the carb, 15 yrs and often more than 3 boats a year no issues yet, o and I add stabil and make sure that runs into the carb

Hope you're draining the raw water cooled block first.

Disconnecting the hose at the thru hull and run them to normal temp ? What about the pump impeller and exhaust system with no water flow

It runs through everything, the through hull, how would it not go into the oil cooler and water pump, how else would it ever get through the exhaust

I should mention I run them on a hose to operating temperature, when that's not possible like a 26 Silverton I hauled last weekend I did it the minute it came up the boat ramp on the trailer

Big D wrote:...I prefer to have the antifreeze take exactly the same route that the raw water takes to ensure every inch of the circuit is covered including pump, oil coolers, etc. It also ensures that none will run into the exhaust side of the manifold.

+1

I set up a 20 gallon bin right under the exhaust and I fill it with 3 gallons of undiluted anti freeze. I put a bilge pump in it and pump it through a hose to a fitting that goes over the intake under the hull. I run the motor and test the anit-freeze that is coming out the back as it will be mixing with the fresh water that is already in the system. You have to watch the heat because you are not getting the cooling effects of raw water. I usually have about 2 gallons of diluted anti freeze left over and I dump those back in the bottles. I repeat the same procedure with fresh anti freeze on the other motor.

I use the 3-4 gallons of leftovers to run through the wash-down hose and fresh water system, then the bilge pumps (also making sure to catch the spillage). Whatever is left I dump into the bilge to settle in whatever low spots there might be.

I try do do this immediately after the haul out once it is set in it's cradle. If the crew is quick enough, the engines will still be warm and the thermostats still open.

Winterizing bilge pumps, never gave that much thought, never had a issue either. I had one boat that had some leaves get caught in the plug hole and didnt get shrink wrapped, 34ft boat filled with water and ice, pumps frozen, bow one under 2ft probably, they still worked after. Sounds like your method is similair to mine just a little more work and id be nervous of waterflow/temps, I come out this saturday and the boat may very well be winterized in the water if their late to get me at the ramp, i have my funnel ready, mystery oil, stabil, 6 gallons of pink and one green antifreeze ready to go, for the heck of it I looked at a couple YouTube videos just now, West Marine I believe is a reliable source, they do exactly as I said only he said something about a bucket? I replace bucket with funnel at the hose that I remove from the sea strainer, I often tie a string or wedge the hose in a way it works exellent without any spillage, here's their video.
Watch "Winterizing Your Boat: Step 2 The Engine & Lower …" on YouTube
Winterizing Your Boat: Step 2 The Engine & Lower …: http://youtu.be/5kiOms2f4gg