Winterization Questions

I am getting ready to winterize my boat as the season is quickly ending for us (Canada). This is the first year with the boat and the first year I’ll be doing DIY winterization. My engine/mechanical knowledge is limited. I was going over the steps Al listed here:

https://forum.moomba.com/showthread....ith-pics-by-Al

I have several initial questions after reading through the instructions but don’t actually plan to do the winterization until the weekend. I have a 2005 LSV and the 310HP Carb engine.:

1) He mentions draining the oil at the start. He doesn’t mention refilling the oil immediately afterwards. Is the intention to leave the engine empty of oil throughout the winter and then refill next spring?

2) The very last item listed is the following: Remove each spark plug and spray fogging oil into each cylinder for about 2 – 3 seconds. Spray a little fogging oil on the spark plug hole threads. With all the spark plugs still out, bump the starter for 1 second to evenly coat the cylinder walls with the fogging oil. Reinstall the spark plugs.

Bumping the starter is just quickly turning the ignition on/off for 1 second, correct? If this is done with the spark plugs and oil removed, would you be worried at all about engine damage or flame?

3) He mentions putting a cap of bleach in the ballast bags to prevent mold. Should you keep the bags capped over the winter? Or cap them, mix the bleach around in the bag, then uncap over the winter?

4) I see a lot of discussion on whether you should run antifreeze in addition to draining the boat. The guide written seems to be for draining only. If you were to go with the antifreeze method, would you instead keep all of the hoses connected, and just connect a hose to a large bucket with antifreeze and then circulate it through until it had displaced / pushed out all the water? If you didn’t have to unbolt/unscrew all the hose fittings this method seems like it would be easier? How much antifreeze would you need, (assuming I’ve made the right assumptions)?


Appreciate the help!

Hayden

1. Refill the oil, make sure when you replace the oil filter you fill the filter up with the new oil to the top as well. The suggestion is you should run the engine for a few minutes to circulate the new oil prior to putting it up. I'll typically replace the oil and add stabil at the dock to a full tank and then motor over to the launch to cycle everything, then you are good for the winter.
2. Bumping the starter is easiest if you remove the kill switch and then turn the ignition for a second to cycle it.
3. Seems to me that its a personal preference. I never do the bleach but once drained I hook everything back up so as not to lose anything, forget where I stored it, etc. I don't go around huffing ballast bags to worry about breathing in mold spores.
4. Where you're at I'd prob say yes to the anti-freeze but is the boat stored in a heated garage or outdoors unprotected from the elements?

It will be stored outside, -30 Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) will likely be the lowest we'd see.

These threads seem to hit most of it, may need someone who's actually gone through the adding anti-freeze chime in with what they used.
https://forum.moomba.com/showthread....ht=anti-freeze
https://forum.moomba.com/showthread....ht=anti-freeze

Very useful threads. Thank you sir.

With the sparkplugs out and wires off, just turn the key a second or so. The starter will roll the engine over, but nothing else will happen.

I do the antifreeze. You must drain the water first... the engine/hoses/manifolds hold somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 gallons of water. You need to get all of that out first so that you're not diluting the antifreeze. I just picked up some at walmart that's probably -50F rated when not diluted. 5 gallons is the bare minimum... I think I used 7 last year, including 1 gallon poured into my ballast to them run through the drain pump. To get it into the engine, I just bought a 1-1/4" hose, clamped it in where the thru-hull hose connects to the water pump, and put the other end into a 5 gallon bucket. By the time the bucket is empty, you should be seeing antifreeze start to come out of the exhaust. if not, just add a little more, but don't let the waterpump run without drawing fluid in (a clear hose is helpful for this). The whole 5 gallons will get drawn in within 30-60 seconds or so.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darter

I do the antifreeze.

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Agreed.

Hayden - Take a look at my winterization photo album. Pictured are some of the product I use for winterization, including antifreeze for sub zero climate when we lived in the Midwest. - Deerfield

Appreciate it gents, thank you for the advice.

If you hAve a v drive you may want to drain the muffler first.....if your anal

So we did most of this today and it seemed somewhat straightforward. I have a few follow up questions:

1) We unbolted both port/starboard side block cooling plugs. We unbolted the Vdrive forward/aft block plugs. We unfastened the hoses on either side of the raw water cooling pump and drained those along with the hose from raw water intake and all the ballast hoses. I think we have drained all the bits that can be drained. Are there any that I've missed?

2) Where is the strainer for the raw cooling water? I know we have one for the ballast water intake but I can't find the main one for the engine water. The ballast strainer had all kinds of twigs/leaves in it and I figured that raw water one would be in similar condition.

3) In the other winterization threads DOCDRS talks about needing the engine to be hot in order for the thermostat to open the valve and allow new cold water into the engine block. When you come off the outlet of the raw water pump, the hose loops around to the starboard aft side of the engine and climbs up through a tube that has some sort of fabric or porous material inside it. What is this device doing? Is it a strainer? Seems odd to have it downstream of the raw water pump as you could get stuff stuck in the raw water impeller, no?

4) After making it's way up the tube described in (#3) the water enters what I think is the thermostat valve/switch? So if it needs the cold water, it gets diverted into the engine and if not, it shoots it straight into the exhaust headers. Is that correct?

5) So if it does need cooling water as described in (#4) then the valve sends it into the J tube on the port aft side and from there it enters the engine block, correct? Where does it exit the engine block? I've looked at a few diagrams of this but couldn't find one from Indmar for our type of engine.

6) If I disconnect the J tube, attach a hose to the block inlet and send 5 gallons of antifreeze in there, where will it come out? Will it be in the exhaust manifold when I finally run it? If I use this method I don't need the engine to be at temp because I'm bypassing the thermostat completely. Do I just put my two block plugs back in, pour the 5 gallons of antifreeze in and then let it sit for the winter?

Again, appreciate any time taken to shed some light on these.

H.

Let me start with question 6. I disconnect the hose that comes off of the hull pickup where it enters the impeller pump. I then connect a clear tube to the pump and drop the other end into a 5 gallon bucket full of RV plumbing antifreeze. I remove the thermostat at this point too so that I don't have to have a hot engine and can be certain the AF goes where I want it to.

Start the engine, and in maybe 60 seconds all the fluid is now in the engine. This basically lets the impeller do all the work.

At this point, the AF will be starting to come out of the exhaust. That's where all cooling water exits the engine.

For #2, you might not have a strainer. What you found in #3 sounds like it might be the transmission heat exchanger. Does it have 2 thinner hoses coming off the side of it? If so, that circulates trans fluid across a heat exchanger that has the incoming water flowing through it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darter

Let me start with question 6. I disconnect the hose that comes off of the hull pickup where it enters the impeller pump. I then connect a clear tube to the pump and drop the other end into a 5 gallon bucket full of RV plumbing antifreeze. I remove the thermostat at this point too so that I don't have to have a hot engine and can be certain the AF goes where I want it to.

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Gotcha, so where is the thermostat? How exactly do you disconnect it and ensure that all your AF is going into the block?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darter

What you found in #3 sounds like it might be the transmission heat exchanger. Does it have 2 thinner hoses coming off the side of it? If so, that circulates trans fluid across a heat exchanger that has the incoming water flowing through it.

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Yep, that's the tube I was wondering about. It has two smaller tubes coming off it heading towards the front of the engine (so the transmission as you say). I put my finger in there and it felt like fabric/porous so wondered what it was.

Double post - please delete this comment.

Take a closer look at the heat exchanger. I don't believe there should be anything soft at that point. Could be weeds, old impeller bits, etc. This is a good spot for annual inspection since it can clog.,especially if you don't have an intake filter.

Before I added my filter, I found weeds accumulated here.


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More questions!

A) With regards to where/how the cooling water blankets the engine - As part of our winterization we took off the thermostat housing and replaced the thermostat. During that process you get to see exactly how the water gets channeled to/from the four different hoses that are attached. So you have cold water coming from the impeller, going through tranny cooler tube, into thermostat housing. Then you have the J tube curving down from thermostat housing and going into the aft-center of the engine. This line is constantly getting water as the thermostat housing just has a flow-through section that allows water to pass through here all the time. In addition, you have two hoses on the top of the thermostat that run to the exhaust headers, again this is flow-through and will always be open. Finally, you have the hole underneath the thermostat itself which becomes a viable path for the water when the thermostat opens as it gets to around 160-180 degree F.

What I don’t understand is the difference of function between the water going into the engine via J tube vs. the water going in under the thermostat. Are they both doing separate sections of motor cooling of the motor jacket? Do they come together at some point inside the engine block? Now that I’ve had the thermostat housing off and in my hand, I’m trying to build a picture of where the water’s flowing in each scenario.

B) So a while back I said that I put my finger into the bottom end of the tranny cooler tube and felt like a fabric/fibrous “something”. We got some picking tools and scraped out and salad’s worth of seaweed/leaves/gunk that had been in there blocking it up. (Upto this point we had no inline strainer and this is our first year on a weedy lake.) My question is whether folks think it would be worthwhile to take the Vdrive rectangular housing off and make sure there’s no vegetation/blockage in there also? Has anyone done it? Is it just a matter of unbolting? Is there a rubber ring or a gasket you’d need to replace? We had no problems getting water or AF through the system during winterization but the blockage in the tranny cooler tube has me wondering about the Vdrive. (We’ll do the raw water impeller in the spring.)


C) Dryair / Dryeze (condensation crystals) – has anyone used a product like this in their boat for outdoor winter storage? Any comment on whether it’s useful?

A. Water does not go into the engine thru the thermostat under the housing. When the water temp in the motor reaches 160 degrees then and only then does the thermostat begin to open slightly to allow water to escape and out thru the hoses to the exhaust manifold. Up until 160 all water will pass thru the housing to the exhaust manifolds . The greater the temp above 150 the more open the thermostat will be allowing more water out and now new cool water will enter the engine thru the J tube and circulating pump on the front or rear of the engine depending if v or d drive

B. No need to take take the top off vdrive. It is fairly wide open inside and I doubt the seaweed would get stuck. There is a honey comb cooling screen in the tranny cooler so why it catches everything. Unhook both side vdrive cooling hoses and suck it blow using a shop vac. A strainer is always a good idea. Gives you visual access instantly

C. Can't hurt so why not. Depends where and how damp your storage area is imo I store mine on my lift inside my boat port all winter long with no dry eze stufff but a few bounce sheets to keep mice away

Ahh gotcha. Water enters via the J tube, is stopped by the closed tstat, warms up, tstat eventually starts opening and then it exits out the top and into the exhaust headers. Meanwhile, there is a constant parallel flow happening where water is just going straight through to the exhaust headers whether the tstat is open or not.

Makes sense now.

Appreciate the time taken to reply Darter/Docdrs.