Winterization Questions

[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.

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.

[Hayden]

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.

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

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.

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.

[Hayden]

Double post - please delete this comment.

[Darter]

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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[Hayden]

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?

[DOCDRS]

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

[DOCDRS]

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

[DOCDRS]

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

[Hayden]

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.