Questions about preventing freeze damage to my drivetrain

[security6]

This is my first year of owning a boat, and I'm a little nervous about freeze damage after seeing so many horror stories this spring. Please forgive me if my questions are a little newbish.

I have read the forum on winterizing, but have a couple questions that are not covered there. I have a 1999 Volvo 5.7 PEFS with a SX-M drive, and have read the service manual. Since the weather was nice yesterday, I decided to do a trial run of draining the engine and exhaust manifolds and have a few questions:

1) Manual says to insert a wire/screwdriver into the drain holes. I did so and it went in about 1" (on the block drain holes) before hitting something. I didn't force it further than that. How far should the wire/screwdriver go in?

2) For freeze protection, do I need to do anything to my drive? I am not winterizing my boat yet as I still want to use it this year, but we may see freezing temperatures before I winterize it.

3) Just to confirm, there are only 4 drain plugs on a Volvo 5.7, right? One on each side of the block (starboard and port) and one for each exhaust manifold. There are no drain plugs on the hoses, so I just disconnect the hoses and drain them.

4) Anything else I am missing for freeze protection?

Thanks!

 

[Utahboatnut]

Re: Questions about preventing freeze damage to my drivetrain

Its usually recommended to change the drive lube for the winter layup. Reason being is IF the drive has taken in any water it will seperate from the lube and has the potential to freeze and crack your gearcase. So if you do it when you winterize you know all is good + you are good to go next season. Not sure on a volvo but on a merc you also need to make sure the power steering cooler is drained as well.

 

[cmcglothlen]

Re: Questions about preventing freeze damage to my drivetrain

I have the exact same motor...1999 5.7 GSI PEFS, I am done winterizing..."I think"...one question, there is a hose that comes out of my power steering pump, do I need to drain that house? It's the rubber hose, not the steering fluid hose. Also, on all my old merc's I had to drain the oil cooler canister, but on this motor it looks like it sits at an angle to self drain...is this the case or do I also have to take of both hoses to the oil cooler?