Water in lower unit Alpha 1 Gen 2

[Lou_F]

This may be a dumb question, but I removed my prop for repairs the other day and noticed water in the cavity just foward of the prop. The outdrive was up in the trailer position last time it rained and I guess water just collected in there and sat. Is there a drain hole for this area? I am asking because this winter I stored my boat in the garage, but next year it will probably be stored outside, and I am concered about it freezing and cracking the lower unit. BTW, most of the marinas around here store thier new boats with the outdrive up all winter, so I don't know how they don't have problems with this.

 

[JustJason]

Re: Water in lower unit Alpha 1 Gen 2

that cavity is just the exhaust port. Its full of exhaust gas and water all the time when the boat is running. So it's no problem.
Now... if water were to freeze in that cavity, then yes you can crack the gearcase. If your talking long term storage in freezing temperatures then I personally both bag it up and store with the drive all the way down.

I've even rolled trailered boats up onto a couple of 2X6's in order to get the clearence to store a boat with the bow up and the drive down/in.