winterize - thrermostat - antifreeze

[rderenzy]

so...
last year when winterizing(my first year) I pulled all hoses and plugs and drained EVERYTHING.
so I had no cooling - THEN! I hooked up muffs connected with antifreeze bucket and ran until it filled up
I didn't have a thermo stat problem
but, *!!! yes, I started my engine /wo any cooling - how bad was that?

Now this year, I plan to run water the whole time, warm it up, and then quickly swap to the antifreeze
questions -
how long should I run before switching to antifreeze/how do I know when thermo stat pops?
in doing it this way, I should not have to drain or pull plugs/hoses right?

 

[Strecker25]

so...
questions -
how long should I run before switching to antifreeze/how do I know when thermo stat pops?
in doing it this way, I should not have to drain or pull plugs/hoses right?

That is the problem with this method, you just don't know. The only way the muff method works is to remove the T-stat from the housing and then run the AF through. At that point, you might as well just fill the block and hoses instead of running it. I pull the hoses and fill them with AF then fill the block, I see a big splash of clear water come rushing out of the T stat housing from the manifolds every time and that is after the block is drained. The unknown of the muff's would keep me up at night for 6 months

 

[hemi rt]

The problem with using muffs is you may get areas in the block/manifolds filled with very diluted anti-freeze and if you are using RV antifreeze it will freeze if it has water mixed with it, even regular vehicle anti-freeze that is diluted with too much water or pure anti-freeze can freeze.

 

[rderenzy]

so....maybe draining everything, and then running with empty and AF muffs ins't that bad? it obviously worked great last year(the t-stat opened) ,but did I hurt the engine starting/running w/ no cooling water

Merc lx 4.3 1997

 

[rderenzy]

wait...if I pull all plugs, and hoses - i'll still need to drain the t-stat?

 

[Scott Danforth]

drain and go..... air dont freeze.

antifreeze is never needed except it makes people feel good

sucking up on muffs will almost always guarantee a busted block in the spring.

and yes, you toasted your impeller running it without cooling water.

 

[rderenzy]

drain and go..... air dont freeze.

antifreeze is never needed except it makes people feel good

sucking up on muffs will almost always guarantee a busted block in the spring.

and yes, you toasted your impeller running it without cooling water.

but...if I drain, how would I summarize (start back up) w/o toasting my impeller after winter
it seemed to run good all year, how would I know if my impeller is broken

so, if I pull all hoses, and pull all drain plugs, I should be good to go - that does also drain the t-stat? - or do I have to remove t-stat?

 

[rderenzy]

scott - what is your advice on fogging the engine during winterization

 

[Starcraft5834]

Agree with Scott. drain it... drain it, drain it. save the $ you spent on pink and buy a new impeller

fogging.. after it's empty.. take plugs out and spray some fogging oil in there if u want.. frankly, I dont fog the plugs.. i dont believe it's all that necessary... cylinders are already oiled from use. others may disagree. if you go with draining, remember to put the plugs back in...

 

[rderenzy]

Agree with Scott. drain it... drain it, drain it. save the $ you spent on pink and buy a new impeller

fogging.. after it's empty.. take plugs out and spray some fogging oil in there if u want.. frankly, I dont fog the plugs.. i dont believe it's all that necessary... cylinders are already oiled from use. others may disagree. if you go with draining, remember to put the plugs back in...

but when I get my boat back from after winter, it will be drained - so...how does that not burn up my impellor as the motor is drained - I'm missing something

ALSO - I need to make sure here - if I pull the hoses and all drain plugs - I do not need to "pop" the thermostat right?

 

[Starcraft5834]

the get a new impeller comment was a joke... everyone who stores dry doesnt burn up their impellers on start up.. as long as you have water running, impellers "burn out" thru friction/heat, running it to long without water.. how long is that? anything more than 5 seconds IMHO could heat it up and warp it, u wont get hot enough to burn it out those few seconds on the first start up... thermostat popping? dunno what that is... get all the water out of engine block/manifold and remove hose to thermostat,, that's to make sure you drain it... what tiny bit of water left in the block or manifold wont injure a thing,,, as long at the water/ice has room to expand how ever tiny that is, u wont have any issues

 

[rderenzy]

Lol. Ok. Nice joke.
Thanks for all of the input and help

 

[KJM]

when you start your motor in the spring, you will I assume, have muffs and the garden hose hooked up. The water pressure from the hose will be enough to drive water to the impellor before you start and thus it won't run dry. I have on occasion run my motor fore a few seconds (maybe 20) forgetting to attach the hose and have had no problems after. I assume if the impellor was completely ruined then the engine would overheat. most people say even a few seconds dry running spoils the impellor but you ran all summer with no problems so i'd say its ok just try not to do it again. As for antifreeze, my manual doesn't mention it, just says drain the water. but I always take the cover off the t stat housing and pour some car antifreeze in after I drain the water, I pour until I see it exit the engine drain and then some into the manifold side until it exits the exhaust manifold. I pull the t stat while doing this and pour down that way and into the large rubber return hose from the engine.

 

[stonyloam]

NEVER EVER USE AUTO ANTIFREEZE TO WINTERIZE YOUR BLOCK!!!!

 

[Bondo]

so I had no cooling - THEN! I hooked up muffs connected with antifreeze bucket and ran until it filled up

Ayuh,.... The impeller is at the top of the lower unit, if ya got an Alpha drive, which brings up a question,....

What motor, 'n drive ya got,..??..??

If ya wanta waste yer money on antifreeze, doin' it like ya did last year will work,....

Doin' it the way you propose, is almost a guaranteed busted block in the spring,....

No matter how ya winterize, it starts with Drainin' the block, 'n manifolds,....
Cheat that step, 'n yer headed for disaster,...

When the motor is drained, the impeller pumps water in, til the motor, 'n manifolds are full, then it dumps out the exhaust, regardless whether the t-stat is open, or not,....

 

[Lou C]

If you are worried about the impeller being dry when you start up you can disconnect the raw water intake hose at the Thermo housing and fill the hose with water till it runs out the water intakes on the out drive.

When storing dry I think it's a good idea to fill the block with water first. Don't have to do this to the manifolds because the impeller unless you have the style of stat housing that won't flow to them till the stat opens.

 

[superbenk]

If I remember correctly, the t-stat has a small bypass hole that is always open anyhow. The diaphragm opens to allow full flow when things heat up to temp, but when cold there is still some water that passes by the t-stat & will also drain from the t-stat when everything else is drained. In other words, if everything else is drained properly, I don't think you're gaining anything by pulling the t-stat as well (if you're just draining water & not adding anti-freeze back in).

For the record, I'm in the "air don't freeze" camp & never use anti-freeze.

 

[89retta]

If you are worried about the impeller being dry when you start up you can disconnect the raw water intake hose at the Thermo housing and fill the hose with water till it runs out the water intakes on the out drive.

When storing dry I think it's a good idea to fill the block with water first. Don't have to do this to the manifolds because the impeller unless you have the style of stat housing that won't flow to them till the stat opens.

What do you mean when storing dry to fill the block with water first ? Defeats the purpose of winterizing and the block will crack if water is left in it.

 

[JASinIL2006]

What do you mean when storing dry to fill the block with water first ? Defeats the purpose of winterizing and the block will crack if water is left in it.

I assumed he meant "fill the block with water first" come Spring, when you're ready to fire up the boat for the first time.

 

[Oshkosh1]

People overthink this winterizing thing. I go through the same thing in my vintage car "world". People go all OCD and do a lot of things which are not only unnecessary at best but may be damaging at worse.

There's also a BIG difference between putting a boat in "storage"(longer than 6 mos) and "winter layup"(under 6 mos).

If simply putting it to bed over the winter, start it, starve(fuel) it, drain it(block/manifolds), use a bit of compressed air to blow all passages out, give the linkages a quick coat of WD40 and cover it with something that breathes.

Hell...my "new" boat was winterized and not started for 7 years. Fired it up on the 7 year old gas(10 gallons added to freshen it up) after installing a new battery and ran just fine.

Sometimes less is more...