Winterization Advice

Spidermw81 · Post by **Spidermw81** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 11:18 am

I am going to start the winterization process here in about 2 weeks. I Have done the water systems before. As far as the AC unit goes I assume I just run antifreeze through the raw water hook up until it comes out the side, please let me know if I over simplified. The real issue I am working on is the engines. I have the old gate valves installed which also have horizontal sea strainers. When I used to winterize my fathers boat he had vertical sea strainers and we just poured antifreeze into them. Do I need to remove the hoses and stick them in a 5 gal bucket? Any advice, lessons learnt, or things I may over look would be greatly appreciated. I am not sure about changing oil or coolant yet but I have the service manual to go through and see what I can find out. Thanks!

Rick · Post by **Rick** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 11:45 am

Matt, Right on with the A/C, that's exactly what you do. My sea strainers are vertically mounted and have drains on the bottom, so I just open those. I guess you'll have to find a way to blow the water out of there.....we'll make it a don't ask, don't tell kind of thing. Definitely change oil, definitely drain the mainfolds. Coolant is your call, guess a flush every so often is good thing. If you've got a Lectrasan, do not use any anti-freeze what so ever. You've got to pump those dry, most of us use our oil change pump's. Rick Ticket 85 SF Merc 454 MPI's Falmouth, MA

CB35 · Post by **CB35** » Wed Oct 06, 2010 6:06 am

I made an adapter to connect my intake hoses to a 5 gallon bucket. I usually run 10 gallons of fresh water through followed by 5 gallons of pink juice. This boat has 3208 so NO NEED to drain the manifolds as they are all freshwater cooled. Just 5 gallons of pink juice. The yards around want as much as $250 dollars to winterize a diesel. Man what a rip-off. If you spend more then 10 miuntes and 5 gallons of pink juice you are doing something wrong. The AC pump is not self-priming so you need to either connect a bucket higher then the pump and pump the pink juice through the AC systems. That is what I do. Don't forget about the hot water tank, freshwater tank, freshwater pump, raw water pump, genny, crapper and sheeet tank, shower drain, a splash in every sink drain (not really necessary as the contain no "J" traps, disconnect the bilge pumps ( you don't want them trying to work when frozen in, pink juice for any remote bilge pumps (main belly pump) open all seacocks and remove drain plug. You don't want your boat to "sink" while on land.

Brian Davin · Post by **Brian Davin** » Thu Oct 07, 2010 9:26 am

I disconnect the batteries too.

Spidermw81 · Post by **Spidermw81** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 6:33 am

Thanks for the advice so far. I am going to work up some contraption to winterize the engines. As for the oil change, I was looking at the oil hoses that come from the bottom of the engine (3208T) do I need one of the drill pumps or will that drain, aslo if I get the drill pump what type of attachment do I need to get it onto the oil drain hose? I assume I need to warm up the engines before I change the oil, is this correct and if so how warm is warm enough. I will be wet storing the boat this winter so i will add some anit-freeze to the bigle as needed. I will be shrink wrapping the boat in the water. If anyone has any helpful hints on wet storage that would be great too. This will be my first year trying wet storage. Thanks in adavance!