How are you guys sucking antifreeze into the block?

[SilentSeven]

Looking at winterizing options and I hear how folks are sucking a RV antifreeze solution into the engine. How exactly are you doing this? Curious to learn more.

[NautiqueJeff]

Proper method is to run engine on the hose until the thermostat opens, turn off engine, drain the block and other pertinent areas, replace the drain plugs, then using the water intake hose from the thru-hull fitting, let the engine pull in the antifreeze from a bucket. You'll need about five gallons. Watch for it to come out of the exhaust. Once it does, you're finished.

Some people do this without draining the block first. I do not recommend that. Any dilution of RV antifreeze makes it much less capable of freeze protection.

[SilentSeven]

Thanks Jeff. I assume the hose fitting is in the raw water intake line near the strainer?

[FMSKI]

Well I diluted RV antifreeze by 30%RV/70% water, put it in the freezer. Day later it was not frozen, just slushy. There you go.
But the heater needs revs to get flow, so I do drain that.

I remove the hose at the strainer and use a hose section on an inline plastic splice, clamp that and haul the RV in by the bottle. But I am thinking of filling a bucket this year.

[jmo]

This is how I rigged my old 196 to first run it the driveway to warm it up, the hose is filling the bucket while the clear hose pulls it in. Then as Jeff said drain all of the water out, then pour AF into bucket to pull it through and you done.

later on the excal motor I figured out how to manually pour AF straight into the block via one of the hoses coming off the block, so I only needed 2 gallons to fill the block and the heater core.

[bturner]

Living in the great white north where you never really know what kind of winter you're going to get, I've subscribed to Jeff's method of draining then filling. Problem with that is by the time you've done all that you might as well have just filled it manually. I drain the system per the manual, blow out the heater core, put all the plugs back in then fill the block through the heater port on the top of the block. I typically pull the lower thermostat hose at the housing and watch for antifreeze to start pouring out.or see antifreeze start coming out the exhaust. Depending on how the boat is sitting it's a 50/50 chance on which will happen first. Either way once you have antifreeze coming out of either place you know the block is full. Been doing it like this for 20+ and it has served me well.

That said winterization is like "what's the best oil" so whatever you can sleep with works for me.

[SilentSeven]

Hmmm. Looks like more work than I was hoping for. Here in the coastal PNW we rarely get an extended hard freeze and we'll ski all winter (drysuits) so I may winterize the boat a few times depending on the weather. The process below has been fine for the brief periods where overnight temps drop into the teens and get to the low 30s in the day.

My steps are - flip my block and manifold 'ez drains' (available via ski-dim for $$$ or just make your own for cheap), spin loose the shower feeds so they drain back to the block, dump the strainer bowl, pull the tranny cooler drain plug and finally pull the upper heater hose feed. I'll blow out the heater line and then pour a cup or so of RV antifreeze back into the heater line to flood the core. . Takes me about 30 minutes when the engine is warm.

I was hoping for a simpler process where I could ingest a gallon or two of RV mix in the raw water line and forego all the fidgety disassembly. jmo - your direct fill process is close I think but I'm not sure doing that is going to be faster or simpler than what I do now.

[jmo]

Draining the water out is the important part, back filling with AF afterwards is extra credit.

[FMSKI]

The gyrations for winterization are commendable but... im lazy...The thermostat needs to be cracked to allow the RV to go in. So I pull the boat and suck in the RV within minutes. But I am wondering if there is a bit of bypass (have too look). Always have plenty of pink in the block, even the years I did it cold :/. RV will go and displace/mix with any water, it's just piping. And due to brownian motion, mix over time.

The fill capacity of the motor, pumps and piping I figure is about 10 liters. So if you pull in 2-3 bottles of RV you're more than covered. Where else is it going?
Assuming no dripless packing line, that gobbles water and needs to be clamped off.

[SilentSeven]

I have come to the conclusion that since I am winterizing multiple times throughout the season, just draining as outlined above is my best solution. I think if I was winterizing once for the season, I would pull in an antifreeze mix. The antifreeze mix seems to more complexity as I don't have a good way to manage the fluids while the boat is on the lift.

[Rednucleus]

SilentSeven sounds like the boat will be on the lift all winter? - we do that at Hilltop and run a heater under the boat cover, never drain anything. Always toasty warm when the cover comes off. Boat does get used weekly. When it's really cold we also prop the motor cover open under the cover. Do you have power at the dock?

[SilentSeven]

Rednucleus - yes, pretty much on the lift. I don't worry too much about things except when we get that odd week of really cold weather that puts things at some freezing risk. Honestly, it's not the block that worries me too much...it's accessories like the heater core and ballast pumps. I do have power and the doc and use a couple of 60w convection dehumidifiers but they don't really put out sufficient heat to ward off a hard freeze. I'm probably a bit OCD on freeze protection but it's the ounce of prevention, pound of cure thing.

[FMSKI]

I don't drain, just pull the RV AF in to displace the water that is in the system. Takes like 10 mins

[Rednucleus]

SilentSeven go crazy and get one of the Extreme Heaters advertised here - you will sleep well at night!

[Scooter G]

Until the power goes out