Basic Winterzation Question

[Jeremiah Forster]

I have a 2003 SeaRay 182 with 4.3L Mercruiser that I am winterizing myself. The manual is very generic for multiple different SeaRay models.

As I am winterizing the boat I remove the 5 blue plugs to drain the water. In the manual (which is generic and not specific to the 4.3L) it talks about removing hoses, however I cannot find any hoses that I can see that need to be disconnected. Every coolant line seem to lead to where a plug needs to removed.

Does anyone have any experience winterizing a 2003 SeaRay and do you know of any hoses that need to be drained other than the 5 blue plugs?

 

[BillK2632]

I have a 1999 with a 4.3 carb, probably same engine as you. This is what I do:
This is the drain and fill method, others may use the run it and suck the antifreeze in method.

1. Fog engine
2. Pull the 5 plugs manifolds (2), engine block(2) and water pump(1). Let water drain, probe holds with a wire tie to clear any clogs, replace blue plugs.
3. Pull hose from power steering cooler and drain. Mine sits on top of the rear of engine so hardly any water comes out.
4. Pull hoses from thermostat housing that lead to exhaust manifolds, fill each with antifreeze until it runs out of the exhaust, reconnect hoses. This fills the manifolds.
5. Pull large hose from thermostat housing that runs to waterpump. Fill with antifreeze, this fills the engine block. Some people remove the thermostat and fill, but it accomplishes the same thing.

I use 4gal of antifreeze, 2 for engine block and 1 each for the manifolds.

 

[Lazy Daze]

The owner's manual is not a service manual - a SM will give you much more info. Bill has already written some good advice, so need to restate anything. The only thing I would say "differently" is that there is really no need to pull the power steering cooler hose off given the height and angle it sits at. Plus, you'll be pushing AF back through it anyways. There's certainly nothing wrong will pulling that hose off, though.

As a side note, there is a TON of info on this site about winterizing - it should be really easy to find threads by searching.

 

[Jeremiah Forster]

Thank you very much for your help. I am attaching a picture, could you please tell me which hoses are for #4 and 5 please?

 

[Lazy Daze]

All of them. Although each manifold has two hoses and you can just fill from the bottom hose. Look at how they are routed - you'll figure it out.

 

[Espos4]

A word of caution, if your engine has the engine block drains routed to a drain manifold which sits below the crankshaft pulley, you may need to remove them to verify that the block is in fact draining.

The single point drain system routes all the drains to this manifold. If the block drains are full of sediment, you may think that you are draining the system, but one or both sides of the block may still have water in it.

Mine were clogged on my "new to me" 2007 last year. I removed the small hoses from the manifold (very difficult to do) and blew compressed air into the hoses. The sediment that came out was pretty muddy. (Thank you Great South Bay)

 

[Jeremiah Forster]

Thank you very much for all the great question and putting up like a newbie like me. Please excuse me if this is a dumb question but do you drain the anti-freeze in the spring or is that not needed?

 

[Lazy Daze]

What kind of antifreeze are you planning on using?

 

[Espos4]

If it is regular automotive antifreeze, then you should drain and collect it for proper disposal.

 

[Jeremiah Forster]

It is just regular marine and rv antifreeze

 

[Lazy Daze]

That should be non-tox so no need to drain/capture. What formulation (main ingredient) is it?

 

[Espos4]

I have found 2 different types of the RV/marine antifreeze. One is not recommended for winterizing engines because it doesn't have the corrosion protection that an engine needs.

 

[Jeremiah Forster]

Ingredients: water, proplylene glycol, corrosion inhibitor, dye

Isobar rv & marine anti-freeze is safe for brass, mild steel, copper and all plastics.

 

[Jeremiah Forster]

PS - it does state non-toxic

 

[bbwhitejr]

Ingredients: water, proplylene glycol, corrosion inhibitor, dye

Isobar rv & marine anti-freeze is safe for brass, mild steel, copper and all plastics.

The kind with the “Proplylene Glycol” is what you want in the engine. It also works well in the other systems and it is easier to just buy one kind.

Bennett