First time winterizing observations

[Kermit]

I have not completed the process yet but have picked up most of the supplies to do it myself. The boat has 130 hours on it and I wil be replacing the water pump this go-round since I have no idea when it was done last, if ever. I am mechanical but this is my first boat and I'm trying to get as much knowledge as possible before I go in.

Anyway, here are some of the things I ran across so far:

1. The single point drain works pretty well as I had a freeze scare and had to dump the water and pour in the pink -50 two weeks ago.

2. Is there any difference in the Peak -50 for $1.99 at Advance Auto vs the $4.99 West Marine stuff that says it has corrosion inhibitors? Both are the right type of anitfreeze for motors. The West Marine is going in this weekend.

3. Semi Synthetic Mercruiser oil is tough to find and prices are all over the place. West Marine said they had it but didn't after I arrived.:smt021 One placee had it for $43 gallon while another had it for $21 gallon. Guess where I bought it? Of course, they say they never use it Syn, only dino oil.

4. Fogging seems to have several camps. The place where I bought the oil says they only spray in the CRC fogging oil as that's all that is needed. I can't find any solid references on-line that support this and I am leary of trying it. I did pick up a 6 gallon Moeller tank at WM to do it per the manual. This guy said it was unecessary to do it that way. That method is only for shops. the injectors are protected by the Startron in the fuel.

5. Ethanol fuel. Fill or drain the tank? The last shop says to fill it up with Startron. I still don't know which way to go. He does not agree with the manual. I think I can get non-ethanol semi locally. Maybe a road trip????

6. Which oil filter or water sep filter? I ended up buying a set of Wix. They are actually finer filtration than the Mercruiser brand.

7. Alpha 1 Gen 2 water pumps are expensive! $143 locally for the entire kit. It's a little less online but shipping adds to the price.

8. The local shop says there should be no in-lne fuel pump on the stringer. It's definitely aftermarket. Hmmm, it's in the Mercruiser manual. How often does this need to be replaced and what is the part number?

9. How much "cocktail" do I need to prepare for a 4.3 to run for 5 min? Do I need 5 gallons or can I do it with 2.5?

10. Whats 100 miles of driving worth to collect everything? LOL

11. Total cost at this point is around $320. I still need some two stroke oil for the "cocktail."

12. Once I warm the motor, how long should the oil take to drain out the seacock hose?

Conclusions:
I don't trust either of the local boat shops since one is overpriced (and bad rep from other owners) and the other contradicts most of what I read in my manual. I guess this is a good time to go it alone.

Feel free to set me straight, if needed.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Hi Froggie,

You got a lot of questions there, but let's see if we can answer some of them quickly (try the search tool here on the forum, when you get a few minutes - I know I've seen numerous posts about your questions).

Either fill your tank or empty it - not in between.

DO NOT spray into your throttle body. Carb'd engines... it's OK. EFI... not recommended, but usually fine. MPI... never.

The "cocktail" recipe is 10:1 (fuel:2 cycle) and then something like 100:1 for stabilizer (double check me on the math, but if memory serves it's correct). But, in reality, as long as your close to that your fine. The 2-cycle is more important to be close with. Use any size/amount of gas you want, as long as the ratio is correct. Whatever amount of cocktail you don't use can be poured into your car.

What type of fuel/water separator do you have? Spin-on or drop-in?

Only use AF that is made from propylene glycol. Nothing else.

After this year (and, truthfully, maybe not even this year), you won't need that big impeller kit. There's a kit that sells for about $50 that is usually all you need.

 

[toddh]

Here is all I do. I gas up all the way and add stabil. I warm the motor and change the engine oil. I change the lower unit oil. I then warm it back up. I add 5 gallons of anti-freeze via the bucket method. Then I check the thermostat housing to verify it is full to the rim with pink. Lower the lower unit and take the battery out. That's it. Done it for ten years and it is cheap to do on your own. I have never fogged.

 

[tcason]

Change outdrive oil also!

 

[Lazy Daze]

If the non-ethanol is local, go ahead. I wouldn't drive out of my way to get it, though. Use Startron (or Marine Stabil) generously and be done with it.

 

[Kermit]

Thanks for the replies. I have done many searches but even then the info gets muddied very quickly. I did buy 2 qts of the HP gear lube for the outdrive. Nice catch.

As far as the impeller setup goes, can you inspect it and only do the impeller and some gaskets or once you open it up, just do it? That $50 kit would be nice to find. Do you have a number? I purchased 817275Q05.

It's a spin on fuel/water seperator filter. It looks like an oil filter.

Startron is available at Walmart and I have been running it. The tank is currently 1/4 full so fill it, I guess.

 

[Gunn]

2. Is there any difference in the Peak -50 for $1.99 at Advance Auto vs the $4.99 West Marine stuff that says it has corrosion inhibitors? Both are the right type of anitfreeze for motors. The West Marine is going in this weekend.

No difference, in fact that's where I bought some of my antifreeze this year. Great price, after rebate!

6. Which oil filter or water sep filter? I ended up buying a set of Wix. They are actually finer filtration than the Mercruiser brand.

Wix is a great choice. I switched to NAPA Gold this year after several recommendations (made by Wix).

7. Alpha 1 Gen 2 water pumps are expensive! $143 locally for the entire kit. It's a little less online but shipping adds to the price.

Wow! I replaced all of my Alpha I Gen II water pumps last season. I think I got them (off of EBay) for around $40.00 or so, each. Not sure what you were looking for, but that's outrageous. FYI, I've always purchased the Sierra brands and haven't had any issues...

8. The local shop says there should be no in-lne fuel pump on the stringer. It's definitely aftermarket. Hmmm, it's in the Mercruiser manual. How often does this need to be replaced and what is the part number?

Aftermarket fuel pump, or fuel filter? If filter, replace it every season too. It's probably a water separating fuel filter.

Conclusions:
I don't trust either of the local boat shops since one is overpriced (and bad rep from other owners) and the other contradicts most of what I read in my manual. I guess this is a good time to go it alone.

Good idea. Who cares more for your boat than yourself? No one... Good luck!

Tom

 

[Bt Doctur]

http://www.*******.com/merc/Bullet/01/01_15.pdf
replace the *`s with b o a t f i x

 

[Kermit]

http://www.*******.com/merc/Bullet/01/01_15.pdf
replace the *`s with b o a t f i x

Thanks. I have a copy of that and it matches what is in the manual that came with my boat. Does 5 min at 1300 RPM really burn 5 gallons of fuel? Probably not. What do you do with the leftovers?

 

[Lazy Daze]

No, doesn't burn 5 gallons. It just ensures the mixture gets where it needs to get. That's why I mentioned the ratio - so you would 't have to make 5 gallons. As I mentioned, dump the rest into your car.

This isn't the "spec" way to do it, but on my own boat I just dump about 1/3 of the gas out of the spin-on filter and guesstimate - a little 2-cycle (2 oz, maybe) and some Startron. It serves he purpose and is close enough that it makes no difference.

 

[Kermit]

No, doesn't burn 5 gallons. It just ensures the mixture gets where it needs to get. That's why I mentioned the ratio - so you would 't have to make 5 gallons. As I mentioned, dump the rest into your car.

This isn't the "spec" way to do it, but on my own boat I just dump about 1/3 of the gas out of the spin-on filter and guesstimate - a little 2-cycle (2 oz, maybe) and some Startron. It serves he purpose and is close enough that it makes no difference.

I've seen that process mentioned before and it's certainly cheaper, easier and less messy than adding a tank and connecting lines.

Do you run it until it stalls? Does it stall?

 

[Lazy Daze]

It will not stall. You will see very little white smoke.

 

[Gunn]

I've seen that process mentioned before and it's certainly cheaper, easier and less messy than adding a tank and connecting lines.

Do you run it until it stalls? Does it stall?

No, doesn't burn 5 gallons. It just ensures the mixture gets where it needs to get. That's why I mentioned the ratio - so you would 't have to make 5 gallons. As I mentioned, dump the rest into your car.

This isn't the "spec" way to do it, but on my own boat I just dump about 1/3 of the gas out of the spin-on filter and guesstimate - a little 2-cycle (2 oz, maybe) and some Startron. It serves he purpose and is close enough that it makes no difference.

It's a 10:1 ratio of gas to oil....an ounce of oil for every ten ounces of gas. If you assume the volume of your fuel filter is a 1/2 quart, then you'd use almost 2 ounces of oil...right on Dennis. :smt001

Tom

 

[Dave 205]

12. Once I warm the motor, how long should the oil take to drain out the seacock hose?

I went through my boat a few weeks ago. I think you are referring to the remote drain hose? I also have one, and it was a bit of folly, until I figured it out.

I had enough foresight to check the condition of the remote oil drain plug. It was pretty stuck, looking like it had never been used, so I got it loosened before warming the oil.

I had the oil at op temp, shut down, pulled the plug out of the drain, and DRIP. Dang near nothing. So, I did the following to get it to perform better. Each step helped a bit.

*Vented the engine by pulling up the dipstick and loosening the oil filter.
*Turned the boat around in my drive so the bow was pointed up the incline.
*Checked the bilge, and found the hose was caught a bit, and created an uphill loop before going out the bilge plug. Straightened the hose out and made sure the maximum hose was out back of the stern. My hose has a clamp on it that acts as a stop on how far the hose will go out the back.

Since I had just emptied 5 anti-freeze bottles, I had plenty of storage. My drain hose is kind of stiff, and sticks straight out the back, so I had some spare 1" plastic hose that I taped to the drain and ran that into an anti-freeze bottle. This method helped a bunch as I did have to let it drain a good 15-20 minutes, and was dealing with some wind. Initially using my car pan was messy.

The anti-freeze bottles have slide off labels, so I pulled them off, marked them motor oil and took them to my recycle center. Next year I'll bypass the car pan and clean up will be very minimal.

I was impressed with the result. My oil never looked too bad at the dipstick, but the amount collected showed a well drained engine and some plenty dirty oil. I think the PO probably always pulled from the top.

 

[Kermit]

Awesome. Thanks Dave! Tomorrow is the big day.

 

[Lazy Daze]

If you have some type of "oil sucker" you can make the oil draining go much quicker. Stop by a hardware store and get a 3/8" NPT to Barb fitting adapter (less than $5). Get the barb in the size you need to connect to your oil sucker. Screw the adapter into the end of the oil hose (after you take out the square plug). This only needs to be hand snug and it's best if you have the oil sucker's hose already pushed onto the barb. Having the engine warm is also key.

 

[Kermit]

I have a gear oil pump somewhere that might work. I could try to adapt it. Thanks.

 

[LetsRock]

If you have some type of "oil sucker" ....

Speaking of "oil sucker", I have the one with a small motor on it and have never had any luck with it. It doesnt seem powerful enough as the oil starts to flow but gets caught up in the hose halfway between the boat and the bucket. Anyone have any tips how to make this work? I cant stand using the hand pump any more!!

 

[Kermit]

Well, complete, sort of. I warmed the engine on the muffs and drained the oil. The pump I had did not work out so I just watched it dribble out. Oil was black so it was probably always pumped out the top. It took a good 30 minutes but no big deal. Dipstick out, cap off and oil filter with a hole punched in it.

The oil filter was put on by Hercules. I destroyed it to remove it. LOL. Fired it back up on muffs to circulate oil.

I removed the water separator (it was very tight) and added two oz of 2 stroke oil and some startron and ran it briefly.

I drained the block and lines using the single point valve. I refilled the block with propylene glycol (pink) and it took a couple gallons through the big hose at the t-stat housing before it came out of the housing itself. I started to fill the other two hoses which go to T-s under the risers(?). The starboard took about a gallon before I stopped. I added 1/2 gallon to the port side and neither overflowed. How much should they take and should I fill them? With the single point drain, are there any other hoses I need to remove and anywhere else I need to fill?

Also, I ran short on time (go figure) and did not fully drain the outdrive gear lube. I did pull the drain and there were some metal shavings on the magnet. Is this something to worry about? there was no water/white in the gear lube so i was gong to hold off on that part until the spring and do the water pump and engine alignment at the same time. The lube indicator is still at the add mark so it's still full of gear lube.

Boat is back in storage unit but i can add AF, if needed.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Kermit - it sounds like you're on the right track. Do you have 4 or 2 exhaust hoses (goes to risers) coming off your t-stat housing? I think you have 4. Either way, it doesn't matter which hose you use (per side). You won't "overflow" the hose unless you hold it lower than the high point inside the riser/elbow. If you hold the hose higher than that "high point" then, if you listen closely, you can here the AF splash onto the ground outside the boat.

That's normal for one side of the exhaust to take more than the other (the first one starts to fill up the other side a bit).

Don't forget to put some AF through your intake hose. It's the "oddball size" -- other than the block hose -- on the housing. That ensures that your power steering cooler is flushed of any standing water. Fill the hose till it fills up (again - you'll hear it on the outside - it comes out through the intakes on the drive). Let it settle for about 30 seconds and then do it again.

Always grab the filter by the base - much, much less likely to crush there. Since your oil is black, it could be that it hasn't been changed in a while - and hence the filter hasn't been off. You might want to do another oil change after a few hours of running next season. Or, maybe even a "half" oil change after a few hours, then another "half" after some more hours.

Metal shaving are not abnormal.