Forgot to pull bottom blue plugs, do it tonight?

[glocklt4]

I winterized by pulling the 2 plugs on the exhaust risers and the 1 on the front of the engine. I forgot to do the 2 down low on the block somehow (one on each side close to oil pan). Hard to see them without sticking your head down in there. Anyway, i took the hoses off for both risers and poured anti-freeze in them just in case there was any water left (see green arrows), and also took the lower main hose off and poured at least a gallon in there until pink started coming out the metal distribution pipe where i took the hose off (see red arrow). At first some clear water came through but then it turned pink before I stopped.

Last year i ran pink through the engine while running after hot like many do, but since my engine has plugs I decided to try it this way this year.

Anyway... I don't know the water jackets of the block completely, so does anyone know if pouring anti-freeze down that hose with the red arrow gets into the same areas of the lower blue plugs on the block? I am trying to determine if I need to go open up the plugs to check for pink in there or not. It is dropping down to 22 tonight for 6-8 hours, so don't want any fresh water in there. Has been in the 40-50's during the day and just now dropping below 30 for a short time tonight, so not really worried, but better to be prepared just in case.

 

[rcknecht]

I always run the pink stuff throught the engine with ear muff on the stern drive... like to make sure I get the antifreeze in both the engine and outdrive... Not sure about about only using the pouring method...

 

[my3sons]

Curtis,
I'm not sure what the "plug on the front of the engine" drains, as mentioned in your post, but if you did not get the water out of the block (raw water cooled engine) by removing the two block drains, the a/f you put in is diluted.
sounds to me like water was in the block because you said that when you poured a/f in the engine circ. pump hose, some clear water came out the thermistat housing first, followed by the a/f. I'm thinking that there is still enough water in there mixed with a/f that I would be nervous, especially if you used -50.
I would go back and pull those plugs and redo, and sleep well this winter. My 2 cents
take care

 

[Lazy Daze]

Curtis, yes, when you get a chance, drain it out. Approximately 3 gallons of water remains in the engine block if you don't pull the bottom plugs. What you have right now is a mixture. You can test the protection level if you want, but if you put in at least a gallon or two, you'll be fine for the temperatures you're going to see in the next few days. Meaning, there's no hurry.

 

[glocklt4]

Curtis, yes, when you get a chance, drain it out. Approximately 3 gallons of water remains in the engine block if you don't pull the bottom plugs. What you have right now is a mixture. You can test the protection level if you want, but if you put in at least a gallon or two, you'll be fine for the temperatures you're going to see in the next few days. Meaning, there's no hurry.

Great, thanks for the info. 3 gallons is quite a bit. I was kind of surprised at how much came out of the risers. A good amount came out of the front too, but I figured that there was more in there below that drain level. At 3 gallons in the block and adding 1 gallon of -50... Using no scientific means at all, only guessing... i'd say that it's good to 32+50 = 82 / 4 = 20.5. 32-20.5 = 11.5 degrees (assuming that it got mixed uniformally throughout of course). I am not sure that a 3:1 ratio would give that freeze temp at all though, but better than fresh water. 8-10 degrees below freezing for 6-8 hours isn't long considering it'll be 58 sunday (crazy weather in Tx!)

 

[glocklt4]

Curtis,
I'm not sure what the "plug on the front of the engine" drains, as mentioned in your post, but if you did not get the water out of the block (raw water cooled engine) by removing the two block drains, the a/f you put in is diluted.
sounds to me like water was in the block because you said that when you poured a/f in the engine circ. pump hose, some clear water came out the thermistat housing first, followed by the a/f. I'm thinking that there is still enough water in there mixed with a/f that I would be nervous, especially if you used -50.
I would go back and pull those plugs and redo, and sleep well this winter. My 2 cents
take care

yeah, agree. thanks for the input! I am going to try and get out there tonight after work before the company xmas party. Would feel better popping them open and then dumping another gallon of -50 through that pipe to clear it all out.

 

[SeaRay]

My 5.0L has 6 blue plugs.....2 of them are really tough to find, 1 is near impossible. Almost gave up but knew that I pulled 6 off last year.

It is also a good idea to pull the hoses off the sea water pump and let them drain out too.

 

[glocklt4]

My 5.0L has 6 blue plugs.....2 of them are really tough to find, 1 is near impossible. Almost gave up but knew that I pulled 6 off last year.

It is also a good idea to pull the hoses off the sea water pump and let them drain out too.

6? Hmm... i had 2 on lower block under each exhaust header. one on each exhaust riser and then one on the front of the engine left side (can be seen in the image i posted at the top).

 

[SeaRay]

There are definitely 6 on mine. There are basically 3 per side.

I crawled back in to find the little buggers - I might drill a little hole in the wing nut and zip tie a little flag on those guys. Man, they can hide well!!

The starboard side has one on the header, one on the front lower left of the engine coming off the corner of a hose (by the sea water pump) and there is another on a Y-Fitting in front of the starter. This one has some hoses in front of it and it is hard to see.

The port side has the header drain (easy to see), the cylinder block drain (this one is hidden a little farther in and hard to see) and a water tube drain plug, which is attached to hoses running from the engine. This one is very low but you can see it, just barely, by looking down into the engine compartment. The manual states, "If equipped" on this one?? So maybe you don't have that one? These three are all pretty close together.

Also, it is a good idea to run a stiff wire in there and make sure all the gunk is out if you haven’t already. You should get water/antifreeze out of every one of them, at least something. A had a couple that nothing came out of until I cleaned them out, then I got a bunch.

If you still can't find them I can try to get you a copy of the manual page or take pictures. Just let me know.

 

[sonepheth]

I was thinking about puting a couple of T-fittings into my hoses so I can just pour in the a/f. One the T end would have a screw on cap that I can open up and pour a/f into.

Has anyone done something like that? Would the pour in a/f method work as far as winterizing the engine?

My boat is on a lift and it takes some work to put the muffs on.

 

[Lazy Daze]

There are definitely 6 on mine. There are basically 3 per side.

SeaRay - he doesn't have an EFI motor like you do. That's why there's a discrepancy between the number of plugs. Your 6th one is the cool fuel module by the port side engine mount - just behind the black, plastic box which contains the cool fuel.

Also, he has an Alpha drive so he won't have any hoses to pull off of the engine-mounted, sea water pump.

 

[Lazy Daze]

I was thinking about puting a couple of T-fittings into my hoses so I can just pour in the a/f. One the T end would have a screw on cap that I can open up and pour a/f into.

Has anyone done something like that? Would the pour in a/f method work as far as winterizing the engine?

My boat is on a lift and it takes some work to put the muffs on.

Sone - pouring in is the Merc-recommended way. But, I think you'd just be creating a lot of extra work for yourself by adding the T's. Just take the hoses off the T-stat.

I don't want to hi-jack Glock's thread too much, but you can find tons and tons of info about this in other threads. It's actually been discussed almost to death. You shouldn't have any problems finding them with the search tool. Good luck!

 

[glocklt4]

There are definitely 6 on mine. There are basically 3 per side.

I crawled back in to find the little buggers - I might drill a little hole in the wing nut and zip tie a little flag on those guys. Man, they can hide well!!

The starboard side has one on the header, one on the front lower left of the engine coming off the corner of a hose (by the sea water pump) and there is another on a Y-Fitting in front of the starter. This one has some hoses in front of it and it is hard to see.

The port side has the header drain (easy to see), the cylinder block drain (this one is hidden a little farther in and hard to see) and a water tube drain plug, which is attached to hoses running from the engine. This one is very low but you can see it, just barely, by looking down into the engine compartment. The manual states, "If equipped" on this one?? So maybe you don't have that one? These three are all pretty close together.

Also, it is a good idea to run a stiff wire in there and make sure all the gunk is out if you haven’t already. You should get water/antifreeze out of every one of them, at least something. A had a couple that nothing came out of until I cleaned them out, then I got a bunch.

If you still can't find them I can try to get you a copy of the manual page or take pictures. Just let me know.

Hmm, yeah. Perhaps mine is not equipped. I am not too worried about it now on mine, but I will look around even more when I pull her out in 2 months (gotta love texas weather ). I'll get pictures of each when I do that and post them too.

 

[glocklt4]

SeaRay - he doesn't have an EFI motor like you do. That's why there's a discrepancy between the number of plugs. Your 6th one is the cool fuel module by the port side engine mount - just behind the black, plastic box which contains the cool fuel.

Also, he has an Alpha drive so he won't have any hoses to pull off of the engine-mounted, sea water pump.

Thanks for the info. That would explain it!:smt038 FYI, i did get out to the boat fri night and drained the two block plugs. Quite a bit of water came out and it was pretty pink. Put them back in and added another gallon of -50, so should be good. Thanks again for the advice!

 

[SeaRay]

Lazy Daze thanks for the clarification. I did read that somewhere else but forgot about it until I seen your post.

Glocklt4, I am glad you found them all. I know it's like hide and seek with those things. My goal is just to remember that I have 6 so I keep looking until I get them all. This was only the second time I winterized it. Hopefully next year will go quicker and I won't have to be a pretzel for as long!!

 

[glocklt4]

Lazy Daze thanks for the clarification. I did read that somewhere else but forgot about it until I seen your post.

Glocklt4, I am glad you found them all. I know it's like hide and seek with those things. My goal is just to remember that I have 6 so I keep looking until I get them all. This was only the second time I winterized it. Hopefully next year will go quicker and I won't have to be a pretzel for as long!!

Same here, i'll remember 5 for me next year. That is... if we haven't moved up to the 320 by then .

 

[rabyers1]

I have nine blue plugs total on my 383. I missed the two down low on the block the first time aound as well. It was like a "Where's Waldo" puzzle finding all of them! I am thinking about carving a big "9" on the bulkhead in the bilge to remember that next year.

 

[glocklt4]

Quite a few! Yeah, good idea on the "9", haha.