My new process with winterizing-Thoughts?

Madifonzo

New Member
Sep 30, 2013
716
Boston, Ma
Boat Info
2005 280
Zodiac Zoom 310 9.9 Honda
Engines
Twin 5.0 MPI with Bravo III Drives
Due to some changes to where I willing be storing my boat this winter I will need to make some changes to how I winterize it. The boat ramp it's being hauled out at is about 1/4 mile from my mooring spot.

I am planning to change the oil while the boat is in the water. On the day of the haul I plan to winterize motors. I will have the fuel tank filled as I usually do and stabilize making sure that the treated fuel is run through the engines. At the ramp I plan to close seacocks and run antifreeze through engines. The part I was planning to skip this year was the Mercury cocktail of fuel, oil and stabilizer. Anyone have an opinion of how important this is?

My other though as to build a small tank with 2 lines that I could connect to engines. Use that to run the boat over to the ramp this fogging the engines. Anyone built this before?

anyone ever heard of a bypass fuel valve that allows for remote tank use with removing the main fuel line? My starboard engine fuel line is a PIA to remove as there is no slack and getting a wrench on it is also tough.
 
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Just stabil? I was curious as to how important it was. If I can skip this step it will make my winterizing a lot easier. Just don't want to set my self up for spring issues. My layup is from Nov. 1 til late April,
 
I run a small heater in bilge, which stays bone dry. Don't fog any of my muscle cars either. Never an issue
 
It's not like your engine will immediately grenade itself if you don't fog it, but be careful of the "I've never had a problem so it must be fine" thought. This comes down to preventative maintenance and doing the better thing for your engine. The fogging does two main things... helping to protect cylinder walls/etc from corrosion which can, over time, cause a loss in compression... Secondly, Merc has done extensive research and found that an underlying cause of failed injectors can be traced to that last little drop of fuel that remains on the injector tip after shut down. Granted, having stabilizer already in your tank can help to prevent this, but it's the addition of the extra stabilizer in the cocktail that really does the job.

Here's another way to think of it... when/if you go to sell your boat, and someone asks you to describe your winterization process, and you say "I never fog, it's a load of baloney that fogging needs to be done"...... Or, on the flip side, what would you think if you were buying a new boat and the owner said that to you?

Sure, you could install a (google this) "3 way fuel valve" into each engine's fuel line (Apollo and Moeller are a couple brands that would be easy to find). Use a portable 6-gallon tank (that would have the cocktail mix) and connect it into the 3-way valve. You could get as fancy as you want with this - even going as far to have nice, quick disconnect fittings (which could be as easy as OB gas line fittings). Bare minimum, you'd want to plug the extra hole in the 3-way valve until needed. Heck, you could even run the quick connect fittings topsides (transom locker, for example). You might even get away with splitting the fuel line coming off the portable tank so you'd only need one of them. I don't know if you'd be able to run at full speed (if it'd supply enough gas for both engines), but I'm sure at lower RPM's it'd be fine. Or, at least, I would try it before running two OB tanks (although it's not that much of a hassle, either).

You can't put the OB tank below decks, so you'd at least want to run with a long fuel hose taken through an access plate or with the hatch securely propped slightly open to get the fuel hose out of the bilge and to the tank.

In regards to the AF - if you're going to run AF through the engines under their own power (as opposed to filling the engines through the t-stat hoses), don't forget that you still need to drop the water out and remove the t-stat.
 
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Thanks Dennis. I agree with your line of thinking. I've been fogging since I have owned the boat and not sure I feel comfortable deviating from that. I will come up with a way to fog the engine during the trip to the ramp. Normally I would do this procedure on the hard but getting access to good flowing water maybe a challenge. As far as the AF, my FWC system has the pumps. I will purge water using that, then pull blue plugs then add AF. Last season I manually added AF to one engine through the riser cooling hoses until it came out the drive and the lower blue plug locations and was without issue. So if worse comes to worse I could do that again.
 
I didn't realize you had a closed cooling system on there. I don't believe that was an optional item available from Sea Ray - did you add that yourself?
 
I didn't realize you had a closed cooling system on there. I don't believe that was an optional item available from Sea Ray - did you add that yourself?


I didn't buy the boat new but it's on the Sea Ray build sheet. So I am assuming it came that way from the factory.
 
I didn't buy the boat new but it's on the Sea Ray build sheet. So I am assuming it came that way from the factory.

Interesting. I suppose it could have been a special order item. Or maybe I'm just not remembering correctly! Either way, that's a nice item to have. Just to be clear, though, you have a heat exchanger and AF tank?
 
I dint fog my engines since I'm in the water year round but I did some research on fogging fuel injected motors. I could be wrong but my research found that using fogging oil is no good for the sensors. It sticks to them and "fouls" them. I was told to pull the spin on filters off and add 2oz of two stroke oil spin them back on and run the motor for a minute or two. Just what I've been told
 
Interesting. I suppose it could have been a special order item. Or maybe I'm just not remembering correctly! Either way, that's a nice item to have. Just to be clear, though, you have a heat exchanger and AF tank?

Yes...heat exchange with pump purging system and two remote tanks filled with Dexcool. It was a must for me whe I was looking for boats.
 
I dint fog my engines since I'm in the water year round but I did some research on fogging fuel injected motors. I could be wrong but my research found that using fogging oil is no good for the sensors. It sticks to them and "fouls" them. I was told to pull the spin on filters off and add 2oz of two stroke oil spin them back on and run the motor for a minute or two. Just what I've been told

I am assuming you referring to the fuel filters. I have heard that as well. Only issue is that I have cool fuel module as filters. I am not sure about adding oil to them and what that would die to the pumps. I think I have come to terms that I want to continue to fog as per the Mercury manual. Just need to develop a convoienent way to do it.
 
I dint fog my engines since I'm in the water year round but I did some research on fogging fuel injected motors. I could be wrong but my research found that using fogging oil is no good for the sensors. It sticks to them and "fouls" them. I was told to pull the spin on filters off and add 2oz of two stroke oil spin them back on and run the motor for a minute or two. Just what I've been told

Yes and no. The normal "fogging oil" that you would spray into the throttle body should not be used with MPI engines for the reason you mentioned. Although, EFI engines could still be done that way since you can easily spray past the injectors. However, the way Mad is referring to is the correct way to do it with MPI engines. A small amount of 2-stroke oil (marine, not air-cooled) and stabilizer is added to the fuel filter and that will NOT foul the injectors, instead it will help to protect them in the way I mentioned above.
 
Yes...heat exchange with pump purging system and two remote tanks filled with Dexcool. It was a must for me whe I was looking for boats.

That's a great "add-on" to have!
 
I have a 97 5.7 fuel injected with cool fuel, can i fog thru the throttle body. Thanks for any info.
 
That's a great "add-on" to have!

Not an add on, most twin 5.0 come thru like that.

Another point is 2 stroke oil isn't going to protect your cylinders any better than the regular motor oil that's already coating them
 
I don't normally fog my MPIs either... I may fog this year though directly, when I change the plugs...
 
Not an add on, most twin 5.0 come thru like that.

Another point is 2 stroke oil isn't going to protect your cylinders any better than the regular motor oil that's already coating them

Nope. Quite the opposite, actually. Most smaller cruisers with small blocks were produced WITHOUT closed cooling. As I mentioned above, it wasn't even a regular production option for us to "check" when placing orders.

2-stroke does, indeed, help. The 2-stroke is going to coat the top of the cylinder where it would normally be bare.
 
I'm glad this came up in regards to fogging. I ordered a small OB tank, 2 QD fittings, and the "cocktail" ingredients.

My plan was to disconnect the line from the inlet of the fuel filter (screw on type) and run the mixture through the motors. I grabbed 5 ft of fuel line so the tank can sit above decks. I looked into the filling the filter method, but it seemed like a bit of a guessing game as to when to run the motors until to make sure it doesn't suck up more fresh fuel (our tanks do not have shutoffs)

I quickly found these valves, the fittings look like 1/4", on the boat can anyone confirm?

https://jet.com/product/product/944...70d155dabac3&gclid=CIKY1b7O-ccCFQQHaQod-kYAUg

I would then add one of these to the outlet of the valve to simplify the fogging

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007G2JFBA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01
 
Nope. Quite the opposite, actually. Most smaller cruisers with small blocks were produced WITHOUT closed cooling. As I mentioned above, it wasn't even a regular production option for us to "check" when placing orders.

2-stroke does, indeed, help. The 2-stroke is going to coat the top of the cylinder where it would normally be bare.

I did a lot of shopping for that particular boat before I bought. Check your facts. Not on that model with that engine setup.

Now your telling me a gas diluted 2 stroke oil protects your cylinder better than straight motor oil? Laugh fable to say the least.
Your in the biz to sell as much as possible. I understand that. Any DIY guy with common sense can figure this one out.
 

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