poormonkey
New Member
- Jan 9, 2007
- 156
- Boat Info
- 290 Sundancer 2001
- Engines
- Twin 5.0 w Bravo 3's
This will be my first attempt at winterizing my boat this winter. I have read a lot of the good advice on here about how to go about it. I had a few questions, I was wondering if a veteran could give me some feedback on.
- Instead of buying the Mercruiser 160 degree thermostats for $11.75, can I just get a 160 thermostat from Pep Boys for much cheaper? I am assuming the gasket would be the same as well?
- I am doing the approach of filling my fresh water with the pink anti-freeze and using that to supply the motors with anti-freeze. How long should I run each motor for? Just till I see pink stuff coming back out? Do I need to empty all the water in the block first by removing the "blue" plugs? Or is this over kill?
- Should I buy a hot water bypass kit? Or do I just spend the few extra bucks and run anti-freeze through the hot water tank, during the process of flushing out all the water lines to the head, galley sink, etc...?
- Should I replace the out drive lube?
- With just lifting the engine hatch up, is there an easy way of getting to the trim tab reservoir? Any tricks? Or do I need to remove the entire decking above the motors to get to it.
- I am assuming the best place to do all this is when the boat is on the trailer in the drive way? Any advantage of doing any of this while the boat is still in the water?
- I am going to do the fogging trick, empty half the water separator fuel filter out and put in some 2 stroke motor oil. Do I need to stop the fuel from going to the motor and just run off what's left in the separator? Or can I just run the motor for "x" amount of time.
- Is turning the battery switches to "off" good enough? Or do I need to remove the cables on each battery? I won't be able to leave a charger on the batteries while in the winter storage place.
- Go with synthetic or regular oil? T-5.0 EFI
Sorry for the dump questions, but i would like to do this right, so come spring I don't have any additional service bills due to me screwing something up. Thanks for the feedback and your time for replying in advance....
- Instead of buying the Mercruiser 160 degree thermostats for $11.75, can I just get a 160 thermostat from Pep Boys for much cheaper? I am assuming the gasket would be the same as well?
- I am doing the approach of filling my fresh water with the pink anti-freeze and using that to supply the motors with anti-freeze. How long should I run each motor for? Just till I see pink stuff coming back out? Do I need to empty all the water in the block first by removing the "blue" plugs? Or is this over kill?
- Should I buy a hot water bypass kit? Or do I just spend the few extra bucks and run anti-freeze through the hot water tank, during the process of flushing out all the water lines to the head, galley sink, etc...?
- Should I replace the out drive lube?
- With just lifting the engine hatch up, is there an easy way of getting to the trim tab reservoir? Any tricks? Or do I need to remove the entire decking above the motors to get to it.
- I am assuming the best place to do all this is when the boat is on the trailer in the drive way? Any advantage of doing any of this while the boat is still in the water?
- I am going to do the fogging trick, empty half the water separator fuel filter out and put in some 2 stroke motor oil. Do I need to stop the fuel from going to the motor and just run off what's left in the separator? Or can I just run the motor for "x" amount of time.
- Is turning the battery switches to "off" good enough? Or do I need to remove the cables on each battery? I won't be able to leave a charger on the batteries while in the winter storage place.
- Go with synthetic or regular oil? T-5.0 EFI
Sorry for the dump questions, but i would like to do this right, so come spring I don't have any additional service bills due to me screwing something up. Thanks for the feedback and your time for replying in advance....