Newbie Paranoia Time

[Dave 205]

Yeah, I think you just gotta bite the bullet and redo.

Scrap the bucket method. It's not hard to do it the right way and really doesn't take long.

You won't need to run the engine at all doing it this way (other than "fogging", if wanted to to do that)

If you've already done the fogging, this is about a 10 minute job.

-- Drain everything - poke the holes to make sure there's no build of sediment
-- Remove the hoses from the t-stat housing and pour pink into them until it backs up in the hose
1) Block hose (big one)
2) Intake water hose (it's the odd sized one) This one will drip out through the water intake on the outdrive
3) Exhaust water hoses. These will drip out through the exhaust ports on the bottom of the transom plate. Check them out - they're about the size of two fingers.

5 gallons will be more than enough to do all this. Now you are guaranteed to have pink everywhere.
--

Wow, this is the slick way of doing this. With cold weather finally starting in earnest, and some other projects finished, I started back on the boat. Drained the engine, poured new pink down the block hose until it came out the t-stat housing.

Dennis, since this saga started when I didn't pull the t-stat and ran pink through the muffs, the intake hose should be good since straight pink came up this?

Same argument with the exhaust hoses - anything bypassing a closed / partial closed t-stat would have been straight pink?

For reference next year, I've got four smaller hoses coming out of the t-stat housing, two go down, and two go to box shaped towers on each side of the engine. (I need to get a decent schematic to start identifying these things). Are all four of these the exhaust hoses you are referring to?

Thanks again.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Hi Dave,

Yes, you're correct about the intake hose. But I think the only way to know "for sure" about the exhaust side would be to test the fluid. The t-stat may have been open slightly, maybe not, plus some always escapes past the stat. More than likely, you're probably good as the mixture in there is probably sufficient. But, if you're asking what I would do... well... you probably know the answer.:smt001

Yes, those are the hoses. In reality, you could just pour it through the two hoses that "go down" as they basically make a loop with the ones that go to the "box shaped towers" (these are called "risers" and in different boats they will be different heights to get above the outside water level). But, if you pour AF into both sets of hoses, you won't do any damage.

By the way, I don't know if I mentioned it above or not, but I have a handy little tool that I used for removing the hoses (to "break" them off the nipples as they sometimes get stuck). It's not designed for what I use it for, but it works fantastic! It looks like a question mark and I insert it between the hose and the nipple and then I can run it around the nipple, breaking that "stuck". The one I have is from MAC tools, but I've seen it at Harbor Freight. I'll try to remember to get a picture of it later.

The other way to "break" that seal is to use a large slip joint pliers and gently twist the hose till it "cracks".

 

[Dave 205]

Hi Dave,


By the way, I don't know if I mentioned it above or not, but I have a handy little tool that I used for removing the hoses (to "break" them off the nipples as they sometimes get stuck). It's not designed for what I use it for, but it works fantastic! It looks like a question mark and I insert it between the hose and the nipple and then I can run it around the nipple, breaking that "stuck". The one I have is from MAC tools, but I've seen it at Harbor Freight. I'll try to remember to get a picture of it later.

The other way to "break" that seal is to use a large slip joint pliers and gently twist the hose till it "cracks".

The tool would be interesting. My boat is so "like new" I didn't really have any crud stick, but the hoses had been in place since Nov. 2005, and had developed a pretty good set over the expanded nipple ends. I had to massage the hose quite a bit, and slipped a thin blade screw driver under in a few spots to get it going. It seems like I remember from way back that if you pull your hoses once a year, keep things clean, and the hoses are in decent shape, it’s not usually too hard to get them off.

 

[Lazy Daze]

The screwdriver method works fine. Sometimes you get hoses that are stuck on all around or underneath where you can't get a screwdriver to. With this, you slide it all the way into the hose and then you can run it around the nipple. I rounded the tip a bit so it's less likely to punch into the hose. But as long as you keep it at the right angle, you can actually be pretty rough with those hoses.

Another nice tool to have is a small screwgun and some nut driver bits (hose clamp bolt). I have a Ryobi 4v Lithium that is great - holds a charge just about forever and has more than enough torque for hose clamps. I think I paid about $30 for it at Home Depot. It's a whole lot faster than doing it by hand!

 

[Dave 205]

Yeah, I think you just gotta bite the bullet and redo.

Scrap the bucket method. It's not hard to do it the right way and really doesn't take long.

You won't need to run the engine at all doing it this way (other than "fogging", if wanted to to do that)

If you've already done the fogging, this is about a 10 minute job.

-- Drain everything - poke the holes to make sure there's no build of sediment
-- Remove the hoses from the t-stat housing and pour pink into them until it backs up in the hose
1) Block hose (big one)
2) Intake water hose (it's the odd sized one) This one will drip out through the water intake on the outdrive
3) Exhaust water hoses. These will drip out through the exhaust ports on the bottom of the transom plate. Check them out - they're about the size of two fingers.

5 gallons will be more than enough to do all this. Now you are guaranteed to have pink everywhere.
--

Dennis,

Here is an old thread dust off. I decided to go whole hog this year with pouring pink from the top. It is downright cold and windy outside today, and this has been a pleasant task so far in my garage. My question - am I complete:

*Drained the engine at all three plugs as suggested.

*Filled the block hose until it runs out the housing at the top.

*Filled the intake hose at the t-stat housing until it runs of the outdrive intake.

*Filled the two houses that run directly to the risers until pink exited the exhaust ports on both sides.

So, I filled four hoses (caught the over flow in trash can lids).

1) There are two more hoses at the back of the t-stat area housing that run to the drain plugs on each side of the engine. I pulled one side plug, and it was gushing pure pink. These hoses are proving harder to remove, and it appears it is not necessary. What say you?

2) With the engine fully drained and filled with pink that is now running out of all orifices, I'm just shy of running three gallons though everything. You had suggested I might use 5. Is this to "flush" with pink to ensure a proper mixture in the engine?

Thank you! It was a pleasure dealing with this in the garage today, and not dealing with a cold wet windy environment with the muffs.

 

[Lazy Daze]

You may not actually use 5, but it's always best to be prepared. It depends on how much "extra" you push through each line (how much splashes out).

Just to make sure we're on the same page here... which 3 plugs (locations) did you remove?

 

[Dave 205]

Not a great deal splashed out. In a quiet garage it was apparent when the pink got through and was running into the plastic catchers (trash can lids). So, I stopped. It's very pink

There are three plugs I know of on this engine. One on each side on a straight line down from the top center of the riser, and one at the front at the bottom of the block hose.

 

[wish2fish]

Sort of - yes.
Scenario 1 - Since you started with a system full of water, the block cooling loop was full. If the tstat went back closed, then it would have just recirculated the water as the antifreeze went out the exhaust - leaving a block full of water.
Scenario two - the tstat did open, but you did not run on AF long enough to reach full strength antifreeze, and the block has a diluted mixture only good into the 20s or so.
Scenario 3 - all is fine

Take a hose off the tstat assembly and check a sample from inside, or drain a little from the block and check it. That is the only way you will get rest this winter....

I suggest you always drain everything first, following all the recommendations on clearing out the taps if needed, before running on antifreeze. The block cooling loop will draw in antifreeze as soon as you start up until it is full, then the rest of the system will fill.

If it was me, I would be checking a sample or redoing it - $20 bucks in antifreeze beats $4k for a replacement engine.

The t stat doesn't open and close quickly

 

[techmitch]

The t stat doesn't open and close quickly

Oh yes it can!

 

[Lazy Daze]

OK, I think I see what happened and why you didn't use as much pink as was expected. You pulled the drain plugs from the side of the block and the big hose in the front of the engine. But, you only "somewhat" pulled one of the plugs at the bottom/center of one of the manifolds.

Now, because you filled the manifolds from the "top" and didn't first drain the manifolds, you ended up hearing the splashing coming out of the exhaust ports rather quickly. Normally, each exhaust will take AT LEAST 1/2 gallon if not 3/4. So, what happened was you poured pink on top of the water that was still in the manifold. The pink color that you saw coming out of the manifold could either be: not as pink as you think (ha - that rhymes!) or the pink didn't readily mix with the water, but instead fell to the bottom of the manifold which is what you saw coming out.

What to do (and, yeah, it sure is nice to work inside!): remove the blue plug from the bottom/center of each manifold. Refill each manifold until you hear it splashing again. I usually prefer to fill the exhaust side using the lower hose, but it really doesn't matter much. If you want to remove those two stubborn hoses, gently squeeze them with a slip-joint pliers (or wrap a rag around the hose) and twist. Squeeze them just hard enough to keep from slipping around the hose. It shouldn't take much to make them "crack" free. You'll hear some "crunching", but eventually you should hear a single, distinct cracking or popping noise. At that point, it's loose. But again, it's not really necessary.

Let me know..

 

[Dave 205]

Dennis,

1) There are two more hoses at the back of the t-stat area housing that run to the drain plugs on each side of the engine. I pulled one side plug, and it was gushing pure pink. These hoses are proving harder to remove, and it appears it is not necessary. What say you?

I think I created some confusion with the comment above about pulling a plug after pouring pink. I started the project pulling all three plugs fully and simultaneously and let them set out several minutes until everything fully drained. Replaced the plugs, then poured pink, including the hoses going to the risers. When contemplating the second set of hoses that basically go down to the starboard and port plugs, I pulled the port plug momentarily to see what I'd get - lots of pink was already there. So, I figured I might be done.

That second set of hoses is loose, it's just hard to back them up against the "set" around the flange.

 

[Lazy Daze]

It's OK, I understood what you meant. But because you didn't first drain the manifolds, we're not sure how much water and how much pink is in there. Go ahead and drain them and then refill and you'll be good to go.

 

[Dave 205]

No problem draining and refilling again. I may need a hammer to the head - I'm confused about "First."

At the start I pulled the same plugs I'll be pulling now and let them drain fully, replaced and poured pink. It just seems like I'm repeating the process - this is where the confusion is setting in.

The manifold plugs should have been first before the forward plug at the large block hose? Order of removing plugs makes a difference?

 

[Lazy Daze]

No, order makes no difference.

Ahhh! You pulled the manifold plugs! In that case, no, I didn't completely understand you. There are two more plugs on the BLOCK (engine block). They're a little further down than the mani plugs, but approximately in the same forward/back location as the mani plugs - meaning they're about in the middle of the block when referencing how far forward or back.

To sum up: there are (5) blue plugs. (1) in the big hose, (2) under each manifold and (2) on each side off the actual block.

 

[Dave 205]

Dennis,

Thanks for sticking with me! 5 plugs. I located the two additional plugs!

 

[Lazy Daze]

No problem, Dave! But, I had the easy part - you were the one getting dirty!

Don't get discouraged about the time it took you this year. Once you have it down pat, it goes really quick. Oh... good thinking regarding collecting the AF as it ran out the drain - that stuff is very slippery on the floor!

 

[Dave 205]

Thanks again. I pulled all five plugs and let what I had go into the plugged bilge. (Pulled the battery cable so the pump wouldn't start). I was overstocked on pink and the four plus gallons on hand were enough to do the job. Pulled the bilge plug and drained to a bucket and sent that down a house toilet. Left my trash can lids in place over night as the exhaust and intake are dripping just a bit. I had some old sheets spread under that. It sounds messy, but really was not. It was 58 degrees in my garage, and 25 dark and windy outside, well worth it. And, even with water dilution on my driveway in past years, pink is slippery stuff.

Honestly, doing it twice this way was faster than setting up the muffs. Also, I feel more comfortable keeping the boat going later in the season now that I know I can get pink in it quickly - pretty much 24/7 365.