What's wrong with this idea? drain hoses on the manifolds and block

D

dantheman

Member
May 17, 2009
102
Rochester NY
Boat Info
1989 390 Express
Engines
454's
I've been thinking about this for years, and the older I get the better it sounds. Getting behind the engines, between the gas tanks and the engines to get at the drain valves is a real pain in the a.. what if I took the brass fittings off the manifolds and blocks and installed new fittings with barbed ends that will accept hose, then bring the hose(s) down under the engines and plug the ends. Then when it's time to winterize open the plugs and let the water out. sometimes the drains plug up with rust, so run an apropreite size wire up through the hoses to clear out any rust. The other mod I did was cut the hoses between the seawater strainers and the seawater intake pump and put a union in there, then once the block and manifolds are drained and plugged, hook a 5 gallon bucket with a hose the size of the seawater intake connected to the bottom of the bucket with a plastic nipple into the seawater intake hose so it feeds the seawater intake pump, fire it up, fog it while the bucket is draining. anything sound wrong with this idea? I realize that running a wire up past the the brass fitting might be tricky as the wire could get stuck on the edge of the fitting, maybe filing the tip of the wire to beval the edge might help.
 
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I can only comment on your drain hose idea.
My 175 came with a "single point drain system". There are a couple hoses attached to the engine that drain all the water out of the block and manifold. Only difference is that the hoses don't just lie in the bilge. They are hooked up to a quick connect coupler attachment at the top of the engine. With this easy access it only takes a minute to drain the whole system. I can also attach a garden hose to these drain hoses and do a backflush. I think Merc has this on a lot of their newer models.
 
If it's a single hose with a single plug, how would you know if one of the holes was plugged with sediment and didn't drain? I guess the backflush would blow it out and probably would drain it when you disconnect? I would want one hose to each plug so I KNOW that it drained. Still ANY hose would be better than what I have now which is none!! It would be nice to drain the hose through the plug too!
 
I like the idea of putting a T fitting or Y valve near the seacock to make it easy to run in the hose for a 5 gallon bucket. Right now I have to take off the seacock hose and put an extension on it to the 5 gallon bucket. A T fitting or Y value would be a nice touch for sure.
 
Sundancer said:
If it's a single hose with a single plug, how would you know if one of the holes was plugged with sediment and didn't drain? quote]

Mine is only a 3.0L so 2 hoses, one per each drain plug. you can drain one hose at a time or both.
Click to expand...
 
I have the winterizer on my boat - it makes it so fast and easy.It comes with sand traps,filter, hoses, pump and fittings.
You have to have a sand trap on each hose - the hose can fill up with sand and is almost impossible to clean with a wire.
Next you have to have a filter to keep the sand out of the quick coupling and pump.
If you do find sand and or rust in the filters then you just flush more frequently. This keeps the sand and or rust from building up in the bottom of the engine block. By manually pumping each drain fitting - you know if the drain ports are working. The pump can create over 100 psi. to help clean the port.
The best part is none of the fluids end up in the boat which will keep the bilge dryer and recycling antifreeze is the only way.
The winterizer has an option that will remove the water that the bilge pump can't remove - which I have.
 
Dan, I've actually had exactly the same thoughts as you have. The only thing that keeps me from doing it is the same concern you had... It would be much harder to "clear" the fittings in the block and manifold. Although, in my boat I can reach all the plugs very easily. Maybe if I couldn't, I would re-think my opposition.

One of the thoughts that I had, if I was to do this, was to make things look nice and tidy, rather than just having hoses laying on the bilge floor. Mounting all the hoses, nicely spaced onto a piece of starboard (mounted in an accessible, but protected place), for example. With a little creative thinking, it certainly wouldn't be too hard, at all.

Maybe terminate the hoses with quick-disconnects that "plug in" to fittings mounted on that piece of starboard? I'm using some fittings like this for another project and just recently found out that they are the manufacturer of the quick-disconnects that Merc uses (Dutchman referenced these).

By the way, Dutch, did you know that the hoses are attached to the block and manifold with the same QD fittings? The only reason I mention this is that if you take the fittings off at the block and mani, you can avoid water spewing on your alternator and you will actually get a little more water out doing that way, too.
 
not sure if I'm reading the question correctly but............

The 2 hoses are connected at the block and bottom of the manifold with thread in fittings. The QD fttg is at the other end, which is connected to a stationary bracket that is quite a bit higher than the actual drain port. Once disconnected, the hose needs to be lowered into the bilge for it to drain. So no water ever gets on any other engine components. Actually there is another attachment that lets me lower the hose down below and there's no need to reach way down to retrieve it. Also with the higher position of the hose, it should lesson the chance for sand build up, since sand can't flow up hill.
 
thanks a lot a LazyDaze...........I had to go take a look.
Since tha alternator is quite low, while lowering the hose, I suppose I could get water on it.:huh:

Plus here are a couple pics if it helps anyone. It's the blue hoses. You can see how high up the bracket is. Then the T-handle is used to lower and raise the hose into the bilge. Also with the upward slope, it would be tough to have a sand build up.
 
Thanks for the idea's everyone, I didn't take into account that the hoses could fill up with sand and rust, maybe I'll put valves on the ends and open them up every so often
 
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