Winterizing Engine w/o Outdrive Attached

[BillyT0020]

Hey Guys,
Looking for opinions on this. My outdrive is smoked (locked up) and therefore off the boat. Last year I used earmuffs and a 5 Gallon bucket off antifreeze to winterize the block, which wont work this year.

Any ideas on how I can do it this year with the outdrive off the boat?

I do have a submersible sump pump, that I can drop in a bucket of AF and have someone hold the discharge hose up to the water input on the gimble while I start the boat and run it until it runs AF out.
Think that would work?

Thanks in Advance.

 

[27AJ553]

I winterized a 4.3L and did something similar...disconnected the intake hose above the gimbal bearing, picked up the hose over the engine and filled the block completely with antifreeze, then zip tied the hose higher than the engine all winter. Seemed to work fine.

 

[Lazy Daze]

IMO, winterizing via the "bucket" method is a bad idea. There's a bunch of threads about winterizing. Read up on the normal ways - either removing t-stat or just pulling the hoses off the t-stat.

 

[boatrboy]

Hey Guys,
Looking for opinions on this. My outdrive is smoked (locked up) and therefore off the boat. Last year I used earmuffs and a 5 Gallon bucket off antifreeze to winterize the block, which wont work this year.
Any ideas on how I can do it this year with the outdrive off the boat?

To answer this question, you can still run the motor and winterize without an outdrive. I made a short hose from an old garden hose to fit into the round hole in the face of the housing where the water flows from the outdrive. Some words of caution - clamp the hose in place as the pressure will push it out before you start the motor. I also put a rag in the bellows so if the water sprays it does not hit the gimbal bearing. When the water is not pressurized make sure the jug is higher than the engine water pump. I am assuming you have an aplha drive and the outdrive water pump just gets the water to your engine water pump, so gravity will do the same job.

Now addressing the bucket method (I assume you mean the 5 gallon jug by camco) - When I winterize my boat, I run my motor for a while to get it warm flushing with just water. I stop the motor, drain all the water from the block, etc, and remove the thermostat and put the housing back together. At this point I remove the fuel filter, fill it with a mix of stabil and 2 stroke oil. I hook up the 5 gallon buck, start up and now I know that there will be little dilution and the block will be full of antifreeze. I know most think this is overkill, but that is typical of me. I am always confident of my winterizing

Just found this link
http://www.mercstuff.com/coolingtools.htm