Winterizing twins via earmuffs?

[charlg]

How many people winterize their engines by running antifreeze through earmuffs on the outdrives? Can it be done on twin engines?

 

[berth control]

I have, it can be done on twins just as easily as on a single, just do it twice. Make sure you run plenty of antifreze in there though, it's cheaper than a new block. I got a BIG funnel that holds about a gallon or more and used that. Make sure to warm the engine up on just the hose so the thermostat is open. Then you can hook up to your antifreeze and run it through until you see it coming out the drive or exhaust. I should note though that I started having this done a couple years ago since I decided the hundred bucks it costs wasnt worth the risk.

 

[katricol]

When you winterize like that, you need to first drain all water out of the block. If notit is very hard to get enough antifreeze to all the nooks and crannies. You have to see a lot of pink coming out and then pour it down the large water intake hose. I made this mistake years ago, and in the spring found my freeze plugs on the bilge floor. I was lucky ne damage was done,but it was real hard to get the plugs back in because of tight space.

 

[gnealon]

How many people winterize their engines by running antifreeze through earmuffs on the outdrives? Can it be done on twin engines?

Another option instead of using muffs... its to just drain block and exhaust... then remove the thermostat and pour pink into the block until it overflows... then pour pink into each of the hoses on the thermostat housing. Make sure pink it coming out the outdrive as well.

Also... when you drain the block... just bump the ignition (don't let engine start) to get water out of the water pump.

 

[comsnark]

My mechanic does the pink routine.

First. . runs the engines with water on the muff. Gets them warm. Shuts down, then hooks the muff up to a tank of pink. . runs engines till pink is coming out everywhere. He has this fairly large custom tank on his truck loaded with pink. (over 100 gallons). Running out of Pink while doing this is not an issue. (no. . he doesn't use 100 gallons on my boat. He probably loads the tank once a week and goes from boat to boat. . . ). Not sure if he drains engine of water before running pink. I will confirm this year.

Once pink is running out everywhere, he then fogs the engines to the point they stall.

I can't remember if he does the oil change first or last in this procedure.

 

[Walz]

I use this method to winterize my twins. I got one of the 5 gal plastic jugs with a spigot on it and hose sold by West Marine. I just sit it on the swim platform and fire up the engine until I see pink. Of course my engines are fresh water cooled so I don't need to worry about the thermostat opening and such.

 

[KRB64]

... Of course my engines are fresh water cooled so I don't need to worry about the thermostat opening and such.

But don't you still have to worry about water in the manifolds, etc? On an open system, you still have water from the thermostat through the exhaust to the outdrive no?

 

[gerryb]

I was thinking of making an air-hose adapter to plug into the threaded holes where the blue plastic plugs go. bronze thraded plug-to-high pressure hose-to-bronze pneumatic connector. Thread in the adapter hose, plug it into your air comrpressor and all water should be blown through the system. Made a similar type of hose to blow out my PWC' block as well as water system on the boat and it gets the job done nicely.

The reason I didn't do this is that the antifreeze does have some anti-corrosion properties to it. I would rather have the antifreeze in thhe block over the winter for that reason.