www.iFourWinns.com

Recently purchased 2007 Funship 224, Penta 5.0 GXI DP, and I was going through the process of Draining the Raw Water cooling system before the first freeze arrives, and I ran into a problem.

We keep the boat in a slip without a lift currently, so it's wet all the time. Planning to remedy this soon, though.

Here's what I did:
1. Remove 2 petcocks from Port side and let water drain into the Bilge. No problems here.
2. Decided to not mess with the petcocks on the starboard side yet and went straight to the large diameter hose connected to the Circulation Pump. When I pulled it off, I let the water drain into a spare milk jug because I was curious how much water there was...11 Gallons later, and I was tired of filling up the jug. So, I just let the water drain into the bilge. 15 minutes later, the water is still gushing. Yes, the engine was off...and, the dual battery switch was set to off. After that 15 minutes, I reattached the hose and aborted the rest of the process.

What am I missing and/or what did I do wrong?

My only guess is that lakewater was being siphoned through the intake. Has anyone experienced this before? Should I not be draining the raw water cooling system while the boat is in the water?

thx,
topshelf

Circulation pump or raw water pump?...two different animals. The raw water pump pulls water from the lake and feeds it to the cooling system. A 1.5" line should extend from it back to the transom. The raw water pump is mounted low to the left and could very well be below the static waterline thus the constant flow of water into the boat when the hose was removed.

The circulating pump is mounted on the front of the engine and is responsible for circulating water/coolant thru the engine block, etc.

_________________
Jvalich
http://www.badcock.com

'04 FW 288 Vista "Mental Floss"

better get one of these...
http://www.boatsafeheaters.com/index.html

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2005 Funship 214 5.0GXi/DP | 2006 Yamaha FJR1300

Thanks for the replies.

You had me second guessing myself about which hose I pulled off, so I went back and tried it again. As soon as I looked at the engine, I realized I lied, and it was the raw water intake hose connected to the raw water pump which was dumping the water. When I lifted the hose a few inches, the water stopped, so I think the mystery is solved.

My dealer confirmed that this would happen if you remove that hose while the boat is in the water. I called both Four Winns and Volvo and they were absolutely useless. The Four Winns rep said "hey man, we just put the engines in, we don't really do much with draining the water system", and apparently the Volvo consumer support line I called, 757-436-5100, doesn't provide technical support to end consumers.

To resolve the problem, the dealer said, "just plug the intake hose and leave it." Seriously? If that plug ever works itself loose, I'd come back to a sunk boat. No thanks.

At this point, if we leave the boat in the water, I'll be using a heater in the engine compartment. If we end up getting a lift, I'll either use a heater or do the draining while it's out of the water.

nothing is ever easy...
topshelf

I'd hook up the hose the way it is supposed to be, on the raw water pump so you don't get in a situation where a leak could sink the boat. You can drain the big hose on the front of the motor to get water out of the water circulating pump in addition to all the petcocks. The problem is that if you get a hard freeze the power steering cooler on many Volvos is in the raw water line, and if that water freezes it will cause the cooler to leak. On the older engines it was mounted on the rear of the engine where you could hardly see it. On the newer engines it may also be necessary to remove a plug on the intake manifold to drain it, I know it wasn't on the older ones. Probably best to get that boat out of the water ASAP

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II