Long story short, a month or so ago, a good friend (who I dont fault for this; its my own fault) helped me (he did 90% of the work, lol) winterize my twin 4.3l Volvo Pentas. In the past Ive always paid a mechanic to do the winterization.
Yesterday I had a little get together and my mechanic (who Ive used in the past) shows up to the party. He asks did I winterize, yeah, how did I do it, I tell him my friend warmed up the motors shut off the motors and then used the "kit" with the purple -60F anti freeze. He said "come here" so we went out to the boat and crawled in under the shrinkwrap. He pulled the big fat water hose off the port side engines circulating pump and let it gush out. He caught some with a clear solo cup. We brought it inside. It was ALL water
I dont know where the 8 gallons of -60F anti freeze went - I helped pour it into the kit as the boat ran and it DID come out of the transom (must have been a closed t-stat) but my engine it probably filled almost wholly with water I went out and pulled both the block plugs on the port engine. Dead clogged. Had to remove the temperature sender and the brass barb thats screwed into the block, total PITA. Fished it out with a coat hanger. Water came gushing out, about 2-3 gallons it seemed with not a hint of purple anti freeze. I pulled the manifold hoses and drained the rest of the big fat hose on the front of the motor. THANK GOD we havent had consistent days of freezing temps!!!!! $$$$
Anyways, my stbd engine (97 278 Vista) I pulled the block plugs, same story - dead clogged. I cant fish a coat hanger through the barbed brass fitting, its a dead end 90 degree turn. Physics will not let me get at the thing with a wrench easily like the port side. I HAVE to get those drains out and snaked quick before we get freezing weather.
Any suggestions? Anybody have this problem before? Did I miss anything on my port engine (both block drains, big fat hose in front, both manifold hoses) that I need to drain?
Right now a 3' body builder midget would be useful!!
