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Did my winterization for the fresh water system last night. Took about two hours, but probably would've taken less than one had I done it before. It was pretty straightforward.

I ran the fresh water tank until empty. I pulled the line off the icemaker in the cockpit to drain it, and shut it's valve off from the line to the cockpit sink.

I then redirected the hot water tank out of the system using the Camco by-pass kit I installed earlier this year. Then I opened the drain valve on the hot water tank and the pressure relief valve. This let air in the relief valve and the water came out the drain. Bypassing the hot water tank will save you from having to fill it with antifreeze. You could just unscrew the lines from the tank and use a pipe nipple to connect them back to each other. But that's more work than just installing the by-pass setup once and then just flipping a valve.

I then attached a Camco air hose fitting to the water inlet in the shore power locked. This is a plastic gizmo that has hose threads on one side and a regular Schrader valve-sized connection on the other (like a car tire). I say "valve-sized" because it's not a valve, it's just a section of plastic; it doesn't even have threads on it. This was an annoying surprise. It came packaged with a black over over that end, hiding the fact that it didn't have any real brass threads. But with a little pressure I managed to thread the air hose from my pump onto it. I just used the same Coleman inflator I'd been using all season for the floats and toys. I used the HP (high pressure) setting instead of the HV (high volume) selection. I then powered it up and began pressurizing the system.

Everything I've ever read says NOT to exceed 30 psi on the system, so I started this process with the galley sink already left open. No sense in letting the air build up and blow out a line or fitting, right?

I started at the farthest end of the system that had an opening. On the 348 that's the galley sink. Once it gurgled air I closed it. I then came back to the head and repeated the same process on the sink, then the toilet and then the shower hose. I did the same on the cockpit sink. Opening each until I heard air, not water and then closed it. I then repeated the process for the hot water side from the galley, then the head sink and then the shower. Once I got no air out of each I then re-opened them all and let the air pump run for a while.

I never heard a completely clear sound of air, there was always a slight gurgling of water. Some folks think it's OK to just pump out with air and not use antifreeze. I'm not sure I'd trust that hearing that remaining bit of gurgling.

I then detached the water line from the fresh water tank and let the remaining water drain into the bilge. This was a little messy. I could've used the hose kit to drain it first. Hindsight for next year. I then installed a pickup hose kit. This is a kit that lets you install a hose and a three-way valve into the system for the purpose of pulling anti-freeze directly from the jugs. Since winterizing is a once-a-season sort of thing, and the water system is SO EASY to disconnect (Whale 15mm fittings) I opted not to bother installing this permanently. I also wasn't keen on the idea of putting a valve with such a tiny through-hole into the system for fear of losing flow and pressure. Perhaps next season I'll try it.

One complaint, the pickup hose from the kit comes coiled in plastic shrinkwrap. The damned thing just WOULD NOT uncoil completely. This made for a lot of extra fiddling to keep the hose immersed in the antifreeze inside the jugs. Next time I'll probably jam a section of straightened wire (coat hanger probably) into the hose to keep the DAMNED THING straight.

Once the hose was connected I then turned on the fresh water pump and opened the galley sink. It started pulling antifreeze out of the jug REALLY FAST. Pink came out of the tap. I shut it off and then repeated my above process used to go from tap to tap, opening each until pink ran out.

Note, next year I'll probably put an antifreeze jug under each tap to recover some of it. This can then be used to flush places like the toilets, the sea strainers and eventually the bilge in the engine compartment. Remember, water left in the bilge can freeze, and so can the lines going from the pumps to the through-hulls. This recaptured antifreeze probably wouldn't be "as strong" since it would've been partially diluted (not by much since I pumped air through first) but it'd be "good enough" for the bilge flushing.

I then dumped antifreeze into the galley sink and the shower drains. This to displace the water in the hoses leading to the shower sump. I dumped enough to let me see pink going into the sump. I then dumped enough into the sump to have it trigger the pump, and then about anohter half-gallon. This to MAKE SURE the sump had all pink in it AND to make sure the hose leading UP from the sump also had pink in it. This is important, the sump is below the water line and has a one-way valve to keep water in the line from coming back into it. I believe the dealer screwed this up last year letting the sump get cracked.

Same thing with the toilet. I dumped pink into the toilet to make sure it displaced any water between it, the vacuum pump and the waste tank. I have not yet pumped out the waste tank. I'll be doing that next weekend.

The fresh water system is now winterized.

Then then also put an engine room heater (Xtreme heat 300w) into the engine compartment. I mounted it onto a piece of marine plywood, sized large enough to straddle the stringers at the forward end of the engine compartment. I only put this in there to ward off the nighttime cold we've been getting. We'll be traveling a bit for the next week and I didn't want a sudden cold snap (none predicted though) to cause more trouble. I also closed the seacocks.

Next up will be to winterize the AC and the genset systems.

We'll still probably take a couple of lunch trips for the next few weeks. Once those are done I'll winterize the engines and leave it sit until next Spring. Depending on the amount of work to rewinterize the engines it may be tempting to take a trip during our usual sudden heatwaves in February. But we'll see.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Bill,

I just finished up winterizing mine today. I removed my thermostat housing , drained the engine block, manifolds, hot water tank (not potable side of the hot water tank) and poured pink into the block and all the hoses, put in a new gasket for the thermo housing and bolted everything back into place.

For the AC, if the boat is out of the water on a rack or blocks, you can run a hose from a gallon jug of pink into the raw water intake for the ac, you will need some sort of nipple that will stick in the thru hull (I used the adaptor from my Tempo hand pump as it fits all my thru hulls) and you can let the pump suck pink till it comes out the obd. Or alternately if you have a hand pump you can just pump the fluid backwards through the ac system by pumping in the OBD till it comes out the raw water thru hull under the boat.

Well mine is done.. Now all I have to do is shell out $650 for a semi custom 8oz polyguard cover, couple new tarps and that's it for this year.... *sigh*

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Brett DiMichele

Brett,

I have never winterized the motor that way but I'm thinking about trying that. I have always (on the 220) ran the motor on water until the temperature came up and the 'stat opened, then switched over to a 5 gallon bucket of antifreezed all while hooked up the the muffs. Will your method get enough antifreeze in the impeller housing? - especially on the pickup side?

Also, using that method do you pump any antifreeze into the hot water heater after draining it?

I'm going to go with shrinkwrap this winter since it's only like 260 or so.. I thought about the cover but I'm thinking of stepping it up to a 298 or 318 in the next year or two so I probably won't make out with the cover

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V475
Chris Craft Catalina 23 w/ 300 G2
Previously-V338, 248 Vista, H210

When you pour the AF in the hoses, for the most part there is not problem getting it in where you want it to be, since you have drained each hose anyway before pouring. On my OMC Cobra, the impeller is way back in the drive, but when I fill the raw water intake hose at the thermo housing, I will get some AF out of the water intakes on the drive, which shows that it does get into the impeller housing. With a Volvo, you can disconnect the hoses at the impeller housing and fill each, as long as you drain first there is no problem doing it that way.

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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