First Time Winterizing

benpang · **Joined:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:37 am **Posts:** 6

I just bought a 2011 180ss with a 4.3 merc two weeks ago. Unfortunately it is going to freeze hard this weekend and I need to winterize it early :cry:

. Since I have always had only outboards in the past, I have very little knowledge about winterizing inboards. What do I need to do to properly winterize it for the season? I only have 6 hours on the boat.

M3eater · **Posted:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:17 am

Do a search on the forum (use the search key up at the upper-right of the forum screen), for WINTERIZING and start by only searching titles. You will find all the info that you need. Let us know if you have specific questions after checking out the various posts.

In fact, here's a link to this specific search:

http://www.smwebhead.com/phpBB3/search.php?keywords=winterizing&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

benpang · **Joined:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:37 am **Posts:** 6

Thanks

M3eater · **Posted:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 11:21 am

By the way, You can also do wnat we do.

We enjoy boating late into the fall season and, of course, there is always that night or string of nights that threaten to go below freezing. I place an electric space heater in the engine compartment and run it on the lowest setting (with the compartment closed). Just be sure the heater turns on at something above 35 degrees and then shuts off via tis internal thrmostat. We leave it there all the time, when the boat is sitting on the trailer and take it out when we want to pull the boat to the water.

Of course, this is not the official way to do it and you must be cautious in doing this as you certainly could present a fire hazard.

The proper way to do this is to purchase a purpose built bilge heater that is permanently mounted and has all of the proper safety protections. Someday we will pop for one of these, but as they cost as much as a portable Honda generator (for use on the boat), the generator will come first (as well as many other needs for the cash).

benpang · **Joined:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:37 am **Posts:** 6

That sounds like a good idea. I have it in the garage right now at the lake and I think I might run out tonight an put a space heater by the back end until I can get it done properly.

M3eater · **Posted:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 11:29 am

Put the heater in the engine compartment (a small one), unless the heater can keep the whole garage at above-freezing temps.

LouC · **Posted:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 5:18 pm

The heater will work until you can get it done but keep in mind if there is any fuel vapor in the bilge there is a risk of using a non approved heater. If you decide to winterize it yourself be careful to make sure to drain every area listed in the Merc manual. If you remove a drain plug and nothing comes out, probe the area with a coat hanger wire or similar because it could be clogged with rust flakes. You want all the water OUT....
Also as a part of winterization, most manufacturers specify that the engine and drive oil be changed, the engine fogged prior to draining, and the fuel system be treated with stabilizer prior to the last run of the season...These tasks are not difficult to do yourself but the first time it will take a while and you are better off doing this on a nice 65* fall day rather waiting till a 40* day in November...

Lastly some people like to add antifreeze because it cuts down on corrosion in the block/heads/manifolds, but if you choose to use a no tox antifreeze (-100 is the best) and add it after draining manually, do not use one of those kits that lets you suck the AF up the outdrive water intakes from a plastic tank. They can work on a closed cooled engine but on a raw water cooled engine it's very risky. The thermostat may not open and then you could be left with mostly water in the engine and a cracked block in the spring...

yrless11 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 6:02 pm

If your boat is stored in a garage, I wouldn't worry much. You probably need a good string of days below 28 or so to be concerned. You could probably just run a space heater in the garage as well, just enough to keep it a bit warmer. I think you'd be surprised at much it will take to cause any issues. It probably wouldn't take much to run the engine on muffs, get it warmed up (ie get the thermostat open) and swap from water to antifreeze. I probably wouldn't worry about it if the temps are only going to reach 28 or so for an hour overnight. This is all assuming that you plan to utilize the boat some more this fall and will do a full winterizatoin later. I can't speak for your comfort level with the weather and risk to your boat...putting some antifreeze in is definately cheap insurance for a new boat. Just my .02

Edit: Since you just bought the boat...maybe ask the dealer to winterize for you for free :mrgreen:

LouC · **Posted:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:11 pm

I know people do use the suck up the AF through the drive trick to winterize but that is not the way either Merc or Volvo tell you to do it in their manuals, and if a boat was winterized that way and the block cracked goodbye warrantee...if you are going to do it yourself do it by the book or pay the dealer. On a cool fall day a 160* thermostat may never open up enough to get a sufficient quantity of AF into the block to protect it against freezing. Especially with cold water from a water hose feeding the cooling system. I have one of the winterizing kits and tried it the first year. I then checked the block drains and what came out looked like dirty water. I drained the block again and just backfilled with AF and have done it that way ever since...so I would not advise anyone to use that method unless the engine has closed cooling (heat exchanger). It will get the AF into the raw water pump, raw water side of the heat exchanger and the manifolds just fine....but not good for a raw water cooled block...

benpang · **Joined:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:37 am **Posts:** 6

Thanks everyone. After reading the postings I feel much better today after it hit -1(30F) last night. It is supposed to go down to -5(23F) so tonight when I head out to the lake I will put a heater on in the garage for tonight. I think after taking out tomorrow, I shouldn't press my luck anymore and drain everything and get it ready for winter.

yrless11 · **Posted:** Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:54 pm

Since sucking up AF is so controversial, my recommendation to do so was only as a temporary winterization to get you through a week or two so you can still use your boat this year. The biggest issue that you'll see is that if you use this method, you get a mix of water and AF which dillutes the AF, so a -100F will not be as effective. Your guess is as good as anyone elses as to how effective that will be. I definately recommend using the block drain/backfill with AF procedure as both volvo and merc state.

Besides draining/adding AF to the block, other engine prep, etc, you want to do several other things for winter storage. A few items that I do are:
Remove all toys, towels, misc stuff, etc off boat
Open compartments so they can 'breathe'
Put dryer sheets throughout boat to keep out critters (not sure if this works or not)
Put some calcium chloride in milk jugs (tops cut off) to suck up moisture and prevent mildew
Pull drain plug, stick in zip loc bag and put key through it in ignition
Pull batteries so I can cycle and charge them a few times in the winter
Wash/polish/wax hull
That's probably not all, but will get you headed in the right direction. Use the search and I'm sure you'll find plenty of other good suggestions.

www.iFourWinns.com

First Time Winterizing

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