www.iFourWinns.com

so i winterized myself last year with a buddy. he helped me by hooking up the muffs and running the coolant through. needless to say it didn't get completely full of coolant and i blew a freeze plug. i got that fixed and was lucky to have not split the block.

the shop told me how to do it manually at the beginning of the summer and i remember the just of it but can't remember exactly which hoses to unhook. is this correct? i unhook the main hose at the thermostat and the ones at the sea pump and let her drain out completely, as well as the block and manifold plugs. then hook everything up but the main (large) hose at the thermostat and fill until coolant is coming out of the tstat? then put a funnel on the 2 smaller hoses going to the manifolds and fill them up as much as possible. this sound correct?

i have looked through my manual and it doesn't get to descriptive with photos or anything on winterizing just a small half page text describing all the things that need to be done but not elaborating on filling with coolant.

thanks!

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2006 Nissan Titan SE 6" Lift
2000 Four Winns 190 Horizon 5.0GL

You have the basics of it covered, the main thing is to make sure all the water is OUT. The antifreeze part is just to reduce corrosion damage in storage. When you pull the block drains, poke a screwdriver (real thin one or a long wood screw) in there to loosen any rust flakes that can block the drain, same with the manifolds. Pull the big hose off at the bottom end to drain the front circulating pump, and after marking them, drain both hoses going to your raw water pump (not a Volvo owner but I have seen how their raw water pumps are set up. The hose coming from the transom to the pump, disconnect it at the pump and point it down in the blige, this will also drain the p.s. cooler if there is one on the rear of the engine. Then drain the hose going from the raw water pump to the thermo housing. For filling, I reconnect the big hose at the circulating pump end. Fill with AF till you see some AF come out the block drains. You will actually see the last of the water pushed out. Then take each plug, put a little marine grease on em, reinstall. Then fill from the top end of that hose till AF is seen at the thermo neck. Then re connect the top end of that hose on the thermo housing. Next do the same with the manifolds, fill through the hoses off the thermo housing till a bit of AF runs out the drain, grease the plug, replace, then fill till it runs out the exhaust. (OK because you use no tox, right and use -100 it stays liquid to a much lower temp).
then take the hose that goes from the transom to the raw water pump, fill it till AF runs out the drive water intakes. Next take the one that goes from the raw water pump, connect it at the pump end and fill from the thermo end to get some AF in the pump housing. That's about it.....

This is the best way to use AF, as I've said many times, no worries about the impeller not sucking it in (esp on Volvos and Merc Bravos with the pump way up on the engine) which would burn the impeller and overheat the engine and ruin your day. Also don't have to worry about running out of AF before it's fogged. Finally and most important you know all the WATER IS OUT...

to all backyard winterizers....do not take short cuts....do not listen to helpful but un-informed friends and relatives...who did it the suck it in the drive way and never had a problem.....that works OK on closed cooling...not always on raw water cooling...if the thermo does not open all the way you could have a block with very little AF in it...professional mechanics may do it this way because they can tell when the thermo is open, and so can I, but I won't tell you to do it that way, because it's too risky...

this way is about as fool proof as it gets...

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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

Lou thanks a million that's exactly what I needed! Just went and picked up everything I need and will be doing it Sunday. Thanks again!

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2006 Nissan Titan SE 6" Lift
2000 Four Winns 190 Horizon 5.0GL

glad to be of help....

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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

Another thing to do is to be sure you lower the outdrive to get all of the water out of it before you store it.

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

good point, I also pull the drive off and check the bellows for water and gear oil...and fix whatever's wrong over the off season...
One year I did have water in the bellow and was able to save the ujoints by lubing them up right away and just had to replace the gimble bearing. If I let it sit all winter the joints would have been corroded along with the driveshaft which would have ruined sealing surface for the input shaft seal....

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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

just fyi You can find the drain procedure in the 5.0GL "drive manual"... volvo penta will let you download the pdf drive manuals for free on their site... they do have pictures... don't look up winterization, look up engine draining...
I have a 5.0gxi 2007 model, but all the others are listed as well... if the drain procedure is not clear, you can also look at the detailed engine pictures in the main sections... my previous boat was OMC, and I can't say enough about how much more information Volvo provides in their manuals...
also, some hoses are more easily removed from the opposite end than they recommend... as long as you move the hose down and get the water out, it does not matter which end you unclamp...

I only drain mine and don't use antifreeze, but you can if you want to... the manual will not tell you how to do this part...

go here and enter your specs...
http://www.volvopenta.com/volvopenta/ma ... earch.aspx

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2007 FW Horizon 200 5.0GXi/SX-A

I've always sucked the pink stuff up the drive, and only had trouble once. When finished I would open the drains just long enough to check the color. This year she wasn't "sucking" very well. So, instead I did as discribed above. The Multi-point drain system makes it pretty easy to get all the water out. Disconnected every hose at the T-stat and used a hand pump to force about 1.5 gal through each exhaust header, and about another 1.5 gal through the engine mounted water pump. Never had to do this before, so fingers crossed for next spring.

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Walt B
"Debt-Charged"
Black '07 H210SS
6.2L Bravo One turning a 21P HIFive
Wakeboard Tower with Perfect Pass Stargazer version
Missouri River; Kansas City, Mo.

The problem I have always had with this method, is that even though many marinas do it, it is not an approved procedure by any of the sterndrive manufacturers. If you don't know how to tell if the thermo is really open, then you are at risk of a cracked block if it gets cold enough...'do you feel lucky' as Clint Eastwood once said...

With raw water cooling, it's not that uncommon for a flake of rust to keep the thermo from closing all the way, when that happens the engine never fully warms up and then the thermo will not open fully either, that's when you will have a problem with this method

The other reason is as noted above, the impeller may not always suck it in...why, well....antifreeze by its nature is more dense than water, that's what an antifreeze hydrometer measures when you are checking the strength of an antifreeze/water solution...so if the impeller is not perfect, the pump may not be able to suck the more dense fluid from the drive to the raw water pump. On Volvos and Bravos this is an issue because the pump is way up on the engine. On Alphas and Cobras not so because the impeller is right in the drive....

What I thought of was using a pressurized tank, I got a livewell pump, that by chance screwed right into the threads on the winterizing tank. That way the livewell pump could feed the AF under pressure to aid in its getting sucked in by the impeller. This actually worked but I still felt this procedure is risky. So what I did was use the tank and pump to flush my trailer brakes (drums with a flush system) I also use it to winterize my pressure washer...

And one more point...take a gallon of the pink stuff and put it in your freezer set at zero and see what happens....it gets hard...doesn't expand as they say, but it gets hard. Now take a gallon of the blue -100 stuff and do the same thing...stays liquid...that's why I use the -100...yes it seems like overkill...but what if there is some water that didn't drain...it does cost more but I like to be done with my jobs and move on...not wondering about it on cold winter nights...

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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

well LouC thanks to you and my wife for finding exactly what i needed in the manual haha it all came out well. i feel much more confident about my winterization this year than last!

i do have one question though. it was saying to be sure and drain the drive. said to look on the port side near the pivot housing. i looked and looked and don't see anything that looks to be a drain for the drive. i did raise and lower it until i got no water out of the drive but makes me a bit nervous saying the SX drive has a drain but i cannot find it. the only thing i could think of is if they are talking about the oil drain and i'm getting confussed.

the other thing i noticed was when draining the manifolds i had a good deal of sand in one of them. i know exactly what lake and when this happened but made me feel good about doing the winterization this way otherwise that sand would have still been in there.

thanks again for the help LouC and everyone else!

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2006 Nissan Titan SE 6" Lift
2000 Four Winns 190 Horizon 5.0GL

some of the SX series had a drain plug in the pivot housing (the part of the transom that the drive bolts onto) that I think was on the port side as you face it....but this drain was not present on all years...I checked and the last year I saw that drain was for 98, the 99s and 2000s did not have them, I think you're good there....

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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

>The problem I have always had with this method, is that even though many marinas do it, it is not an approved procedure by any of the sterndrive manufacturers.

Well... the use of antifreeze "in-general" is not approved by sterndrive manufacturers or the procedure "how to do it" would be listed in your sterndrive manual...
Emptying the water from your engine is sufficient... adding antifreeze (if done correctly) may have benefits... don't know... incorrectly adding antifreeze (mixing with water that is already in your engine) could lead to a MAJOR problem CRACK!!!

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2007 FW Horizon 200 5.0GXi/SX-A

Hi Everyone, Well I winterized the boat last weekend. This the first time winterizing an I/O, last 2 previous boats had outboard engines. Boats a 2005 FW 190 with 5.0 GL engine. Ran the engine for 20 minutes before starting, I used the West marine winterizing kit container and engine ear muffs and ran 3 gallons of -50 marine antifreeze though the engine until the pink stuff was coming out of the engine. Didn't drain the manifolds or water pump before starting. Now that I read this post I'm wondering if I should be ok or should I redo it?

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2005 Four Winns Horizon 190
2010 Toyota Highlander

to quote Clint Eastwood Well do you feel lucky??!!

I'd open the block drains and drain some of what comes out into a paper cup, then stick that in the freezer. If it freezes, then you gotta drain it, for sure, same thing with manifolds but usually with that method the manifolds get all the AF and the block may not

Then either just drain and leave it, or do it my way as described above. Which by the way, is listed in my OMC manual and a couple of Merc manuals I have seen.....no where is the lazy guy suck it up the drive method listed, because that method can result in a cracked block, no manufacturer with any sense will chance the warrantee claims that could cause...

It can work, but is risky and is properly used only on closed cooling NOT on raw water cooling....

The technical reason why if you want to know and understand is the way raw water cooling works. When the engine is cold, the water coming into the thermo housing bypasses the engine and goes out the exhaust. The raw water in the block just keeps circulating in it until the thermostat opens and lets the raw water come out of the block and go out the exhaust. What happens is this, on a cool fall day, running on 45* water, with no load at idle, the engine may never warm up enough to open the stat, especially if it sticks open just a bit, mind did this when I winterized it on Sat, ran it for 40 min and the gauge never moved off 100*. So popped a new stat in and then it warmed up to a normal 160, but even so, the stat has open all the way for the raw water to get out so the AF can replace it. Now you know why, and can do it the right 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

Pretty much every marina uses the antifreeze method and if any of them had ever lost 1 they would revisit the method so bottom line it works. Many marinas use -100. The problem with the -50 is that when mixed with water it slushes up, the -100 doesnt. The other issue I see in many of the posts is that people arent using enough. From empty a small block GM holds approx 3.5 gallons. So if you only put 3 gallons of -50 into the motor mixing with the water thats already in there you run a serious risk of freezing problems. We run 5 gallons of -100 through it, which is still pink. the thermostat does not have to open at all for the antifreeze to get through the entire motor. Marine tstat housings have bypasses in them. Once you see antifreeze coming out at the transom and through the prop housing then the water is though all passageways. To insure that there is proper amount of antifreeze keep another couple of gallons going through the motor. The biggest problems caused when people do this on their own is using -50 over -100 and not using enough. Dont cheap out or you will loose your motor.

Or, if you are really concerned, let a marina do it. My place charges about $170 for a basic winterize which also changes your gear lube, stabilizes your fuel and changes the fuel filter. Our work is insured, in the 15 years of winterizing this method we have never had a single issue and we average about 400 winterizes a season. If it broke it would be warrantied. Just some food for thought.

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Brian Borchik
The Winds of Cold Springs Harbor Marina
Baldwinsville, NY