Winterizing with No Antifreeze -- Drain Only

1984 Ski Nautique 2001
Engine Model PRD WR R10
Pleasurecraft Marine
Right-Hand Rotation from Rear
351 CID
Warner Velvet Drive Model 10-17-003
Direct Drive (1:1)


Well, figured I should probably update this. I agree with those who advise that if all the water is drained out, there is nothing to freeze. I guess we didn't get it all out.

My original post was Nov 2013. Last spring we found the starboard casting plug near the rear of the block pushed out. Apparently no other damage, as we got through the season fine. We didn't get enough boating in last summer, for various reasons.

Based on various posts, I think that when we cranked the trailer tongue jack low it wasn't low enough to drain all the water. I hadn't thought about driving it around starting/stopping--seems like more effort than pouring in the antifreeze.

So anyway, in fall 2014 we drained it all and then poured it full of the pink RV antifreeze. No freezing issues this time.

I still just drain the Mercruiser 140 in the pontoon boat. Have done that for 15 or 16 seasons without a problem. But from now on I'll pour the pink stuff into the SN2001. I am positive we could change something we did and just drain each fall, but I did not enjoy the feeling of getting a new plug in and hoping nothing else was damaged.

Steve

This topic always cracks me up. People are so anal about their boats "only the best"until it comes to winterizing. Then all of a sudden it's " let's do it the cheapest way" 20 bucks will get you 5 gallons of RV antifreeze that's a whole lot cheaper than a new block.
It reminds me of my winter toys guys will drop 13 grand on a new sled with computer controlled direct injection engines that require 91 octane fuel and then want to save 5 bucks by buying the cheapest 2 stroke oil even though the manufacturer recommends only one kind of oil. Crazy I tell ya

Steve,
Did you probe the drains for sediment? There have been some who didn't and found out all the water didn't come out. It's important with or without antifreeze. Way back, I've drained only lot's of engines without a problem.

gun-driver wrote: This topic always cracks me up. People are so anal about their boats "only the best"until it comes to winterizing. Then all of a sudden it's " let's do it the cheapest way" 20 bucks will get you 5 gallons of RV antifreeze that's a whole lot cheaper than a new block. It reminds me of my winter toys guys will drop 13 grand on a new sled with computer controlled direct injection engines that require 91 octane fuel and then want to save 5 bucks by buying the cheapest 2 stroke oil even though the manufacturer recommends only one kind of oil. Crazy I tell ya

ROFLMAO.......

Paul, I couldn't agree more. My father in law was a Fox Trac, Allouette, Scorpion and finally a Polaris dealer over the years (Yes, that would have been many years).
Every time somebody would bring a burned down machine in he asked every one of them what oil they were running at the time and then the second question was what gas they were running.

The two most common oil responses.....
1) "I ran out of my regular oil and the gas station had this stuff that they said would work".

2) "WalMart. It's only a dollar a gallon".

The most common gas response.....
1) "Whatever that bar was selling".

Never, ever had a problem with the oil that they were sold with.
Gas was a different situation but pretty much eliminated problems as gas stops started using premium only as the sled traffic increased over the years.