Winterizing Question

Kevin, I have come up with the idea of an active flotation system that involves inflatable bags and an air tank. It can be activated either with a sensor or a pull cord on the dash. It will satisty the safety concerns for foam and allow the boat to breath so they last forever. I just need an investor to get it to the market.

SNobsessed wrote: Riley wrote: Kevin, I have come up with the idea of an active flotation system that involves inflatable bags and an air tank. It can be activated either with a sensor or a pull cord on the dash. It will satisty the safety concerns for foam and allow the boat to breath so they last forever. I just need an investor to get it to the market. Just pull one out of a junk car's steering wheel!

Great idea. We actually tried those, but the floor failed when we set it off!

Time to add my two cents to piss of the masses. When I bought my boat in Florida this spring I had to winterize in order to bring it back to the U.P. of Michigan. Now I'm pretty sure that I'm in one of the coldest climates of the U.S. compared to the rest of you guys. When I winterized I sucked it up through the hose that goes to the thru-hull. When I told people of this on here they criticized my practice. I took it with an open mind. I brought the boat back for a month of below zero temps with no problems. Now this fall when I winterized I weighed the opinions and choose to do it sort of the same.

Ran the engine till the operating temp was @ 160, meaning the thermostat was open, fogged the carb, then sucked up three gallons of AF. Same as I had done in the spring. Changed the oil, This time I pre ordered the oil change hose from skidim.com and installed it to make all future oil changes a breeze. Now to satisfy the critics and for an added bit of insurance I pulled the drain plugs out. All five of them, once removed, released bright green antifreeze. Meaning that dilution was not an issue.

For all of those who recommend just draining and no AF, what do you guys think will happen with all the water that is left in the rear of the engine that cant get out of the plug due to the angle that the motor is mounted. And leaving the plugs out to let it escape isnt an option, once the orifice freezes it's not going to come out, I have yet to see water melt it self to reach an open hole. The point Im making is, if your block is freezing any water in it is froze there is no way it's going to find a way out on its own unless it cracks your block and drains in the spring.

And hey MR. Brainard, WHO TF do you think you are calling people idiots, you've rubbed me the wrong way, I'm glad your wife puts up with it but I won't. Your no more special than anyone else here. This is a boating forum not a place for you to release your daily stresses so either agree or disagree with what you read, but don't belittle others. It's shows your maturity.

Regards

did we ever attack the angle of 4 million boats firing up in the spring time releasing green goo into our so pristine lakes, or even bio RV anti-freeze? well im not a conservationist but i do in some way care about polution. what the *************** i minus well go back to pouring oil down the drains and anti-freeze too
draining the blocks and leaving them empty is sufficient, its practiced over and over from people that get paid to do it, what the fck is the big concern, drain the block and the boat is winterized. it will not crack. I am a polluter also, the persona is there that you need anti-freeze and then in the spring you dump it in the lake.....if Al Gore gets wind of this the practice will stop. I feel better now cause I had a dream last night that i owned a gas station and Carol O'Conner pulled in to fuel up his Honda..needless to say i need therapy

Yooper,

Nice entry into the group. I'm sure you'll make tons of friends here.

OK boys, two newbies are getting welcomed on this thread the old fashioned (79) way. I think da yooper is just a little testy because he may be looking at snow out his window this morning, and the fact that winterization comes early in Hancock.

I was following you until you said freeze plug. A quick, hard freeze will be more likely to crack a block than a long drawn out gradual temperature decrease.

I popped a freeze plug one year in our 351 and that was with anti freeze. I now pour a 1/2 gallon in and pull the plugs to purge any remaining water and I always get some remaining water. It's a good thing they put plugs that will pop out in those casting holes!

My buddy's 65 Sportsmans do not have foam. What a treat that will be when we do them someday.
i have to think that some percentage of the hull cracks in northern boats is from the foam freezing. With the amount of water I just took out of my latest boat, it would have to crack.
I really do not feel that the noodles will keep water in there if it gets in. They are round, so there are voids everywhere in them. With drains through the stringers, there is enough movement that water will exit. just my opinion.

Riley wrote: I've been told 1 gallon of green stuff pollutes 750,000 gallons of water. They say the pink stuff is not toxic, but it kills my grass every spring when I fire the boat up on the trailer. Once the boat has been drained and filled with anti freeze, you can then drain the anti freeze and rest assured it ain't going to freeze.

Like I asked eariler " Whats with the antifreeze?"
Seems to me if all the water is out of the block and heads and manifolds what is their to freeze? At the factory we never winterized the motors with antfreeze before shipping. We also quit fogging around 1995.
I think if a motor is going to be put up longer than say a year then fogging may be needed. The big thing to me is treating the fuel and getting it thru the system before lay up. We have been using a product called ValvTect. So Far So good!

When draining I always tip the boats tongue down and tongue up on a steep incline behind my vehicle,the marina uses their hoists. Especially on the fords.

physics lesson 101, the drain plugs on engines are always below the "casting" plugs, and I stress casting plugs, they have nothing to do with a frozen block, they are to allow sand to escape the casting and then in the machining process they cut the openings to accept a plug to block them off
the drain is the lowest point and always will be, i go by statistics, 1000 boats over 20 years, 0 cracked blocks, that equates to 100 percent
I too had fears, and to this day on certain boats i simply drain and leave them. I really dont want to pay for someones engine and if i thought there was a chance of a block cracking I would do what was necessary to prevent that from happening.
All we are doing here is creating a wives tale plain and simple, quite like the flu shots...do we need them or dont we?

I rely on all the water in my bock to evaporate before freezing temps hit. Flu shots in the butt like all the others.

Great point Kevin! I also highly suggest wringing out your noodle before jamming it in many samples.

s79t's reading comprehension tip of the day:

WhiteLakeSkier's profile says NEW YORK, he has also mentioned the Adirondacks. This is likely not the old White Lake Marine in North Carolina.

noodles as far as I know will not hold water when new as they have some kind of a finish but as they get old and sun does its work, that finish comes off and that is when they really start to take serious water..they still float..