I winterize about 90 boats a season from waverunners , outboards to boats up to 110’. One thing about those Mercruisers and those blue plastic tabs they get old and brutal and will break off leaving the threaded part inside the block. Usually a ease out will remove them. I keep bags of new ones. Sometimes that oil cooler drain and hose is not accessible to remove the plug or hose. I pull the hose at the thermostat housing and use a wet dry vac and pull the water out of the hoses and cooler. Then refill with RV antifreeze. Most boats I do are in the water at the marina so you can’t drain the bilge. I bilge all that I can then use the wet dry vac and as a added measure I pour in about a 1/2 gallon RV antifreeze into the bilge and leave it. Pull the big hose to the thermostat housing and backfill with two gallons of RV antifreeze. You can’t use muffs if boats in the water. When you pour in through the big hose at the thermostat housing you’re filling from the bottom up because it goes into through the circulating pump into the block which is below the thermostat so no reason to pull the thermostat. Little fogging oil into car or fuel injector valve body spin it for about 5 seconds and done. Those few seconds will not harm the impeller.
Good video. Thanks! Just a couple thoughts. I have always heard, and read in my manual NOT to turn the engine over for more than a few seconds without water running through the outdrive ports (either muffs or submerged) to ensure the impeller has water on it. The reason being is that the impeller fits very tight in its housing and spinning it dry for more than even a couple of seconds will damage it. So, I always fog before draining. I also save a lot of $ by using engine oil to fog the engine. My manual also specifies that.
Ive drained my block, manifolds, water pump every year. Nothing more. Boats 12 years old and runs great. No fogging. No battery removal. Engine and drive oil changed every 3 years. I do pull the inlet hose off the thermostat housing and pour 1 gallon of pink antifreeze in it for insurance incase some water is still somewhere in the engine. I dont reccomend running a boat with no water as it reduces the life span of the impeller
So, I don't know about all of that... But I'm 41, and I've spent my whole life on the water. My mom even said that's where I was conceived.. LoL 😆.. But we never did all of that. Drain the block, run the gas tank empty, "carburetor".. Cover... You'll be good... And yes, if you're nor confident with your work pour some antifreeze down there.... You don't have to get every last drop out.. As long as you get most of it.. As long as there's room for the ice to expand...
Great points.If you are fogging your engine running do it first with water to the drive , if not runnng ,make sure it does not start dry by unhooking a coil wire or similar. The not lazy way is to turn off the fuel,run the engine then gently fog it so it doesn't stall ,then just before it seems like it's running out of fuel blast it with the fogging oil until it dies.
Ive been staying away from a lot of great deal on boats that has i/o motor thinking its really hard to maintain it like winterizing it, now Im checking out boats that has i/o motor . Thanks for the tutorial.
Most if not all mercruisers have a tiny red switch at the helm to disable the ignition and kill the engine or stop it from starting. I use it to prevent engine from starting and burning fog oil. Carry on.
I run mine on the hose til its warm. Then I put my home made V shaped tub, under the stern drive, fill with anti- freeze and run it for half a beer. Then fog it out. Then I save the anti-freeze for next year, and continue drinking beer til spring, then thru summer
Pretty good video, but theres a couple things I would cratique. 1: like others said it's really not great to run the boat at all without water for the sake of the impeller. 2. I leave the drain plugs out until spring. Air cant freeze and it will definitely be drained. Kind of a personal preference more than anything. 3. You should at least pull the drain plug on your drive oil for a second to make sure there is no water in it. Obviously it's best to change it every year. 4. If the boat fires up while you're fogging it you've just burnt all your fogging oil. I use the lazy fog method too, but I unhook the negative wire from the coil, fog the hell out of the carb open the throttle a little and crank it over a few times. That's basically my final step b4 removing the battery.
I like it. Same procedure as me basically! I have a lot of people that argue with me and fill there blocks with RV antifreeze right to the top. If possible i drain with your same method then dump antifreeze through the t stat housing and wait til i see it come out of each block plug. Then i repeat on manifolds. Like you say you can leave them 100% like and it would be fine but the antifreeze is a nice reassurance in my mind. Great video!
The last thing that I do is to spray the fogging oil in a running engine to stall it and it dies. But I also have a 5 gallon container of RV antifreeze that I run through the motor. I start with fuel stabilizer and Berryman B12 in the fuel tank. Then hook the fresh water and start the boat. I let it run for about 20 minutes to flush out the system and getting the motor to operating temperature. Then I close off the fresh water valve and open the valve to the antifreeze container. I let it run till the antifreeze comes out the water outlet. Then I fog the motor down till it dies. Then I shut everything down. I leave the lower drive down. I also had jacked up the trailer enough that the tires are off the ground. I use jack stands to support the trailer. With the trailer raised up, I can get the lower unit all the way down. I bought my boat new in 1997. No issues with it for all these years. I need to make a video some day of the process. I already winterized it for this year before my shoulder surgery.
It's really smart to jack up the trailer level with jack stands over the winter. I had a 25' hardtop that I just simply left on the trailer like most everyone does. The next season I had hellacious amounts of stress cracks show up in the gelcoat around the corners and etc. Wll from the pressure of being the slightest but uneven, because they're not designed for prolonged uneven pressure to be put on the minimal points of the hull bottom like a trailer exerts. The engineer for our race team (marine half mile boats) was explaining to me that even the slightest twist in the trailer from even a couple degrees of unlevel ground invisible to the naked eye, can cause stringers to delaminate, spider cracks to form in the gelcoat all over, and create a lottttt of structural problems from the odd points of pressure being exerted. He said to ALWAYSSSS level out your trailer and boat with a bubble when sitting over winter or anywhere that is going to fluctuate between really cold and moderate cold, because the expansion and contraction ends up wreaking even more havoc. So, great tip man.
The easiest way to put antifreeze in the engine and exhaust manifolds is by hooking up a transmission funnel and about a 3 ' garden hose to the water muffs ..have someone start the engine as you pour rv antifreeze into the funnel that's hooked to the muffs on the lower unit... About 3 gallons or until the antifreeze runs out on the ground through the exhaust, then immediately shut off the engine... Then your done.. make sure to unhook the battery for the long winter...
Do you have to drain the block from water before adding antifreeze? Or does it just push out all the water when adding the antifreeze threw the lower unit
if you really find it necessary to dry start take time to insert some baby oil into the water pump,this will lube the impeller and stop any dry start damage
Good idea. I've used a squirt of liquid soap before just to give a little lube. I'm pretty sure that will not degrade the rubber in the impeller. Sometimes petroleum products will weaken rubber. On a boat I just got, I actually had the whole pump off in 3 minutes with 2 half inch bolts. Then turned the engine over with primary wire off the coil to fog engine without turning the pump at all.
Good morning to you Two things, great little video on the drain plugs. And I enjoyed seeing your boat considering the fact that I have the exact same Sea Ray 215. 👍
In addition to the comments about the impeller running dry, especially if the motor starts, consider the hot spots on cylinder walls etc. that do not have the cooling water to dissipate the heat. IMO this can cause significant damage to the engine.
Good video, I do all these steps, but then I run RV -50 antifreeze through the system as well. I also have a closed system on my boat so I’ve got a few extra steps.
Thanks man. And yeah I usually run some RV antifreeze as well. Biggest thing is making sure all that water is drained. I see so many people only partially drain the blocks and then they crack
My 16 year old son and I are following your video for our Bayliner Capri 2050 we bought last Spring. We are in the Lowcountry of SC and it occasionally dips to freezing. Temps expected tonight with wind gusts. Hopefully he and I can accomplish this.
@@kristindixon4838 if it’s not getting much below freezing just take a lightbulb and put it in the engine compartment, that will keep things warm enough.
There’s a easy way put the muffs on it use a small hose an funnel start the motor when antifreeze comes out the exhaust your done takes 2 gallons an you can usually catch one in buckets been doing this for 5 years 30 min your done
If you can't run engine and the first freeze is days away.....I have a 1996 3.0 volvo penta. At the lake 2 weeks ago I tried to fix an over heating problem that prevented me running the gas through it from the previous year. Thought it might be simple and then I could test it on the lake while I was there. Ended up replacing impeller, thermostat and finally removing riser to inspect flapper valve and found it's missing. So I suspect it fell off and is blocking exhaust causing an over heating issue above 2000 rpm (exhaust gas pressurizing cooling system so no water makes it through - I'll get a scope and see if I can see it). Because riser is off and I'm too cheap and impatient to get new gaskets without knowing the engine issue, I couldn't start boat to winterize without the riser for fear of hydro-locking the engine (water would be coming straight up out of manifold and might end up in exhaust valves). Tank is full of last year's stabilized gas, so I didn't want it sitting in the carb at all for fear of gum in bowls and jets. Took all the hoses off the raw pump, re-circulation pump, power steering cooler, thermostat. Removed raw pump ( 2 half inch bolts) to dump water out and prevent dry rotation of brand new impeller when turning over engine, took water drain plug out of cobra leg, tilted engine up and down. Undid the block and manifold drains, used wire in hole to make sure it drained, left them open. Jacked boat up to max, then put tongue on ground, then left it level to make sure I got all the water out. Disconnected gas line from carb and put a tube on it to divert gas from pump into a bottle while turning over engine. Sprayed fogging oil down throat of carb while I turned engine over to try and clear gas from float bowl. When I prime it, no more gas sprays down the throat, oil has coated the carb throat. Didn't change oil in leg or engine as it only had 1/4 tank run through it at 1600 rpm the whole damned summer. Will chance that the engine isn't going to fall apart with pristine year old oil in it. Spark plugs out and a quick fog spray into cylinders, turn engine over a second or two, and plenty of hope she makes it through the winter without doing it the way others do it! It is harder when you can't run the engine, but it's possible. Could do up all the drains and hoses and fill with RV antifreeze, but even the manual just calls for a drain. Should be ok. Now I have to pull the leg off and see where that flapper valve went which has a whole bunch of new issues such as the universal joint, gimbal bearing, bellows....am going back to an outboard I think!
If I'm being lazy on the out drive I would remove top an bottom plug with a Dean pan under it living all winter in the spring put new lower end lubricant
Thanks but I'll keep doing it the way I've done it for years. Fill a bucket full of -50 RV antifreeze, hook the muffs to the outdrive, run the engine, drink a beer, when the exhaust outputs antifreeze (pink), you're done. If it's carbureted, spray misting oil in the carb with the engine running and antifreeze still coming out of the exhaust until the engine stalls, then your done..... don't forget the beers. The hardest part of doing it this way is twisting of the beer cap.
Need to drain your raw water pump and your circulating pump also. Some boats have a plug where your line connects to the circulating pump. You have to pull in and out lines off raw water pump. I neglected to do it one year and cracked a pump. Don't forget engine oil cooler lines
Never run the boat without water. That’s an impeller job right there. Fog while running, drain water, pour antifreeze till it comes out the open plugs, replace plugs.
I understand the reason to fog a 2-stroke motor, but why fog a 4-stroke motor since it should have adequate oil lubrication from oil in the crankcase? I let 4-stroke engine cars sit over winter without fogging and have never had trouble with them, so why do it for boats?
Honestly I see it the opposite. Two stroke engines have oil mixed in with the gas so generally the cylinders have a very slight coating. 4-stroke engine cylinder walls also get lubrication from the crankcase like you said. The thing about it, any engine that is stored for several months should have the cylinders fogged because as temperature swings occur in high humidity , there will be condensation that occur on the cylinder walls causing slight rust that can turn into severe rust.
You're correct that oil does splash up the sidewalls of the cylinder and etc... But, as the engine sits stagnant for any length of time over the course of a couple months, the oil slowly dissipates down into the crankcase and your walls are left exposed. Especially the little micro pit areas that didn't see oil to begin with in any meaningful amount, and that's where surface oxidation starts and spreads from. Then, if there's the tiniest micro specs of oxidation spots on the cylinder walls when you start it next spring, you end up scoring your cylinder walls and begin burning oil, losing compression points which equals less power, and can damage rings even if it's shitty enough or tired enough of a motor. So, I agree with the video creator, fogging a four stroke is extremely important and even moreso than a 2 stroke (even though two strokes need fogged too, because oil works against the oil on cylinder walls regardless of how much oil is present in the combustion chamber during operation).
Thanks for sharing. I winterized my boat similar to how you have some months ago but just realized that I forgot to fog the engine. I really hope this isn’t too important. It’s the first time I winterize myself and I assume it has been managed properly in the past by the previous owners. Do you think the engine is damaged now?
You don't need to buy freezban if you leave all the drain plugs out over winter.... I offer two winterization packages, run ready or return for spring prep. my customers have to sign, agreeing that run ready winteriations are not guaranteed against anything and there is no warranty expressed or implied, we drain the water as shown in this video, put the drain plugs in and that's where my responsibility ends. I guarantee everything but the battery on spring prep type winterization packages.
By first to E I have a boat and I saw your videos a be out draining water but you don’t show where to add antifreeze also in second video you explain about freshwater and osean water , I wold like to know where antifreeze and oil
Well that is just not the case. I agree its not a good idea to But ive done it hundreds of times and impeller is good. They sell those dry run impellers also. Guess Ill have to make another video to correct this
The mercruiser manual also says you need to remove the engine to swap an oil pan (you don't). It also says to use plumbers tape to seal the 5.0 and 5.7 head bolt threads (but you're in for a rude awakening if you do that). The point: sometimes manufacturers put things in their manuals just to cover their ass and to prevent idiotic people from doing dumb shit and then blaming the mfg. Running a dry impeller for a little while wont hurt anything at all unless you have a 10yr one decrepit impeller that's one speedbump away from breaking to pieces. So, unless your vanes are on the brink of failure to begin with, I wouldn't hesitate one bit to do as the video creator shows.
So I don't need to take off water hose clamps ?1 on the cylinder side and 1 on the manifold side and poor pink rv antifreeze into hoses,then pull the drain plugs?what about the outdrive?drain the lower screw then upper.?
Part 2 of this video may help answer some questions. You can use RV antifreeze but if you just drain all the water out, the block will not crack. That's the most common thing i see happen
quick question, how about i leave the drain holes open through the whole winter, there will be no water, so will no damage right? I am going to park my boat outside. thanks
You should never start your motor without putting water to it, or else you could burn up your water impeller. Put water to the motor, run till warm, fog till it stalls, than....
Good video, overall, but REALLY BAD idea to even turn that engine over with a dry impeller housing!!!! Just get an adapter fitting and connect a garden hose to it, run and fog the engine, THEN drain the block, manifolds, as you described. (I never even bump the engine over unless the outdrive is in the water, or I have water connected). Impellers are a pain to change and you may damage it just enough that it will run OK initially, and then fail as far from your dock/launch ramp as possible, leaving you stranded. (Murphy's law, Item 17b.)
I don't know, I've been doing it this way forever. If you start The engine for a few seconds, it doesn't cause any damage to the impeller from my experience. Plus the impeller wasn't dry. As you saw when I tilted the drive down water came out. It would be another story if the boat had been sitting for many months. Then it would be considered a true dry impeller start. Which could cause some wear. That's one thing I really like about the old OMC Stern drives. You can keep a spare impeller and three bolts to swap it out. Easy peasy
@@NoNonsenseKnowHow I understand what you are saying, but someone is going to do what you recommended, with a DRY impeller, and wreck it. Yes your outdrive was up and had water in it.....but what about the guy who leaves his down, for a month, and then runs it dry? If it works for you, fine, but I would NOT recommend this for others. Why take the chance when you can easily hook up a water source and have NO risk? I have a Bravo 1 outdrive....the impeller is belt driven by the engine...outdrive position makes no difference on water retention.........why risk it? At least let folks know the potential downside of your technique so they can decide for themselves how they want to do it. Thanks!
New plan. Put Stabil in the Fuel! Get some full Antifreeze (Not the 50/50 stuff), a Sump pump, Place two garbage cans to catch your Boat exhaust water, fill one garbage can with some antifreeze enough to pump, toss the Sump pump in it, hook the Pump exhaust water to your boat Sea water pick up (Or Sea Water Pump with a Garden hose), start the Sump Pump up, start you boat engine and run your engine till (the Garbage Can with the Sump pump in it) Exhaust/Sea Water temperature gets to 140 degrees (Or water in the Garbage Can with the Sump pump steams) and shut it all off. Hint: You may need to (Shut the whole thing down) dump the one Garbage Can in the Garbage Can with the Sump pump in it before the Garbage Can with the Sump pump in it, runs dry. Do not put more water in. No need to remove hoses or drain anything, this will winterize your Oil coolers exchangers, transmission coolers and Red Dot Heaters too but, I would blow out all Red Dot Heaters, Oil heat exchangers, transmission coolers and hoses too, those hoses to and from the engines with compressed air -Just to be safe-. Engine OIL only down Carburetor(s) while running at lowest RPM, try to run the engine until a thick cloud of blue smoke comes out the exhaust, dump a little more in to shut the engine down slowly, dump some more Oil down with the coil wire removed and run the starter 3 seconds. Change the Oil/Trans fluid/Drive Oil/Fill all oils, fluids, check the FWC cooling water for antifreeze and toss some Motor Home Drinking water Antifreeze down the Bilges, operate the bilge pumps, check over engine, disconnect battery... !DONE!
@@NoNonsenseKnowHow just stay away from South Florida and it is paradise! Pensacola to Ponce De Leon is the sweet spot! Navarre to Destin has some of the clearest water and virtually no traffic most times of the year. Absolutely avoid Pensacola the week after July 4th, unless you are prepared for a crowd. That is our Blues week and boating is like a walmart parking lot on Black Friday!!! You won't find a boat ramp for 50 miles, unless you get there before daybreak!!! The flip side....Boat Ramps in the evening are a great past time for us. The number of follies and flops at the ramps during peak times is such fun to watch!
@@leesire No idea where you are coming from, but please check any left wing Democratic nonsense at the border, and remember that everyone here has guns, even our kids, so please don't call the police if you see someone in a gas station with one! They are just trying to buy a mountain dew or some fishing bait!
Yeah because you can burn up the rubber impeller in the sterndrive. But starting it for a a few seconds has never caused any harm in my opinion. Unless maybe the boat was sitting dry for a long time
Not a good idea to run the engine without a water supply, you can kill your lift pump impeller in seconds running it dry. Easier yet to winterize by hooking up a water supply, running the engine until it comes to FULL operating temperature, fog if desired, shut off engine, shut off water supply, carefully drain engine as described in the video while it is still hot. Leave all plugs out but stored in a safe place on board! With note on helm as to the status of engine drain plugs and hoses. In spring replace all plugs and hoses BEFORE going boating!!! Enjoy your next boating season without a cracked engine!!! All this takes about twenty minutes for a seasoned mechanic, maybe an hour for the back yard mechanic while sipping a beer. The time invested is well worth its weight in cast iron! And far cheaper than a new engine!!! Enjoy!
Or just spray fogging oil until she stalls, drain the block of water and done deal. That's what I do these days. No problem. And there is no need to replace your spark plugs every season unless you're putting some serious hours on or have a problem.
@@NoNonsenseKnowHow After posting that comment I realized that people may think I meant spark plugs. I did in fact mean drain plugs! You wouldn't want to leave spark plugs out over winter!!!
I used to fill it back up with antifreeze after draining the water. However I haven't in years now and I haven't had a problem. I don't see a reason to as long as you get all the water out. I actually did a video showing a comparison between leaving it dry and leaving RV antifreeze in there. Check it out! It's on my channel.
I'm actually putting together a part 2 video where I touch on that since you're not the first person to mention it. I've had MerCruisers for the last 10 years and have never had an impeller take a dump from starting it for 5 seconds. And I've done it many of times. If the boat has been sitting dry stored for a long. Of time then maybe I could see it. But starting for five seconds or less is not going to tear up the impeller. At least from my experience. Which is 10 years.
Since you're probably the third or fourth guy to bring it up, I think I'm going to make a video showing what happens when you run it for 5 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, and so on. Who knows maybe I'm wrong. But I can tell you less than 5 Seconds does not damage the impeller from my experience.
@@NoNonsenseKnowHow nah, not at all man. I've ran impellers dry for up to an hour and never had an issue. BUT - here's why... When putting an impeller in slightly (I build marine race engines) you put a little Vaseline or petroleum jelly on the vane edges and on the entire inside surface. This not only allows for much easier installation of the impeller, but it also provides a semi permanent coating that prevents vane wear by reducing the friction. Running them dry doesn't really do all that much damage if it's just for short periods here and there. If you have a coating of oil based petroleum jelly (because it's hydrophobic) it keeps it lubed without a single fear of vane wear. It takes A LOT to damage an impeller that's in good condition (as you should be changing them every season or every other season anyways). It's cheap insurance from getting stranded due to overheating. :)
Yeah that's a great option for those who have an insulated garage big enough for their boat. But then again it's still is a waste of space unless you have a massive heated pole barn. My garage is for projects and work. Not storage. And what maintenance did you see due? It could use I set plugs/wires/cap and rotor. But otherwise she's pretty tight. I try to keep it a pleasure boat, not a money/labor pit
That was rude to tell him his boat is begging for maintenance 😳. Thank you for your helpful video and taking the time to help others that aren’t “mechanics”.