Draing the raw water side........?

I need some advice to make sure this motor is drained before I stick it outside at -35F, the block had coolant in, good to -19F, I drained it from both sides of the block. But am concerned about the raw water side of things, as visible in the photos I have not removed the motor from the crate, hoping to leave it in the crate and store it outside until I am ready to put it in the boat.

I bought the motor second hand and am not very familar with it......, I have removed the plugs at each manifold and also the plug in the heat exchanger. Circled in the pics.



Nothing came out at either spot.....? Can I assume the raw water side is sufficently drained down, to not worry about water still setting in a low spot somwhere and freezing? I blew air through the raw water intake side of the heat exchanger and could feel some air coming out the elbows, but it was dry....

Thanks.......

Is the motor filled with 50/50 antuifreeze like it would be if the motor was installed? Or did you drain the entire block down?

Typically the RAW water enters the heat exchanger and also the exhaust elbows to cool the exhaust all the time when in operation.
There is a block off plate between the exhaust manifold and elbow. the exhaust manifold has 50/50 circulating thru it when in normal operation.

Rarely have I seen anything come out of an elbow when the plugs is pulled. But to be sure poke any biuld up out and leave the plug out if you want..

If you choose to put it back in the remove the hose feeding the elbows from the Tstat housing and the incomming water to the heat exchanger and pour some -50 RV antifreeze into both for additional security.

kghost said:

Is the motor filled with 50/50 antuifreeze like it would be if the motor was installed? Or did you drain the entire block down?
Typically the RAW water enters the heat exchanger and also the exhaust elbows to cool the exhaust all the time when in operation.
There is a block off plate between the exhaust manifold and elbow. the exhaust manifold has 50/50 circulating thru it when in normal operation.

Rarely have I seen anything come out of an elbow when the plugs is pulled. But to be sure poke any biuld up out and leave the plug out if you want..

If you choose to put it back in the remove the hose feeding the elbows from the Tstat housing and the incomming water to the heat exchanger and pour some -50 RV antifreeze into both for additional security.

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I bought the motor used so do not know what the mix was other than it read -19 on my refractometer, doesnt matter, as I mentioned I drained the block down using the drains on both sides of the block.

So it appears from what you said the raw water side would be self draining......................?

""So it appears from what you said the raw water side would be self draining......................? ""

This is too broad of a statement.

Nothing on the engine is self draining............only the outdrive would be self draining when in the vertical position.


If this were a RAW water system then the ELBOWS would typically drain back down into the manifolds, BUT it is not a RAW water system.

There are two drain plugs on each side of the block, there are two drain plugs for the manifolds, The blue plastic fittings visable in your pics.
did you remove those and drain everything?

Leaving it dry is fine for the winter...adding antifreeze is just insurance and mostly used with RAW water systems as the entire motor had RAW water in it.

What is the brass 90 fitting you circled? did you install this? was there a cap on it that you removed?

That is not a factory fitting just so you know. There is only a NPT plug in there normally. Nothing wron with those but rust and scale biulds up in the RAW water side of things and need to be POKED out for water to flow. If you did not remove the 90 degree fitting that may be why NOTHING came out.

Try removing it(the brass 90 degree fitting) and poking any rust and scale out of the threaded HOLE.... Also the hose going to the elbow (only), remove it from the thermostat housing and pour some RV antifreeze into it, you should see some come out of that hole. If not it may be a sign of a severly corroded elbow (that is of course if it has been in salt water)

Just some advice, when refilling in the sping, purchase a premixed 50/50 antifreeze and two to three gallons should do it.

kghost said:

If you choose to put it back in the remove the hose feeding the elbows from the Tstat housing ........................

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Kghost, correct me if I'm wrong or misunderstanding you......... but his exhaust elbows will not be supplied via the T-stat housing on a Closed Cooling system engine.
Any coolant pertaining to the T-stat housing would be on the E/G coolant side of the system, so there should be no need to disturb the T-stat housing hoses .............. unless he has drained the E/G coolant and is doing other work to that side of the system.

Since the elbows are sea water cooled, they will be fed by the "spent" sea water outlet ports in the H/E.

Akjohn said:

I bought the motor used so do not know what the mix was other than it read -19 on my refractometer, doesnt matter, as I mentioned I drained the block down using the drains on both sides of the block.
John, it sounds as though you drained down both sides of your cooling system...... (i.e., the sea water side and the E/G (ethylene glycol) side)
If the ports are open and clear, and if you had probed the ports on the sea water side, you've done all that you can do.


So it appears from what you said the raw water side would be self draining......................?
I agree with Kghost...... the statement is too broad.
Not only will certain components NOT self drain, not everything will even drain until the drain ports are opened and probed.

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As a general statement here: Just because no sea water came out of a drain port, does not necessarily mean that the sea water had previously drained.
You'll want to probe these drain ports with a small wire or tool in order to dislodge any rust scale that may be blocking the water from draining. Always probe these.

E/G coolant will generally flow from the ports, but it never hurts to probe these also.


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Once this engine is installed and running, during your first actual winterizing procedure the elbows (aka risers) and the sea water side of the H/E will need to be drained. The pencil anode in the H/E (circled in yellow) also serves as the H/E sea water side drain port.
Be sure to change the pencil anode frequently.... sometimes twice per season.

The coolant recovery reservoir would function better if the elevation was raised some..... perhaps just below the H/E fill neck and coolant level.

John, this is a Full Closed Cooling System, correct???
My bullet points are based on a "yes" answer.

A = pencil anode
B = elbow drain point
C= block drain, although I don't know what this unit is with it.
D= coolant supply/return to/from H/E .
E= spent sea water to and out elbow
F= blue drain point, of which I did not know that Merc used on a Full System.

If this is a Half System, then "D" becomes sea water supply/return (a loop, so to speak), and would explain the blue drain plugs.

Sorry for the bad info

The raw water to the elbows comes from the raw water comming out of the heat exchanger and is tee'd off to both elbows......

I have attached a cooling schematic, It may show a engine type water pump impeller and your may be in the out drive but the rest of the diagram should be correct.

Kghost, that makes sense if his system is a Full System, but I'm now questioning the blue drain plugs at the lower side of his exhaust manifolds.
This would be "F" in my photo.

I'd be somewhat surprised to see blue drain plugs here if the manifolds were included in the Closed Cooling system loop (i.e., a Full System).
Plus..... his Heat Exchanger is the smaller unit and is absent the upper tank, as shown in your image.

I'll take a guess here, and suggest that this is a Half System, and that they are simply feeding the manifolds and then making a loop ("D") prior to sending the sea water to the elbows ("E") and out the exhaust.

All that John needs to do, would be to trace out the hoses and look at the source.
In fact, he could do this in reverse begining with the elbow supply ("E") and work backwards.

.

My guess is this was an add on after the fact And they never replaced the drainable fittings at the bottom of the manifolds.

If you look close the knock sensor even has the drain plug that is where the block drain is, Is it me or does it look blue also?

I dont see many if any closed cooling systems where i am at. 99.9% are all raw water due to fresh water lakes......even though the ocean is 1 hr east I do not venture there to work on boats.......they come to me and are all from the local area. Just my friends and there boats keep me busy......as busy as I want to be with boat repair these days.......

kghost said:

There are two drain plugs on each side of the block, there are two drain plugs for the manifolds, The blue plastic fittings visable in your pics.
did you remove those and drain everything?

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Yes

kghost said:

What is the brass 90 fitting you circled? did you install this? was there a cap on it that you removed?

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I did not install this, its just a 90 with a NPT plug pointing down, it is hard to see that it is a plug in the photo, I removed the plug, but did not remove the 90. That is a good idea as I didnt think about it being plugged up, and poking w/ a piece of wire to clear it as well.

Once this engine is installed and running, during your first actual winterizing procedure the elbows (aka risers) and the sea water side of the H/E will need to be drained. The pencil anode in the H/E (circled in yellow) also serves as the H/E sea water side drain port.
Be sure to change the pencil anode frequently.... sometimes twice per season.

John, this is a Full Closed Cooling System, correct??? [/QUOTE] I believe it to be a fully closed system, I looked at the hoses quite carefully when I had the sides off of the crate, however I did not have the plumbing schematic to look at. I need to look again and see if it matches the drawing.

RicardoMarine said:

My bullet points are based on a "yes" answer.

A = pencil anode
B = elbow drain point
C= block drain, although I don't know what this unit is with it.
D= coolant supply/return to/from H/E .
E= spent sea water to and out elbow
F= blue drain point, of which I did not know that Merc used on a Full System.

If this is a Half System, then "D" becomes sea water supply/return (a loop, so to speak), and would explain the blue drain plugs.

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It appears your lettering is correct, C is a drain and a 2 wire sensor that I did not identify.....I will have yo look again and see where D goes to-from

Thanks guys, you have been helpful, I have a few more things to check before I stick it outside, -30F this morning. A few more pics as I wont have a chance to check anything until the weekend.