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Winterizing 4.3

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Michael33

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Hey all. I winterized out ski boat today, first time doing this. I pulled the 5 blue drain plugs and let everything drain I then undid the hoses at thermostat and poured antifreeze down all the hoses till it was running out of block and manifolds on both sides, also was running out on the ground from transom. I just flushed it with antifreeze basically and put the plugs back in after everything had drained. I’ve read there may be a power steering cooler, I couldn’t find it. Boat is an 06 Bryant 190 4.3 with the two barrel. Serial # is 0W374352. Any reason to not leave the motor drained. I figure air can’t freeze.
 
Welcome
It's always a good idea to stick a small piece of wire or screw up the drains to make sure there isn't a piece of crud keeping it from fully draining. Assuming up have an Alpha drive it looks like your good and motor will be good.

I always like to remove the drive each year to check the drive alignment, gimbal bearing and boots, then replace the gear lube
 
Michael33 said:
Hey all. I winterized out ski boat today, first time doing this. I pulled the 5 blue drain plugs and let everything drain I then undid the hoses at thermostat and poured antifreeze down all the hoses till it was running out of block and manifolds on both sides, also was running out on the ground from transom. I just flushed it with antifreeze basically and put the plugs back in after everything had drained. I’ve read there may be a power steering cooler, I couldn’t find it. Boat is an 06 Bryant 190 4.3 with the two barrel. Serial # is 0W374352. Any reason to not leave the motor drained. I figure air can’t freeze.
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Look at the front of the intake manifold- if it has a plug with square head, remove it and make sure anti-freeze comes out. If it does, you're good and if water comes out, you should still be OK because the problem of cracking goes away if the water has been drained.
 
AllDodge said:
Welcome
It's always a good idea to stick a small piece of wire or screw up the drains to make sure there isn't a piece of crud keeping it from fully draining. Assuming up have an Alpha drive it looks like your good and motor will be good.

I always like to remove the drive each year to check the drive alignment, gimbal bearing and boots, then replace the gear lube
Click to expand...
Thank you, I will check the drain ports but they all had a good stream coming out of them. The entire lower unit is new just a couple of months ago due to another issue. So all of that was recently apart. Gimbal, bellows looked great and I serviced the LU after the 20 hr break in and have only put a few hours on it since the new fluid. So I’m gonna leave that be for this year.
 
Michael33 said:
Thank you, I will check the drain ports but they all had a good stream coming out of them. The entire lower unit is new just a couple of months ago due to another issue. So all of that was recently apart. Gimbal, bellows looked great and I serviced the LU after the 20 hr break in and have only put a few hours on it since the new fluid. So I’m gonna leave that be for this year.
Click to expand...
Regardless of the new lower, I would check the gear oil at the bottom plug, to make sure in water got in and remove the prop, to make sure no fishing line is wrapped around and worked its way into the propshaft's oil seals. If these check out, I would check the level at the top plug, even if it has a reservior on the engine. It doesn't take much time and with a new lower, it pays to be a bit paranoid.
 
jimn said:
Regardless of the new lower, I would check the gear oil at the bottom plug, to make sure in water got in and remove the prop, to make sure no fishing line is wrapped around and worked its way into the propshaft's oil seals. If these check out, I would check the level at the top plug, even if it has a reservior on the engine. It doesn't take much time and with a new lower, it pays to be a bit paranoid.
Click to expand...
OK, I took the bottom plug out and gear oil is nice and clean no presence of water, also pulled the Prop. Everything looks good.
 
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