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Winterizing Mercruiser 470 Engine amp Sterndrive

G

gmcinnes

Member
"Getting ready to put my boat

"Getting ready to put my boat in winter storage, just bought this vessel in July so haven't got the Manual yet,but I want to make sure of course there is no water in the engine or sterndrive. This is a closed cooling system but is there other places in the engine that need draining and also the sterndrive I know to driain and refill the leg oil. This is very important I know because where I live in Alberta IT GETS COLD. Thanks"
 
"If you don't have a servi

"If you don't have a service manual I would suggest you get one. If you are in a cold winter environment and there is any raw water left it could be an expensive mistake. There a few plugs that need removing and you could miss one. Also the heat exchanger needs to be drained by taking the forward end cap off. Then lower the bow of the boat. Drop your outdrive all the way down while doing this so that it drains completely as well. Don't forget to raise everything back up with the drain plug left out so the baot drains through the winter or the stringers and floor may start to rot. Change all oils in case there is a little water mixed in too. Here is a good website:

http://www.sterndrives.com/winterize.html"
 
"I now have downloaded the man

"I now have downloaded the manual for the merc 470 and have a book on order. The manual shows only to take off the end caps and 1 plug on the end of the exchanger to drain fresh/seawater out. The website sterndrives.com says for winterizing you can fill a 5 gallon pail with 50/50 antifreeze, put the muffs on the leg of the engine and the other end (about 6'of hose) in the bucket and let the engine suck up the mixture so does anybody know if this will actually work? I am new to all of this and don't want any bad news in the spring with frozen water damage. Thank you for all opinons and I find this forum a hugh benefit along the way. Also I cannot find any drain holes in the sterdrive other than the water intake, this is a 1978 pre alpha drive. I have changed the oil."
 
"anybody know if this will

"anybody know if this will actually work?"

ONLY if you drain all the water out of the block and manifolds first. Use -50 F. or -100 F. PINK antifreeze w/o diluting it.
 
"If you premix 50/50 use the -

"If you premix 50/50 use the -100F where you live. If you drop the leg as far down as is will go it should drain completely. But adding anti-freeze will be another level of insurance. The trick is to make sure there is no standing water without anti-freeze anywhere. You might even replace the antifreeze in the closed system for your own piece of mind. After that you won't have to worry about the block anyway.

I'll talk to my father-in-law about winterizing up there, he has an older mercruiser over in Saskatchewan but he's never froze it in the 30+ years he's owned it and It gets damn cold up there.

My biggest worry here in Seattle is rust mold and rot. It freezes very seldom and usually only gets down to 28F when it does. We call that a cold snap!"
 
"Thanks guys for your advise.

"Thanks guys for your advise. I'm starting to breathe a little easier today about my panic for winterizing my boat. when I was talking about the 50/50 antifreeze/Water mixture I was talking about the automobile antifreeze ethelene glycol type. I'm assuming you are talking about the PINK RV antifreeze which is only available here at -50 deg.C and no, I won't dilute this.
Thanks again, Have a good weekend.."
 
I use the muffs and then I dis

I use the muffs and then I disconnect the engine cooling hoses and pour the "pink' antifreeze (yards will only allow nontoxic antifreeze) into the one hose until it comes out the other. I also open all the drains in the block. You'd be surprised how much sea water is pushed out even after using the muffs.
 
"If this motor is the mercruis

"If this motor is the mercruiser 470 4 cyl, the only thing you need to do after stabilizing the fuel and fogging the engine is pull the rear drain plug on the heat exchanger. You have two plugs towards the rear on the bottom. The rear will drain the fresh water and the front plug drains the anti-freeze. If you don't have access to the plugs just pull the front cover of the heat exchanger off (the preferred method). It's a round cap 3 or 4 inches in diameter with 1 bolt in the middle. Just pull the cap and let it drain. Be sure to tilt the front of the boat down when you do this. Then you're done"
 
"So I talked to my father in l

"So I talked to my father in law in Saskathcewan. He said do the ruotine draining of all water. Make sure all drain plugs are pulled. Drain the heat exchanger by pulling the end caps off. Make sure your leg can be lowered all the way to drain all water. Change all oils in case any water leaked in. And make sure you cover your prop with a plastic bag of some sort to keep the snow out. He had a friend get snow inside the prop area, it thawed then froze again and cracked his lower unit casing. Not good. That should be it."
 
"Thanks guys for the recent in

"Thanks guys for the recent info. Good point about covering the prop and lower unit. Yes, we get the same -35 deg. tempertures plus a nasty wind as Sask. does. Next year I'll be taking the boat out to the coast at Pender Island B.C. and that is where it will stay so I don't have to worry about such extreme low tempertures. Besides this is my first time around at this, and I don't know how I could have lived this long without enjoying some boating long before now. Steep learning curve for an old guy like me, but so far I have been having fun. Thanks again."
 
"Awesome about Pender Island.

"Awesome about Pender Island. Maybe we'll bump into each other next summer. My wife and I plan on a two week trip to the US San Juans and BC gulf islands. We had a blast this past summer. Here are a few of our pics.
http://www.marineengine.com/discus/messages/12486/214662.shtml
Of course like I said earlier, winterizing takes on a different meaning here on the "wet" coast. Not so much about freezing as it is about rust, mould, and rot. Good luck."
 
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