When You Winterize This Fall, Make Sure You Do This While Draining Your Motor

Taylor_T

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
May 6, 2016
Messages
32
Hey guys,

Just wanted to give a piece of advice for winterizing your boat this fall.

As you pull plugs to drain the water out of your motor's cooling system, take a piece of wire and poke it around in the drain holes to make sure nothing is blocking the water from draining out.

I was draining the water out of the cooling system on my motor this afternoon, and almost didn't do this. Then thought I better make sure, so I took a coat hanger and stuck it into each drain plug hole. To my surprise, on one of the manifolds, I stuck the hanger in and a fair amount of water came out that otherwise would have sat there and froze over the winter.

Easy to do, and you might be glad you did.
 
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Blind Date

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Mar 5, 2014
Messages
462
Good tip. With the 5.7 in my SeaRay it seems to always be the engine block drain on the port side that's plugged.
 

viper1216

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 31, 2013
Messages
420
What if you can't get to the drain hoses? I have 2010 mercruiser 3.0 and it has 2 blue hoses that are the drains. No way to really get up there to the block.
 

four winns 214

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 25, 2008
Messages
757
Good info for the newbie (as I was 10 years ago) and a good reminder for the rest of us. Just about every time I have drained the block on my 1984 Merc 228R, water flow on at least one side was obstructed by tiny bits of debris. I keep a six inch piece of stiff wire in my boat tool box that I use to poke into the drain. The flow of water instantly goes from a dribble to a stream.
 

H@ystack

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
101
Meanwhile, us florida boys are going "What's this winterizing thing". . Haha, seriously though, A little 120 psi air pressure helps too. Rubber tip on a rubber hose blows well.
 

Bondo

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 17, 2002
Messages
70,470
What if you can't get to the drain hoses? I have 2010 mercruiser 3.0 and it has 2 blue hoses that are the drains. No way to really get up there to the block.

Ayuh,..... I have a 3" deck screw that lives on the intake manifold, Just for pokin' out the drains,....

Take the hoses off, toss 'em, 'n use brass pipe plugs,....
 
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