How Many Drain Plugs

How many drain plugs are on a 2004 Mercruiser 4.3L 190hp raw water cooled engine? Alpha 1 Drive. Found the one on the front next to water pump and one on each side under the manifolds. Are there 2 more further towards the bottom of the engine?

Thanks.

Re: How Many Drain Plugs

Should be one on each side of the block,one on each exhaust manifold,one on the power steering cooler.Some have a plug on the waterpump on the front of the engine.There may be more.Do you have an owners manual or service manual?

Re: How Many Drain Plugs

Got em both, but neither specifies exactly how many, and the pictures are pretty vague. Its impossible to see the 2 way on the bottom without removing some pieces and then its still diffacult. So just want to make sure since its hard to tell if you missed one...if ya dont know how many there should be. Thanks.

Re: How Many Drain Plugs

People here can tell you how many their engine has, but no one can tell you how many yours has for certain. You also may have a 2004 boat, but that doesn't make it a 2004 engine package, could very well be a 2003 and there may be differences.
You never mentioned if it had an Alpha or bravo drive, or power steering or not. That makes a difference also.
Some things don't have a plug on it and you have to pull hoses to drain completely.
Be careful, or you could become the next contestant for the WHY IS WATER IN MY OIL!!!!! thread

Re: How Many Drain Plugs

avpro91 said:

How many drain plugs are on a 2004 Mercruiser 4.3L 190hp raw water cooled engine? Alpha 1 Drive.

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Thanks for the reply Don, it is an Alpha 1 drive, with power steering, GM block, 4.3L carburated and I didn't think there were any or many drain plug differences between an 04 and an03 or a 05. But I guess there very well could be. It is only going to get to about 25 here for a night or two and in the 50's during the day, so im not too worried about it. Was just going to pull the plugs and drain it becasue I happened to be in there anyway.

Like I said, I found 3 of them easily, but I suspect there are 2 more lower on the engine that I can't see. I will look for these tomorrow, but it would be nice if somebody knew how many for sure (if they have the same engine) as a reference to make sure I know where they all are. Thanks.

Re: How Many Drain Plugs

I took a different approach to preventing a frozen block. I've removed the engine from the boat, moved it into my attached garage, and I'm keeping a pair of heat lamps pointed at it 24x7.

8)8)