Winterize new 380hp Gen 5 Volvo

not enuf toys

Chief Petty Officer
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Feb 14, 2011
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Hey guys, i am very familiar with the winterize process on a fresh water cooling of a Merc. I now have a 2018 Volvo 380 that has closed cooling and the easy drain system. Am i really understanding this correctly that i can either push the drain on the right side of the motor, or open the drain on the left of the outdrive and that is all i need to do to protect from freezing?

It just sounds too simple???
 

muc

"Retired" Association of Marine Technicians...
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Per Volvo Service Bulletin 05-2-2 ---- This S.B. covers layup procedures --- i will quote the part about the raw water side.
Disconnect the suction hose at the water intake.
Put the end of the hose in a bucket filled with freshwater, start the engine and run the cooling system clean
from seawater until the bucket is empty. Turn off the engine.
Fill the bucket with a 40/60% mixture of Volvo Penta Coolant and water or similar glycol mixture. Start the
engine and run it until the bucket is empty. Turn off the engine. Use a container to collect the glycol mixture
from the exhaust outlet and hand it in to a recycling station.
Re-attach the suction hose to the water intake and tighten the hose clamps.
At no time let the impeller run dry!
 

Bt Doctur

Supreme Mariner
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Aug 29, 2004
Messages
19,092
WOW, I would thing draining the raw water side of the HX would be enough .
Just wait untill those quick drain system clog and turn into the quick crack systems
 

not enuf toys

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Feb 14, 2011
Messages
428
Per Volvo Service Bulletin 05-2-2 ---- This S.B. covers layup procedures --- i will quote the part about the raw water side.
Disconnect the suction hose at the water intake.
Put the end of the hose in a bucket filled with freshwater, start the engine and run the cooling system clean
from seawater until the bucket is empty. Turn off the engine.
Fill the bucket with a 40/60% mixture of Volvo Penta Coolant and water or similar glycol mixture. Start the
engine and run it until the bucket is empty. Turn off the engine. Use a container to collect the glycol mixture
from the exhaust outlet and hand it in to a recycling station.
Re-attach the suction hose to the water intake and tighten the hose clamps.
At no time let the impeller run dry!

Where are you finding this information? and for what motor?
 

not enuf toys

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Feb 14, 2011
Messages
428
WOW, I would thing draining the raw water side of the HX would be enough .
Just wait untill those quick drain system clog and turn into the quick crack systems

That is exactly how the owners manual says - also like the top video

I called one marina (because mine happened to be closed) and they said they still like to run Antifreeze in them for rust prevention...I said it was an aluminum block!
 

muc

"Retired" Association of Marine Technicians...
Joined
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Messages
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Just wait untill those quick drain system clog and turn into the quick crack systems

And I wonder how many of these will crack due to the owner and / or marine service provider not following manufacturers recommendations and skipping the use of antifreeze. And please note that the vast majority of the " pink non-Tox" sold at the big box stores in my area uses ethanol to provide the burst protection and has no or not enough anti corrosion additives. I'm not sure because I don't use the stuff. But I got to believe that using alcohol as an antifreeze could be worse than no antifreeze at all.
Maybe the manufacturers want their engines to crack as soon as possible so people will NEVER buy another of their engines again? Or maybe they know that their customers will go to the internet to get some well intentioned but ill informed advise?

Sorry for the rant but the manufacturers put a lot of time into the design of these quick drain systems only to have the customers not follow their recommendations. I do think they could do a better job of getting the correct information out. But it's hard to get people to read the owners manual, much less follow it.
 

muc

"Retired" Association of Marine Technicians...
Joined
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Messages
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That is exactly how the owners manual says - also like the top video

I called one marina (because mine happened to be closed) and they said they still like to run Antifreeze in them for rust prevention...I said it was an aluminum block!
Maybe by "rust prevention" they meant corrosion prevention? Maybe you caught them on a bad/busy day (it is winterize season and any REALLY good shop has way more business than they can handle) and unfortunately we service providers are human and do make mistakes.

Quick story about the differences between boat service providers.
For a long time I worked at a dealer that charged $150 per hour at the time the other shops were in the range of $75-$100 per hour with one at $110. We had a travel lift, forklift, full compliment of hydraulic trailers and one of the nicest overhead hoists. None of the other shops had all this equipment. And we were a marina so we could easily lake test the boats. Our techs went to the factory schools and the supplier seminars. We used all OEM parts and lubes. We didn't care what stuff cost, only if it was best for the customer. We were able to do jobs fast and efficient so a lot of the time the customers bill would be less than the "cheaper" shops. Some of the other shops would come to us for advise or to borrow special tools
Were we worth the extra money that some of the simple jobs cost? I think so, but is a Cobalt worth that much more than a Bayliner?
Are all service providers equal? No I don't think so. Can you get just as good a job done at the $75 shop vs the $150 shop? Yes but only sometimes.

We had a couple of sayings, first was "no cash no splash" and "remember you rarely get what you didn't pay for"

Wow, just reread these posts. I seem to have something up my rectum this morning. Sorry. I'm retired, so I'm not under the pressure that winterize season brings to the boat business. So I don't even have an excuse. I'll try to be gentler if I post again.
 
Last edited:

Lou C

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Nov 10, 2002
Messages
11,798
That is exactly how the owners manual says - also like the top video

I called one marina (because mine happened to be closed) and they said they still like to run Antifreeze in them for rust prevention...I said it was an aluminum block!

​Yep alu does not rust, but it does corrode! Some of the Japanese 4 stroke outboards are old enough now that the reality of running an alu block in salt water means that they do not last any longer than an iron block I/O in salt water. And due to the lighter castings, there is just less metal there and they are harder to get apart. If I had a raw water cooled inboard with an alu block for sure I'd fill it with the best -100 marine AF after manually draining. But any I/O I own in the future will have to have closed cooling as a must. That way, your I/O engine can last longer than an outboard, although the maintenance will be more.....
 

not enuf toys

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Feb 14, 2011
Messages
428
Wow, just reread these posts. I seem to have something up my rectum this morning. Sorry. I'm retired, so I'm not under the pressure that winterize season brings to the boat business. So I don't even have an excuse. I'll try to be gentler if I post again.

I get it no need to apologize. There are a lot of returning questions on this board that are beat to death and hard to rehave. I am familure with complete and proper winterization on a fresh cooling (have owned 5 different boats before this one all with Merc I/O), but this new Volvo design has me really confused. I have been all over the owners manual and all that it says is to drain the water with the easy drain and that particular drain has all of the raw water connections to it. When i drain it, it doesn't seem to have more than a few gallons in it which I guess makes sense based of of the few things that the raw water is in contact with and not the water in the block.

In my past boats, i would never winterize without proper AF. I know a lot of folks that do, but i always felt better safe than sorry! I mean what does a hanfull of gallons of AF really cost compared to the boat engine! For this one, VP says nothing to the sort?? I know the motor combination (GEN 5) is fairly new to the boating scene and there just isn't a ton of information/experiance out there. If adding AF makes the most sense, sure thing...

And if adding AF is the right way, on this set up...what is the best way? I have added AF through the outdrive leg before and never really felt comfortable about it. Was always much easier to remove the thermostat housing or hoses and fill the block, exhaust manifolds that way. On this closed cooling i am almost at a loss. VP has a fresh water hookup right on the right side of the motor. Fill from there? Or pull the hoses off the pump? Off the HX? Through the outdrive?

Again, hate to sound simple here but i am new to this generation of VP and to closed cooling (had an aquamatic years ago but was fresh cooling) to take a chance
 

muc

"Retired" Association of Marine Technicians...
Joined
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Messages
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I can understand your confusion. The manufacturers don't make this as easy as it could be. But something that everybody should understand, the owners and service manuals are out of date when we get them. So they publish service bulletins. i'm guessing they have a good reason for not allowing people like me to post them to the internet --- i just can't think of what that reason would be. This is why they all want you to have your service work preformed at a authorized dealer. But even the S.B. I quoted above uses a unit of measure "bucket" is that an metric bucket or a English bucket?

At the shop we have pressurized antifreeze and pump that to muffs on the drive. If I owned your boat that's how I would do it. And would run enough antifreeze thru until the refractometer said it was good enough.
 

not enuf toys

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
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Messages
428
Fair enough statement.

The only thing that i have done so far is drain it. The marina will happily winterize it for me here soon (next couple of weeks). The last boat stayed in a heated garage but this one does not fit (thus building a new garage for it - but is not heated) so i am going to a lot closer attention to it. Temps are now at the Lows around 34-38 degrees but only for an hour or so with highs in the daytime still around 45-60.

Knowing the real deep freeze stuff isn't here yet (but knocking on the door) i will get this to the marina soon.

Just for my well being, if i drained a fresh water cooling and left the valves, plugs and hoses off/open water for the most part was completely out of the system (which even though Lots of folks think that is good enough, I don't) On this system, if i drain via easy drain, where could water potentially be left? I guess where i am getting at is if the marina is still backed up, or if the deep freeze comes sooner than later (it is northern Ohio), what freeze problems could i possibly run into?

And one other thought, conversation....the TSB you quoted (05-2-2), if that covers all of their engines, you would think on an owners manual printed/released 01/2017 (for an engine/outdrive installed by Volvo OEM on Aug 17, 2017) would have that procedure of including AF? The only thing that it mentions about AF is to check coolant for proper fill level and freeze protection level (um DUH) Other than that, just drain water from raw water side of engine cooling system.
 

Thalasso

Commander
Joined
Jan 18, 2011
Messages
2,876
Fair enough statement.

The only thing that i have done so far is drain it. The marina will happily winterize it for me here soon (next couple of weeks). The last boat stayed in a heated garage but this one does not fit (thus building a new garage for it - but is not heated) so i am going to a lot closer attention to it. Temps are now at the Lows around 34-38 degrees but only for an hour or so with highs in the daytime still around 45-60.

Knowing the real deep freeze stuff isn't here yet (but knocking on the door) i will get this to the marina soon.

Just for my well being, if i drained a fresh water cooling and left the valves, plugs and hoses off/open water for the most part was completely out of the system (which even though Lots of folks think that is good enough, I don't) On this system, if i drain via easy drain, where could water potentially be left? I guess where i am getting at is if the marina is still backed up, or if the deep freeze comes sooner than later (it is northern Ohio), what freeze problems could i possibly run into?

And one other thought, conversation....the TSB you quoted (05-2-2), if that covers all of their engines, you would think on an owners manual printed/released 01/2017 (for an engine/outdrive installed by Volvo OEM on Aug 17, 2017) would have that procedure of including AF? The only thing that it mentions about AF is to check coolant for proper fill level and freeze protection level (um DUH) Other than that, just drain water from raw water side of engine cooling system.

If your worried about a deep freeze before you can get it to the shop, just drain the water and put a heater in the boat. We are not going to get any freezing weather below 30 that will last for days. (PGH)
 
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