2025 should have a bumper crop of freeze busted blocks come spring

Scott Danforth

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
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https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2557286/nws-map.webp?w=790&f=5068dd7626df41cc49dca74044096d01

Northern Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arizona should all have high yields of busticated blocks come spring time.
 
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Pmt133

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I can picture it now... "well, I did pull the drain plugs." "It pushed the freeze plug out, it did what it was supposed to do, right?" "Will jb weld fix this?" "Maybe it's only the intake." "Why is my oil milky?"
 
rolmops

rolmops

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Do I sense some form of sarcasm?
But look at the positive side of things. It will increase the sale of equipment and it will also increase the availability of parts that came of those broken blocks. So (almost) everybody will gain from this situation.
 
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racerone

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It appears to be a combination of many factors.-----Locked storage compounds.----Lack of knowledge by newbies.-----High cost of having a shop do the work.-----Surprise cold snap and boat far from home --ETC, etc
 
Lou C

Lou C

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And the reality is, raw water cooled inboards where the drain plugs are way down low is just always a risk here. Bad way to save money. The better way to run one would be at least a half closed system with both an easy to drain heat exchanger and exhaust. Pressurized coolant with antifreeze is just superior. Yes when I repower mine I will gladly pay the $2,200 for that. Anybody who’s had one of these and struggled getting at those plugs on a V6 or V8 knows what I’m talking about!!!
Because of the heat exchanger you could even use the suck up the AF via the outdrive (using a pump to augment flow) for winterizing and be done with this chore in 10-15 min!
Merc’s quick drain is another type of denial, yeah they work for a few years and then they don’t. Because of how cast iron corrodes! Flakes clog drains!
 
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ejnichol

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The '07 VP 5.0 drain setup makes it a contortionist chore. The # of ports, locations and wrench variety required to drain are a knuckle busting head scratcher to me.

7 - 8 different plugs and or hose ends.
 
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tphoyt

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I was driving past a house thats only used seasonally last week and saw a skiff with an outboard tilted all the up. I stopped and lowered it to keep it from collecting water. 2 days later I was tracked down by local PD. I guess they had cameras and saw my truck and plates and reported me messing with their boat. I explained what I did and they called the owners to explain. They ended up thanking me and said they had no idea what could happen. Cameras are everywhere where now days.
It just reminded me of another story I heard.
Some people had a pest control company that comes by monthly and they saw the guy on camera pull in have lunch in his truck and then leave the bill on the door. Never went around the house as expected. Needless to say he was relieved of his duty.
 
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DeepCMark58A

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tphoyt said:
I was driving past a house thats only used seasonally last week and saw a skiff with an outboard tilted all the up. I stopped and lowered it to keep it from collecting water. 2 days later I was tracked down by local PD. I guess they had cameras and saw my truck and plates and reported me messing with their boat. I explained what I did and they called the owners to explain. They ended up thanking me and said they had no idea what could happen. Cameras are everywhere where now days.
It just reminded me of another story I heard.
Some people had a pest control company that comes by monthly and they saw the guy on camera pull in have lunch in his truck and then leave the bill on the door. Never went around the house as expected. Needless to say he was relieved of his duty.
Click to expand...
They will regret leaving the battery in the boat.
 
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tphoyt

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I didn’t get that far into it. Not sure if they did or not. It was just a manual tilt 25hp but there was battery cables going to the motor so it was a least electric start. Who knows. Live and learn as they say.
 
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