anti-freeze amount

oddysea1

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 22, 2011
Messages
201
Looking to winterize my mercruiser 350 fwc engine how many gallons should I run through the system to be safe from long island freeze ,also was told to put a quarter amount of two cycle oil in the water separator for fog out since it is fuel injected. Regards Andy
 

zellerj

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Dec 13, 2017
Messages
136
There should be four drain plugs that you need to remove and poke with a piece of wire to be sure no rust junk is blocking the egress of the cooling water. Once all of the water is drained from the block and exhaust risers, remove the large diameter J hose from the thermostat housing and remove and drain that hose. I take a shop vac and blow through the J hose and thermostat housing to be sure all of the water is drained. It should now be "winterized" - no pink stuff required. However most of us pour a little pink antifreeze through the J hose and hoses going to the exhaust risers and out drive and check to be sure the pink stuff is flowing through the drain plug ports. This procedure takes about 1/2 gallon of pink stuff.

Running pink stuff through muffs is not a good idea, especially if the block and risers were not drained first. One, it takes a lot of pink stuff, and two, if the thermostat is not open you might not get pink stuff into the block, and three, if you do get pink stuff into the block, you don't really know how much it is diluted with water which will raise the freezing point of the solution.
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
Staff member
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Messages
49,394
Is your heat exchanged motor a half-system or a full-system?

Alpha or Bravo?

Have you changed oil?

If half system, drain the exhaust manifold and the heat exchanger raw water side. Then drain the supply lines between the heat exchanger and the transom

If a full system the heat exchanger raw water side then drain the supply lines between the heat exchanger and the transom

You are now winterized.

If you want to add antifreeze, use a funnel and add it to the raw water side

Read this. https://forums.iboats.com/threads/winterizing-inboard-and-i-o.770207/
 

zellerj

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Dec 13, 2017
Messages
136
There should be four drain plugs that you need to remove and poke with a piece of wire to be sure no rust junk is blocking the egress of the cooling water. Once all of the water is drained from the block and exhaust risers, remove the large diameter J hose from the thermostat housing and remove and drain that hose. I take a shop vac and blow through the J hose and thermostat housing to be sure all of the water is drained. It should now be "winterized" - no pink stuff required. However most of us pour a little pink antifreeze through the J hose and hoses going to the exhaust risers and out drive and check to be sure the pink stuff is flowing through the drain plug ports. This procedure takes about 1/2 gallon of pink stuff.

Running pink stuff through muffs is not a good idea, especially if the block and risers were not drained first. One, it takes a lot of pink stuff, and two, if the thermostat is not open you might not get pink stuff into the block, and three, if you do get pink stuff into the block, you don't really know how much it is diluted with water which will raise the freezing point of the solution

There should be four drain plugs that you need to remove and poke with a piece of wire to be sure no rust junk is blocking the egress of the cooling water. Once all of the water is drained from the block and exhaust risers, remove the large diameter J hose from the thermostat housing and remove and drain that hose. I take a shop vac and blow through the J hose and thermostat housing to be sure all of the water is drained. It should now be "winterized" - no pink stuff required. However most of us pour a little pink antifreeze through the J hose and hoses going to the exhaust risers and out drive and check to be sure the pink stuff is flowing through the drain plug ports. This procedure takes about 1/2 gallon of pink stuff.

Running pink stuff through muffs is not a good idea, especially if the block and risers were not drained first. One, it takes a lot of pink stuff, and two, if the thermostat is not open you might not get pink stuff into the block, and three, if you do get pink stuff into the block, you don't really know how much it is diluted with water which will raise the freezing point of the solution.
Please disregard my response. I missed the fwc parameter in your original post.
 

zellerj

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Dec 13, 2017
Messages
136
Wondering if it's actually FWC, confusing term if you're new to boats
Yes since my boat is on Lake Erie, my engine is always cooled with fresh water. We need a new term, like closed loop cooling (clc) or cooled with antifreeze (cwa).
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
Staff member
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Messages
49,394
Yes since my boat is on Lake Erie, my engine is always cooled with fresh water. We need a new term, like closed loop cooling (clc) or cooled with antifreeze (cwa).
the factory refers to Fresh Water Cooling as having a heat exchanger. and Raw Water Cooling as being cooled by the Raw Water.

Raw water can be green water or blue water.

Blue Water = Non-salted Water (rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, swimming pools, etc)
Green Water = salted water (oceans, etc)

no need to change the terminology.
 

Chris1956

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
Messages
27,815
Of course, us ocean types call "blue water" the ocean water offshore, where the Tuna live.

I think raw water cooled is descriptive enough, however, fresh water cooled could use a name change to help with confusion.
 

NettieHintz

Recruit
Joined
Nov 30, 2023
Messages
1
Is your heat exchanged motor a half-system or a full-system?

Alpha or Bravo?

Have you changed oil?

If half system, drain the exhaust manifold and the heat exchanger raw water side. Then drain the supply lines between the heat exchanger and the transom

If a full system the heat exchanger raw water side then drain the supply lines between the heat exchanger and the transom

You are now winterized.

If you want to add antifreeze, use a funnel and add it to the raw water side

Read this. https://forums.iboats.com/threads/winterizing-inboard-and-i-o.770207/


Thank you for the link, I want to winterize my boat but I don't know how to do it properly. I recently started volunteering and came across these amazing essays on https://writinguniverse.com/free-essay-examples/volunteering/ writinguniverse. They capture the essence of what it means to volunteer and how it impacts society. These essays go deeper than the surface, revealing the moral education that volunteering provides. If you’re interested in learning more about how volunteering can transform your life, then these essay samples are for you. They provide a unique perspective on how volunteering can help build a more compassionate and interconnected society through selfless actions.
Thank you for the link, I want to winterize my boat but I don't know how to do it properly. I appreciate you, you made my day.
 

vroom ZOOM

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 15, 2017
Messages
414
the factory refers to Fresh Water Cooling as having a heat exchanger. and Raw Water Cooling as being cooled by the Raw Water.

Raw water can be green water or blue water.

Blue Water = Non-salted Water (rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, swimming pools, etc)
Green Water = salted water (oceans, etc)

no need to change the terminology.
to add to the confusion, merc has their line of "Bluewater inboards" which are saltwater motors. LOL
 
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