Aq 151a winterize first time. No water came out

[NorinRadd]

1986 aq151a. Had a client of mine walk me through what to do. Hes owned boat mechanic shop/marina 40 yrs.

Pretty straight forward. Stabilized fuel. Dropped leg. Ran boat with muff and hose on. Ran gas out of carbs and fogged em. Tested coolant good to minus 27. Then was onto getting water out of block. Took cover off impeller housing. No water. Undid drainplug on manifold. No water. Poked hole. No blockage. Undid drainplug on oil cooler. Maybe 350 ml of water.

Boat is sitting bow up a few degrees. I expected much more water. Boat wasnt overheated only had it running 5 minutes but definitley running hot. Manifold was steaming/smoking slightly when I pulled drainplug and hot to touch. I will attatch photo of impeller. Maybe its toast? Had the boat out few weeks ago for half day no overheating issues. Water was running thru block properly.


Only thing I can think in my rookie evaluation is either the muff wasnt working good/not enough water pressure or the impeller is toast. Or all the water ran out of block when I turned motor off? I dunno. Real tough learning boat stuff with no teacher.

 

[Lou C]

Might be a combination of muffs not fitting right & that caused impeller wear. The Volvo with the pump up on the engine in particular needs good muffs. That water has to go up thru the drive about 1’ then forward 3 or so feet. There is also a water fitting in these on the drive that corrodes & will cause it to suck air causing a loss of pump prime.
When you say drain the block I think you mean the heat exchanger, correct? This engine has closed cooling so no need to drain block only the raw water side of the heat exchanger & exhaust manifold & raw water pump & hoses….

 

[NorinRadd]

Might be a combination of muffs not fitting right & that caused impeller wear. The Volvo with the pump up on the engine in particular needs good muffs. That water has to go up thru the drive about 1’ then forward 3 or so feet. There is also a water fitting in these on the drive that corrodes & will cause it to suck air causing a loss of pump prime.
When you say drain the block I think you mean the heat exchanger, correct? This engine has closed cooling so no need to drain block only the raw water side of the heat exchanger & exhaust manifold & raw water pump & hoses….

I was using different muff as my old good one broke. The impeller looks worn to you? Yes drain the water from whatever its In. Not the oil from block. But the heat exchanger also has antifreeze in it? Two seperate tubes? I was told to drain water from these two locations and impeller housing. Two photos of same thing just zoomed out/in. I notice there is still bit of water in the raw water filter canistee thing? Maybe bottom 5%.

 

[NorinRadd]

This thing circled in green still has bit of water

 

[Lou C]

Ok your heat exchanger has 2 sections a closed side that circulates antifreeze to the block and an open side that uses seawater to cool the antifreeze. If you remove the cap that looks like a radiator cap on top of the red housing which is the heat exchanger (let engine cool off!!) there should be antifreeze in there. The part you circled I’m not sure about; I’m not really familiar with these older Volvos. I think you need a manual to make sure the winterization is done right.

 

[harringtondav]

I'm also unfamiliar with your VP. ...only VP experience is my 2022 4.3.
Mine has a single point raw water drain that seems to work well. Manually draining the block, exhaust manifold(s) and the raw water pump outlet to the HX basically does the same.

My OM specifies closing the single point drain (in your case buttoning up the raw water side) and running two gallons of pink RV antifreeze in through the muffs until you see it come out the exhaust.
I use a 5' length of garden hose with the male end intact. Screw it into the muffs and jamb a good size funnel into the end of the hose. I hold the funnel above the raw water pump level, start the engine and start pouring. ....wife/helper holds the funnel while I start the engine.
The first 1/2 gal or so goes down pretty slow. But when the impeller bites the antifreeze sucks down faster than I can pour.
When finished I dump the single point drain and dump the pink juice. Per @Lou C air doesn't freeze.
You'll have to manually drain things again.

 

[NorinRadd]

Ok your heat exchanger has 2 sections a closed side that circulates antifreeze to the block and an open side that uses seawater to cool the antifreeze. If you remove the cap that looks like a radiator cap on top of the red housing which is the heat exchanger (let engine cool off!!) there should be antifreeze in there. The part you circled I’m not sure about; I’m not really familiar with these older Volvos. I think you need a manual to make sure the winterization is done right.

Yeah theres anti freeze in there. I have a manual. I did what It and my client said. More so just wondering why no water came out.

 

[NorinRadd]

I'm also unfamiliar with your VP. ...only VP experience is my 2022 4.3.
Mine has a single point raw water drain that seems to work well. Manually draining the block, exhaust manifold(s) and the raw water pump outlet to the HX basically does the same.

My OM specifies closing the single point drain (in your case buttoning up the raw water side) and running two gallons of pink RV antifreeze in through the muffs until you see it come out the exhaust.
I use a 5' length of garden hose with the male end intact. Screw it into the muffs and jamb a good size funnel into the end of the hose. I hold the funnel above the raw water pump level, start the engine and start pouring. ....wife/helper holds the funnel while I start the engine.
The first 1/2 gal or so goes down pretty slow. But when the impeller bites the antifreeze sucks down faster than I can pour.
When finished I dump the single point drain and dump the pink juice. Per @Lou C air doesn't freeze.
You'll have to manually drain things again.

Our motors have 40 years between them. Cant be similar. My system is fresh and raw. No need to drain the fresh as its 5050 coolant. Tested it is good to -27. Barely get to -5 where I live.

Completey different motors but I do have seloc guide. Which says this. “ the steen drive needs to be horizontal!?!” So all the way up!?

 

[Bondo]

Our motors have 40 years between them. Cant be similar. My system is fresh and raw. No need to drain the fresh as its 5050 coolant. Tested it is good to -27. Barely get to -5 where I live.

Completey different motors but I do have seloc guide. Which says this. “ the steen drive needs to be horizontal!?!” So all the way up!?

Nope,..... All the way Down,....

 

[NorinRadd]

Nope,..... All the way Down,....

Whys the seloc guide say the stern drive must be in horizontal position.

 

[NorinRadd]

Figured it out. Theres a hole at the bottom side of 290 leg that needs to be plugged when muffing the motor. I never knew

 

[Grub54891]

Yeah, that hole will get ya! I tape it off with shrikwrap tape, but duct tape works also. Years ago I had a dry stick I wittled to fit snug, kept that stick for years in my tool box till I misplaced it.

 

[NorinRadd]

Yeah, that hole will get ya! I tape it off with shrikwrap tape, but duct tape works also. Years ago I had a dry stick I wittled to fit snug, kept that stick for years in my tool box till I misplaced it.

Omg haha. So crazy my seloc manual doesnt even mention it. I had 40 yr boat mechanic neighbor look the boat over he had no idea. Also paid another boat mechanic to look it over he also had no idea. Luckily a guy a bought some parts off was the one who told me. Althought the muff I had prior seemed to have enough suction and fit well enough I didnt have to plug the hole. Adequate water came out the exhaust. With this dinky kicker muff definitely did not have quality suction.

 

[harringtondav]

Our motors have 40 years between them. Cant be similar. My system is fresh and raw. No need to drain the fresh as its 5050 coolant. Tested it is good to -27. Barely get to -5 where I live.

Completey different motors but I do have seloc guide. Which says this. “ the steen drive needs to be horizontal!?!” So all the way up!?

They're closer than you may think. All closed/fresh water cooling systems have pressurized Glycol or OAT engine antifreeze that cools the engine block, and sometimes the exhaust manifolds. Raw/sea water cools the steering cooler, heat exchanger, and in most boats, the exhaust manifolds.
So the block is pretty safe during winter layover. But freeze ups in the raw water side can be costly. ....raw water pump housing, HX housing, exhaust manifolds, etc.
My OM's raw water flush may be a bit anal, but the pink juice is cheap insurance.

 

[QBhoy]

Hi. That is a closed internal cooling system. Running coolant from the muffs (terrible idea) is only putting water through the raw water side of the engine. The engine however, should have coolant in the closed side of things. Like the block. This should remain in the closed side at all times. It’s just the raw water side you need to drain down. So the heat exchanger and perhaps exhaust manifold. Then the preferred would be to run antifreeze directly into the suction side (probably at the sea strainer pictured) of the engine driven raw water pump. This would flush through the raw side with antifreeze. Hope that helps. But if it was actually the block you drained down and there was next to nothing in there…that’s an issue. Was there no evidence of a coolant level in the header tank ? Perhaps the lid was still on and making things difficult.