Can I do this to winterize...

[subkron]

Instead of draining the cooling water and then adding antifreeze, I thought I read somewhere about doing this.<br />Take a 5 gallon bucket, connect a hose to it and connect the other end of the hose to the muffs. Fill up the bucket w/antifreeze mixture, then run the engine till antifreeze exits from the outlet.<br /><br />Can this be done?<br /><br />Seems like this would be simpler (once the bucket/hose contraption is rigged up).<br /><br />94 Wellcraft eclipse<br />4.3LX Mecruiser w/Alpha 1 Sterndrive

 

[TwoBallScrewBall]

Re: Can I do this to winterize...

They sell the exact same contraption so yes it should work. You have to have the bucket higher than the impeller though, so the antifreeze gravity feeds into the muffs. The impeller will not suck the sntifreeze out of the hose.

 

[John Carpenter]

Re: Can I do this to winterize...

I have an inboard that I set up to winterize like this...simply installed a "T" with a ball valve off the engine cooling thru hull. I run the engine on a garden hose till warm, then shut down & change the oil. All I have to do to winterize is close one valve and open the valve to the antifreeze bucket...takes less than a minute to suck up 5 gal. of antifreeze mixture.<br /><br />A side benefit to this setup is that if you start taking on a lot of water, you can close the normal engine cooling water pick-up and open the ball valve to your "winterizing" hose which is secured in the bilge. You now have an extra bilge pump that is driven by your engine and sending water out the exhaust. I don't know about outboards or even other inboards, but I don't need gravity feed with mine...it'll suck the chrome off a trailer hitch