Dewinterizing and found water in all cylinders - help!

[Minnesota boater]

Hello! Due to a very wet, late spring, grad party and house repairs I just now got the cover off my boat and began dewinterizing. I drained it last fall before it got freezing, making sure the drain plugs were cleared with stiff wire until I had nothing left to come out and then refilled with RV antifreeze, removed coolant hose off engine. We had an exceptionally cold winter with temps to -40F. Oil is clean when I checked it just now, maybe a quart fuller than when I changed it in the fall, figure that's just drainback from the filter etc? Expelled rust by cranking a few seconds at a time and spraying oil into cylinders in between. Rusty color. I'm a little afraid to monkey around without some sage advice to go by in case I screw things up more. Your comments welcome!

 

[Bt Doctur]

what type of RV anti-freeze and what temp protection?

 

[Minnesota boater]

CORRECTION -50 Arctic Ban RV antifreeze.

 

[Minnesota boater]

Ok tested compression 162-163 in forward three 183 in aft cylinder. Found RV antifreeze in the bottom of the oil sump, maybe a half a cup. I have a bad feeling about this...

 

[Bt Doctur]

You drained and probed the opening for the block(2) and for the manifolds (1each) and are sure something emptied out of all of them.
Finding fluid in the cylinder sounds like the manifolds let loose and flooded any cylinder with a valve open

 

[alldodge]

Ok tested compression 162-163 in forward three 183 in aft cylinder. Found RV antifreeze in the bottom of the oil sump, maybe a half a cup. I have a bad feeling about this...

:welcome: to iboats

You pulled the pan and found antifreeze in the oil sump? What did I miss?

No where in your post you stated there is a problem other then finding antifreeze, did the engine start and run???

 

[achris]

Nowhere in any post is a description of what he's working on either.... It could be a Massey-Ferguson tractor for all we know....

 

[Minnesota boater]

My apologies guys. You're right I posted without identifying. It's a Mercruiser 3.0. I didn't pull the pan but loosened the sump drain plug and caught some oil into a container - it had red RV antifreeze at the bottom. It turns over with the plugs out easy enough but I'm worried about hydrolocking the cylinder without doing a complete oil change first. Hope this clarifies it enough? Let me know if oil change then try and start, if it does then run on muffs and check oil for water?

 

[achris]

Pull the exhaust elbow and check it and the manifold...

 

[Minnesota boater]

Will do. Can I thread an air nipple into any of the ports?

 

[grewvin1]

What cooloant hose did you use to fill with antifreeze? some people get the wrong hose and fill the exhaust side of things and get into the engine if a valve is open causing hydrolock.
you need to fill with antifreeze under the thermostat to have it travel to the lower unit to clear the water from the water pump and such. So this is just a question what hose did you use to pour in the antifreeze stuff? I'm going to guess you my be lucky if you empty out the oil sump fresh oil and give it a go. filter too.

 

[Minnesota boater]

No Title

Grewvin1 yep that might be my problem to a tee. I removed the small hose on the exhaust side and filled up using the exhaust fitting - I didn't read the winterize procedure real well because I see now it says the big hose, not the small one. Feeling pretty darn stupid now and kinda like Neo in the original Matrix where he ducks a bullet...potentially. I will change the oil and see what we see. Hoping after that its just a matter of cleaning off the boat from all that rusty antifreeze/oil mix...

 

[Starcraft5834]

Hope it all gets straightened out for you.. I would strongly urge you to consider next winters long term "DRY" storage. drain water from block and manifold, remove top water hose at theromastat and use a air compressor to blow out any water lingering... pink stuff does freeze. Air does not... your engine will sleep nicely empty of water next winter

 

[tpenfield]

Subscribing in . . . should be interesting to find out what happened. -40 of a winter is probably too much for the "-50" AF to handle. If you read the fine print, it gets pretty solid once it gets down near its spec'ed temp.

 

[DaveG55]

Propylene Glycol does freeze but it does not expand - above its rated temp. Unless it's diluted. Diluting it drastically changes its expansion characteristics.
Some of the pink, RV antifreezes don't use Propylene glycol but rather an alcohol based mixture.
You can get the propylene glycol stuff rated down to -100, if you think you might not have gotten all the water out and you get extreme temps, that may be the way to go.

 

[tpenfield]

Keep in mind that the common RV/Marine AF is a mixture of PG (or alcohol) and water. So it will have some expansion characteristics.

 

[Bondo]

Keep in mind that the common RV/Marine AF is a mixture of PG (or alcohol) and water. So it will have some expansion characteristics.

Ayuh,...... Air don't expand at All when it Freezes,.....

Matter of fact, I believe Water is the Only element that expands as it Freezes,......
Everything else, Shrinks,....

 

[Minnesota boater]

Hello all I'm happy to report after an oil and filter change and running on muffs for 10-15 min until it reached operating temperature no water in the oil all systems normal. Thanks for the advice - it was really appreciated! This fall I vow to fill the lower hose, not the upper - with -100F RV antifreeze.

 

[achris]

I have the 'shrinking' effect when I go skiing...

 

[achris]

Hello all I'm happy to report after an oil and filter change and running on muffs for 10-15 min until it reached operating temperature no water in the oil all systems normal. Thanks for the advice - it was really appreciated! This fall I vow to fill the lower hose, not the upper - with -100F RV antifreeze.

And drain the block and manifold before I do....