Leaking Antifreeze after Winterizing

[Thelenc4]

I winterized my volvo 5.0 penta by opening the required hoses & plugs to drain all water. Then using a winterization kit & proper antifreeze I ran the antifreeze through the motor once the engine was at the proper temperature. The boat is stored inside garage. Suddenly 2 months later I find a good size puddle of antifreeze on the floor under the propeller. Any idea why antifreeze is leaking after 2 months. I live in Michigan we get extremely low temps. Boat is a Four Winns Horizon 220.

 

[tpenfield]

Greetings and Welcome to iBoats . . .

Is this your first winterization?

You drained all the water from the engine. How did you get the engine up to the proper temperature ??? (more water running through it?)

Then you ran the antifreeze (right?)

What is the typical and lowest temperature in your garage?

Have you looked inside the engine compartment/bilge area to see if there is any antifreeze present or dripping?

Is the plug in (garboard plug)?

The AF could have drained down from the engine and out of the water pick-ups in the outdrive, but that usually happens gradually, not after a couple of months.

Anything else that you can share?

 

[Thelenc4]

I used snorkels with water running thru. Once the motor temp guage showed the proper temp recommended by 4 winns when winterizing I switched it over to antifreeze, apx. 5 gallons. Drain plug is out.
Garage is not insulated so just a bit warmer than outside. I have not checked the engine compartment due to the spot it is stored I can put the top up & with the low temperature any weight on the back sundeck loungers will cause them to crack.

 

[tpenfield]

Snorkels - do you mean what are commonly called 'earmuffs'?

So, draining the water initially did not really do anything, since you ran the boat (with a supply of water) to get it up to temperature (right?)

Does it appear that the AF came from the transom plug opening or from the outdrive itself?

There was a cold snap over the past week of so . . . what temperature did it get down to in your area? It seems like there have been a few days around 0 F ? How about the garage temperature during those days ? If your (vinyl) seats will crack, I assume it is pretty cold . . .

When exactly did you winterize and were there cold temperatures then?

 

[Thelenc4]

Yes, earmuffs. Draining the water from the hoses & plug prior to running water & antifreeze thru the system didn't really make sense to me either but I was following the recommended winterizing directions.
There has been a few day the temp did get to 0 or below with wind chill. It's can get extremely cold in the garage due to no insulation. The winterization was done mid October. Leak appeared last week. I tried to check the engine compartment but the moment I put my hand on the lounger to unhook the top I heard a crack sound so stopped immediately.

 

[tpenfield]

Looks like you will need to wait until warmer temperatures (spring time) to inspect the engine compartment.

Can you tell if the leak came from the plug opening or from the outdrive?

 

[paulswagelock]

Your method was severely flawed. It is unlikely you have antifreeze in the critical areas of the motor, it is much more likely you have water with some antifreeze mixed in, and not even remotely capable of freeze protection. At this point, you would be much better off draining it completely and leaving it empty then what you have in there now.

 

[Grub54891]

I used snorkels with water running thru. Once the motor temp guage showed the proper temp recommended by 4 winns when winterizing I switched it over to antifreeze, apx. 5 gallons. Drain plug is out.
Garage is not insulated so just a bit warmer than outside. I have not checked the engine compartment due to the spot it is stored I can put the top up & with the low temperature any weight on the back sundeck loungers will cause them to crack.

I think you cracked the block. If you did not drain all the water out before running the anti freeze through it had diluted anti freeze in the block.

 

[Lou C]

I don’t know why anyone does it that way and if FW has instructions telling you to do it that way shame on them! You have to understand how raw water cooling works. Raw water cooling has excess capacity for the cooling needs of the engine. The exhaust system always gets water but water will exit the engine only when the water temp inside the engine exceeds the rating of the thermostat. So idling on a cool fall day the thermostat may only open briefly or even not at all because at idle the engine just does not build enough heat. You will likely have an exhaust full of AF but the engine may have mostly water or a diluted AF water mix, if not draining the block first. Personally after fogging I manually drain, poke all the holes and then back fill with PG antifreeze. I mix up batches of Sierra PG AF to give me freeze protection to -30F or so….it’s the best quality PG stuff and only a few dollars more that the -50 or -60 (not adequate for my area winter temps)….

 

[tpenfield]

What model year is the boat/engine?

The comments/concerns posted by Paul, Grub, and Lou may be correct, because the Antifreeze going into the engine does not displace all of the water in the engine on a 1-for-1 basis. It is a mixing process where the AF mixes within the engine block with the plain water that is already there.

I had a diagram of the process for reference, but I cannot seem to find it at the moment. Another factor is that some of the AF goes directly to the exhaust risers and by-passes the engine and manifolds completely. So, 5 gallons of AF going in does not get you 5 gallons of fresh water coming out. The AF that is in the engine and exhaust manifolds may only be about a 50/50 mixture of the AF and the water that was there.

This process can work fine . . . or not . . . depending on the engine and how low the temperatures get.

In order to really purge the water from the engine and have pure AF in there, you would need to run about 10 gallons of AF, instead of the 4-5 that most kits contain.

FWIW - After 'winterizing' an buddy's engine with this method, I took a couple of samples of the remaining AF/water from the exhaust manifolds and stuck them in the freezer overnight. - they pretty much froze solid. Of course, knowing this possibility, we drained everything after running the AF, so the engine cooling system was empty to avoid damage.

Not saying your engine is toast, but it is one of the possibilities.

 

[Lou C]

The first year I did mine (2002) I tried that method checked the block drains the next day and dirty water came out so that started my manual drain and back fill procedure.
As far as I am concerned ALL inboards should be closed cooled!
Even just a half system would protect the most expensive part, the engine, and allows you to use the suck up AF thru the drive to winterize.

 

[tpenfield]

BTW - @Thelenc4 can you post a picture (or text) of the winterizing instructions that you were following/referring to?

 

[Lou C]

Yep I’d like to see that too. People get confused because they see uninformed people on YouTube doing this. Also marinas use this method BUT they have a way of recirculating the AF to keep it hot enough to keep the stat open. That takes a lot more AF and special equipment not 5 gallons and a Camco winterizing tank!

 

[BRICH1260]

Given what you have said, you might be best off to try and get to the engine block and inspect, even temporarily heating the garage if need be. If there is antifreeze in the bilge, then you probably have a cracked block. If not, you may want to pull the plugs and hoses and drain everything out and go dry for the rest of winter.

 

[Scott Danforth]

get some heat in the garage, or at a minimum, get 2 60 watt incandescent trouble lights in the engine bay

you used the block-cracker 2000 method of winterization.

the second the cooler antifreeze touched the thermostat it slammed shut and all the antifreeze went out the exhaust manifolds. your engine had pure water in it from running on the muffs.

the manual covers draining and adding antifreeze with a funnel if you want to add antifreeze, however at this point, you are probably looking at a cracked block and heads

 

[tpenfield]

Looks like the OP has not been back yet to read through the doom & gloom comments that have been posted. Hopefully, he will have checked a few things out to see where the AF is coming from.

Not sure what he was expecting to hear just by his brief description and little supporting information.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Looks like the OP has not been back yet to read through the doom & gloom comments that have been posted. Hopefully, he will have checked a few things out to see where the AF is coming from.

Not sure what he was expecting to hear just by his brief description and little supporting information.

my guess he was hoping that the sinking feeling in his gut was wrong and he was hoping it would be alright and we ripped the band-aid off

those camco winterization kits were originally designed for RV's to pull RV antifreeze thru travel trailers and other RV's water system. they were never designed to be used for boats.

then some marketing guy who probably has stock in an engine rebuilding company started marketing them to boats and added the RV winterizing diverter valve. he/she is probably racking in royalties from both the boat engine rebuilding and the scamco-block-busting-AF kits.

Here is the diverter valve https://www.camco.net/pump-converter-winterizing-kit-kit-36543

 

[Lou C]

The only good use of those kits is if you have closed cooling, even so I don't think gravity feed is that great, it might be better to boost it with a livewell pump or similar.
Now we might use it on my brother's Merc 4.5 after fully draining it with Merc's new fancy plastic drain system, which I don't totally trust but we measured what came out of the engine, and so know it worked the first time. I back filled it with AF via the vent but it took forever, I was not going start disconnecting hoses on his new engine! What I later found out is how the dealers do it. They drain with the plasto-drain system and they then suck up 5 gallons of -100 with one of these or similar. As long as you drain first it would be OK as long as you know for sure, that you got all the water out. For me the idea of filling his with AF is to reduce internal corrosion which is what causes the easy drain systems to clog. I noticed that the hoses and fittings on this are much bigger than the older ones, maybe they will fare better.
When I first got into boating I bought one of these not knowing what I quickly learned when I did my first winterization. What I did with it was turned it into a flusher for the drum brakes on my trailer (livewell pump). It actually works well for people who trailer a lot in salt water and don't have a water supply to flush at the ramp.
If I do re-power with a new engine I will as I always said add closed cooling then I can use it to winterize....

 

[Bt Doctur]

can always remove the therm hose or manifold hoses and pour the AF in. If it runs out something has cracked.
What no one does is remove the drain plugs and drain everything PRIOR to using a camco type system