winterizing a mercruiser 3.0 with sterndrive kept in water year round

[AttyWorth]

How to winterize? New to boating and just bought a 1989 Kayot with a new 3.0 engine with an old sterndrive. I am disabled and can not be trailering my pontoon so I rented a marina slip. I Live on the Cumberland river in Clarksville, Tn., where the winters are moderate. I am thinking about just draining the water using the two hoses provided by Mercury, keeping the trickle charger on, and using the boat anytime the weather permits.
Is that strategy feasible?

 

[alldodge]

Welcome
What are the 2 hoses your talking about for draining?

Only way to do that and be safe is put a heater in the boat. I'm on the KY/TN line and it gets cold enough at times to freeze things pretty solid.

 

[AttyWorth]

Welcome
What are the 2 hoses your talking about for draining?

Only way to do that and be safe is put a heater in the boat. I'm on the KY/TN line and it gets cold enough at times to freeze things pretty solid.

The two blue hoses running from the drain plugs up to a retainer over the alternator.

 

[AttyWorth]

The two blue hoses running from the drain plugs up to a handle and retainer over and to the rear of the alternator.
Could I use pipe heaters such as those used to keep pipes from freezing?

 

[alldodge]

Need a marine safe heater. Something as simple as a incandescent 60watt bulb will keep the engine room warm. That said if there is any fumes in there and the bulb breaks there could be an explosion

The blue hoses sounds like they go to a air pump connection on top. There is a hand pump used to open the drain valves. I think that's what your talking about, serial number or pic would help

 

[WIMUSKY]

They make shatter resistant bulbs. I know people who use thick bulbs to keep crawl spaces warm up north, pipes from freezing and underground water tanks...
Look for thick glass bulbs...

 

[airshot]

I used to use those aluminum bell shaped housings with a couple 75 watt bulbs inside the dog house of my 3.0..
It ectended my season for an extra month and ket me get out a month sooner in the spring. Dog house was not sealed up tight, in fact kept it opened slightly for some air movement. Kept these down low near oil pan as yoy know heat rises. Also a small thermometer in there, one night the temps went down to 10-15 degrees so I checked my thermometer, over 60 degrees inside the dog house. I always used two, just in case one bulb went out...worked great for many years...

 

[Chris1956]

I bought a 40Watt heating pad (in plastic and likely fireproof) and removed the fuzzy cover from the heating pad. I wired it under the oil pan of my '88 MerCruiser V6. My thoughts were that if the lagoon didn't freeze we had some fishing before us. Also warm oil keeps the engine warm, especially good at startup. I fished in January and feb in NJ, w/o issue.

I would expect block heaters are better that space heaters to keep the block from freezing.

 

[garbageguy]

a few electricity-based heating sources have been mentioned - certainly feasible if you can sleep counting on that

the thicker bulbs mentioned are sometimes called rough-service bulbs

 

[flashback]

Agree the various heat sources would work good in your location as long as you don't have a power outage. I live in TN and have them more than I like..

 

[Scott Danforth]

Zero start makes bilge heaters

 

[nola mike]

Any reason not to just pull the plugs every time? I can drain the blocks and manis on the 4.3 in about 30 minutes (most of the time spent remembering where the drains are). If I was doing it regularly I'd put in a few ball valves and do it in a minute.

 

[QBhoy]

Need a marine safe heater. Something as simple as a incandescent 60watt bulb will keep the engine room warm. That said if there is any fumes in there and the bulb breaks there could be an explosion

The blue hoses sounds like they go to an air pump connection on top. There is a hand pump used to open the drain valves. I think that's what your talking about, serial number or pic would help

Some of the newer 3.0 have a sort of quick drain system AD. Basically there are high mounted hoses with a blue t handle. You in clip it and hold down low to drain. Probably what it is here perhaps. Not to be trusted, as you’ll know

 

[Bondo]

The two blue hoses running from the drain plugs up to a handle and retainer over and to the rear of the alternator.
Could I use pipe heaters such as those used to keep pipes from freezing?

Ayuh,..... Welcome aboard,..... The problem with those factory ez-drain systems is, Silt, 'n sand collects in the block, 'n plugs up those fittings, 'n hoses,....
The best thing to do with any of those ez-drain systems is to pull all of it, 'n toss it,....
They cause more frozen busted blocks, than you can imagine,....

What you want to do is pretty easy on a 3.0 l motor, but you need a couple of brass pipe plugs to replace those hose fittings in the block, 'n manifold,....

Once you've installed the brass pipe plugs, you'll need a 9/16" wrench to remove 'em, 'n a screw or nail to poke, 'n prod the sediment outa the holes so it drains,.....
'n a screw driver to loosen the clamp on the bottom of the big hose on the circulating water pump to pull that hose,....

If you have P/S, you need to remove either of the big hoses to drain the cooler too,.....