Wunja
Well-Known Member
How do you protect the raw water cooling from ice damage? Surely every time you use the boat, you need to flush the engine through with antifreeze, or do you just accept this as part of the cost of year round enjoyment?
Question for winter sailers
- Thread starter Wunja
- Start date
Georgio
Well-Known Member
In winter always put antifreeze through the engine when ashore but don't bother when afloat (solent). Although the sea water is cold it should be warm enough to stop ice from forming in the engine.
With the boat out of the water (and no other heating) you stand a much greater risk of freezing.
Hope the above makes sense?
With the boat out of the water (and no other heating) you stand a much greater risk of freezing.
Hope the above makes sense?
fireball
Well-Known Member
We often get surface ice in the marina over winter ... not been a problem for the engine though ... it isn't quite 1' thick yet ... !!
Marmalade
Well-Known Member
In addition we have a small heater on board with a thermostat that kicks in at 5 degrees - in theory at least the temp should never drop below that - (240v)
Simon
Simon
Evadne
Well-Known Member
Down here on the south coast of England temperatures rarely get arctic. After reading a bit on here I started flushing through with fresh water and antifreeze, but I found that salting up around the anode increased dramatically, so I've gone back to my old method of Winterising, then running up in fresh water in the spring to make sure all is OK.
"Winterising" involves draining the block by undoing the jubilee clips on the hoses, then taking off the air filter and spraying WD40 in while SWMBO holds open the valve depressor and I wind the starter handle around half a dozen times or more. I realise that this could be improved by running through "flushing oil" before draining, but I've never found the stuff when I've looked for it. The engine is not in the best of nick, but was nearly new when I bought her in 1985 and is still running, so I'm not sure I'm doing that much wrong.
"Winterising" involves draining the block by undoing the jubilee clips on the hoses, then taking off the air filter and spraying WD40 in while SWMBO holds open the valve depressor and I wind the starter handle around half a dozen times or more. I realise that this could be improved by running through "flushing oil" before draining, but I've never found the stuff when I've looked for it. The engine is not in the best of nick, but was nearly new when I bought her in 1985 and is still running, so I'm not sure I'm doing that much wrong.
kengill
Well-Known Member
The raw water cooling circuit has its own antifreeze - salt - as long as the ice around the mooring is less than three or four inches thick you should be ok 'cos the inlet will always be surrounded by water and not ice. The only real trouble comes when the ice flo the boat is iced into starts to move and or gets hit by much larger flos on a tideway.