winterising a sealine 255

[ian38_39]

Hi, as a new owner the prospect of winterising is looking a little daunting but this is a shoe string operation with no money to pay engineers, anyones advice would be much appreciated, the boat has twin 135hp mercruisers on outdrives and is currently on hard standing. what should I be doing to keep her safe

 

[cjrvernon]

turn on taps and empty water system and water tank heater

behind the manifolds remove the bolts and let water drain out

put a tube heater in the engine bay
and one in the cabin to keep the mould and damp away

 

[enterprise]

Hi there,

Doing the work yourself is rewarding & in no way hard work.

There will be many discusions & articles to read shortly as, like youv'e already found out it's that time of year.

Firstly drain all the water, from both domestic & any holding tanks you may have, leave the faucets open to allow for expansion, dont forget to drain the calleriffier(water heater) if you have one.

Pour some antifreeze into the HEAD & work through with the pump.

Add a fuel inhibiter to the petrol, this will stop your fuel turning sour through the layup period & also allow any condensation within the tank to combine harmlessly with the fuel to be burnt on recomission.

Apply a flushing attatchment to each engine/drive inturn & run with fresh water for atleast 10mins,removing salt & any other contaminents, make sure they run upto normall opperating temp, once there shut down & change the oil filters & oil (watch out HOT!!!), to make life easier try to obtain a vacume oil extractor (pella or simmilar).

Refill with fresh oil & replacement filters & runup again to coat the internals with fresh new oil.

Aquire a can of fogging oil, remove the flame arrestors & follow instructions on the can, this involves spraying contents of the can into the air intake/carb while the engine is running, to lubricate internal combustion surfaces.
At the same time have a mixture of antifreeze supplying the engine coolant, easilly done using a 5 gallon drum premixed on the bathing platform supplying the flushing attatchment, shutdown the engine when the antifreeze mixture is observed exiting the exhaust.
You may want to remove the sparkplugs & dose each cylinder as well, once this is done replace the plugs (new ones if the budget runs to them, saves doing it next year).
Clean & replace the flame arrestors, possible to clean these using neat petrol(at home,off the boat).

If there are drainplugs anywhere on your manifolds or blocks open them & drain, leave them out, if not dont worry as sufficient antifreeze should be in there to protect them.

Grease with appropriate grease all shift linkages & output shaft.

Slacken off the V or Serpentine belts & librally douse the engines with WD40 or simillar moisture repellant.

Cover engines with old sheet or blanket if you like.

Drives require service too, change the oil, look for contamination (emulsified oil) if found at this stage then it gives you all winter to sort it out, if you can remove them & take them home better, if not dont worry, change the oil & inspect the annodes & bellows, replace these if over 50% depleated or the bellows show signs of cracking or being brittle, dont forget new water pump impellars, they need replacing every year(it's an expensive mistake not to replace each season, liftout,overheating damage etc).
Remove the props & grease the shafts, take the props home to clean or have any dings repaired.

Finally remove your gas bottles & batteries etc for storage at home if you can, allong with any removable soft furnishings, consider a dehimidiffier or leave good ventellation.

Remove as much accumilated junk as possible, warps & fenders can be cleaned at home.

A good tip is to leave all the lockers open & prop open the fridge door, half a lemon in the fridge will kill any lingering odours.

Hope this gives you something to start with, should take 2 people most of the day at a relaxed rate, there is obviously more but my typing fingers are getting shorter, more expert opinion willl be along shortly. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[ian38_39]

Thanks very much for that most helpfull, one thing though I once read an artical saying that you could flush the engines by just putting the outdrives in a bucket of water then you could apply the antifreeze in the same way just put 50/50 mix in the bucket, seemed a bit heath robinson but have you heard of this as I do not have the flushing attachment for the drives.

 

[enterprise]

It's easy with smaller outboards, bucket/bin etc, but outdrives /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Im not so sure.

Flushing attatchments are cheap & easy to use (have even seen one used while alongside, still in salt water with pontoon water hose, bit over the top though).
Ebay should have one, the Quicksilver one with wire running through the drive is most secure( sorry don't know the pt no').
Once you have one thats it, you only ever need one.

Hose attatches to flushing device & provides clean fresh water, bucket recirculates the water already flushed through.... /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif.

One thing I remembered after my last post, Drain & clean the Bilge, it's easier while out of the water, catch the discharge in a bucket under the skin fitting (make sure you know which one, pictures of Delboy, Rodney & U Albert with the ......sha.......lightfitting come to mind. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif).

 

[davedpc]

It,s a good idea if you want to keep your engines warm[heater] or dry [dehumidifier] to block the engine air intakes. In theory if you remove the thro hull speedlog paddle wheel cold air will drain away down through the hole---just like the cold water in the hot water tank serarates out. Could make things a tad moist if the boat is still in the water though ! Dave

 

[Alrob]

re - the bucket idea

you need a hell of a big bucket for sterndrives (i needed a 42 inch diameter bucket for my B3 drive) which is a lot of antifreeze at 50/50.
very important to get all water out block if it is a raw water cooling system (ie drain plugs & hoses if directed)
try downloading the manual for your engines here
http://www.marinepower.com/download/preparesearch?mod=4&lang=EN


flushing attachments work - but keep an eye on temp gauge

good luck

 

[enterprise]

Just found this article.

http://www.watercraftservices.com/how_to_winterise_your_marine_engine.htm


Learnt something new, better not to drain the manifolds & block, leave filled with antifreeze.
I once changed manifolds & risers, after the old ones dried out they did look much worse than when wet, so must be right.

 

[ian38_39]

Thanks for the help will keep all informed, have ordered the flushing kit in the abscence of a 4' dustbin