winterising question

[madaboutboats]

When I was based on the river I used to pour a mixture of antifreeze and water into the water strainers untill it came out of the exaust .Now Iam based on the sea need I do this to prevent freezing

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[Nickcf]

Can't see how pouring in antifreeze in this way would guarantee that it was mixed up well enough in the heat exchangers to protect against freezing. Obviously seawater freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water, so unless you are in an area where the sea freezes over it is probably unnecessary to do anything. However to be on the safe side I'd recommend draining the raw water system rather than trying to antifreeze it.

Alternatively if you have shore power available buy a small frost potection heater (about £30) which has a thermostat that switches in at below 3 deg C.

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[capt_courageous]

Our Volvo manual advises flushing out the salt water as much as possible -( I assume you engine is directly cooled by sea water) - with fresh water then using an anti-freeze solution just as you do. The anti-freeze also provides a degree of anti-corrosion effect over the winter.
Cheers

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[jimage]

You can never get all the water out of the system, so well worth closing the seacock, pouring in a mixture of anti-freeze and water in to the top of the strainer, then turn the engine over ( remove wire from stop solanoid) until anti freeze comes out. This isn`t very eco-friendly, but garantees your engine won`t freeze up. You may need quite a lot particulaly if you have water locks in the wet exhaust system. Its not winter already is it???

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[miket]

You beat me to it.
The important bit being "close water inlet first" then feed in fresh water and anti freeze mixture etc...

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[madaboutboats]

I forgot to say in my question that I have an enclosed water cooling system ie. whith heat exchangers.I am still not sure if the salt content in the raw water will be enough to stop it freezing up and cause damage?

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