Yes, absolutely.

Ideally, you need a fresh water flush system that goes both ways. (No, not in the UC section.)

When you turn on the water hose, it starts to flush the drive from the water insertion point in the cooling system backwards out the drive.

When you start the motor, the fresh water is pulled into the motor by the SWP suction.

Aren't 525's closed cooling......or am I thinking about something else? If not, you can add a closed cooling kit from Merc. I almost did that with my Seeker, but opted for installing a flush system. My boat came without either of those.......(closed cooling or flush).

Some friends have a 35' Carver cruiser and they where advised to leave their boat in the water instead of pulling for winter. The dealer said that size of boat has better hull support from the water.

Hi h2O:

I just bought a new Cobalt 302 and will be keeping it in Channel Islands. I was ready to order the HydoHoist system when I found out that none of the marinas will allow it. Have you found one that will. I'd love to keep her out of the water instead of painting the bottom, but don't seem to have a choice.

I'd love to hear what you know.

Arnie

I think he bought a house there with a dock?

Yes, the 525s are closed cooling, but you have seawater going through the SWP, heat exchanger, and exhaust, and I think the oil cooler. You need to get the salt out of these places, especially the heat exchanger.

If leaving a boat in the water, you really can't flush from the SWP backwards out the drives very well. In this case, you need to put in a flushing system that has a ball valve that cuts off the water coming from the drive, so when you hook up a fresh water hose to the flush system, ONLY fresh water goes to the SWP and through the rest of the cooling system. A nice way to do this is put a ball valve between a sea-strainer and the drive. Then run the fresh water hose into the side of the sea-strainer. This way, you rinse your sea-strainer too.

If you put the boat on a lift, you really don't need the whole ball-valve water cut off system. You can just flush with a simple system that puts fresh water between the SWP and the drive (or sea-water pickup, if by chance its on the transom).

ALSO, in talking with a Formula 400SS, I'm willing to bet you are going to have a Generator and an AC system. Both of these will also use/process seawater. You will need to have flushing systems for both of these units too, no matter if you store in/out of the water.

I forgot to mention, there is a pressurized flush system that is available. Its been mentioned here on OSO before. Its the equivalent of hooking up a pressure washer to several parts of the engine/cooling system, and you do NOT need to start the engine to flush.

Is that what you have installed Nort?

I do know that they are not cheap.

You will need to flush the engines...Should be able to install some slick remote flush kits to make it real easy...or have the dealer do it.

The engines are closed cooled.
I will look at getting a hoist but will need to check on how to flush the drives but i don't see me doing that very often.

Hopefully they will last a few years before needing to be replaced.

Your heat exchangers and exhaust will be gone after 1 season if you do not flush them.

Even with closed cooling, you still have SALT water going through the heat exchanger and exhaust. A failure in either could be slow and without any indicators. Either will result in a catastrophic loss.