Block Freezing ?
 

It has been 34* for most of the day and will be in the 20's overnite and 24 By morning.

I pulled the hoses and opened the drains but one side just trickles out . I stuck a wire in and tried to open it up but nothing but a trickle. I let it drain all night but am a little worried with this weather. Do I have anything to worry about or should I just drop a work light in the bilge overnite?

Put a couple of droplights in the bilge with a coupel of 75 watt bulbs or just one with 100 watt or buy a small ceramic heater and set it at 70*. I have done all of the above with boats sitting outside in the driveway and also hanging in a slip. Never drained them and never a problem.
4 hours at 29* can ruin alot .
If there is water in your fresh water tank you may want another heat source in the cabin/cockpit area.

Remove the drains fittings from the block then use a small mini screwdrive "not wire" to loose in the sand or rust up in the block if you can't fill the engine with antifreeze is it in doors or outside? and drain the exhaust manifolds too.

I drained everything else. The port side is the side of the block is what won't drain. I can't remove the drain fitting because the oil cooler is in the way so I cant get a wrench on it.

I think I am just going to pour some Antifreeze in thru the Tstat and put a drop light in. I snapped the cranck on my last trip out thats why I have to pour it in.And its outside.

You should be able to use a wrench 9/16 is it a stock cooler? pour it in the engine water pump hose that go's from the t stat to the inlet of the engine pump pour it in the hose that might mix better then shake the boat back and fourth at the rear side of the boat to try to mix it better.

drop lights and bilges do not mix i would not put any type of non coast guard approved heating device in the bilge!

If it is a Bravo set up you also need to get the water out of both sides of the external water pump below the engine if you are not going to put any heat in the bilge.

Go to home depot and get one of the oil filled electric radiators plug it in and no worries

Got everything drained and antifreeze in the engine.Think it should be ok.

You'll be just fine not doing a thing. 24 for 24 before you need to start getting worried.

Thats what i always thought but just want to be safe.I already have to rebuild it again:angry-smiley-038:i dont want to replace the block too:coolcowboy: well maybe that would be a good thing. 572 here I come:evilb:

Too bad Walter can't help you out on an engine. He totally flaked out on me.
My motors were supposed to be delivered 3 months ago.

This helped me with my "always waiting to the last minute winterizing and praying I get it done in time" procrastination.

I use a bilge heater designed for engine compartments on my Chris Craft cruiser while it is on the lift during the winter. I live in Maryland & we get our fair share of below 32 degree weather. It has not failed me since I bought it and that was 3 years ago. This way I can use the boat ocassionally during the winter months. I believe it's made by BoatSafe.

The boat has twin inboards and the heater works great. It comes on when it gets down around 42 degrees & goes off above that. I plug it into an extention cord that has a lighted plug end. That way, I can visually check to see if it has power or not by looking out the house window.

It really was a worthwhile buy for me. It seems I am always rushing at the last minute trying to beat out Old Man Winter. Just have to get one more day out in the boat. LOL. (P.S. I keep a small back up generator around just in case the electricity goes out.)

Now with my Cig it's a different story. I winterize everything. But I also have a bilge heater for it also. Just don't want to take any chances with my Cig. I didn't winterize my first boat early enough into the winter season 20 years ago & I paid the price. That was a costly mistake that I would rather not ever repeat.

yeah,that was chitty. He told me it was a done deal. Sorry about that.I dont know what happened on that deal. I was looking forward to that project.

I usually dont wait this long but I smoked the engine at the end of the season and had plans to pull it but have put it off too long. It should have been pulled and apart by now but with the baby on the way and work slow i have other things to worry about (until tonite):party-smiley-004: