Record Cold Temps
 

Just wondering how many of us around the country winterized ours boats to withstand these extreme temps for the long duration. I hope I'm safe at -40 with Ethylene Glycol.......We will see in the spring.

I am feeling good about my engines being in the shop right now bone dry. Its -8 here right now. My jug of pure pink antifreeze is hard slush. My test bottle of 25% water and 75% RV antifreeze is like a brick and so is the 10% water 90% RV antifreeze.

Makes you wonder!

my engines and cooling systems are drained and I have an oil filled room heater on low in the bilge with all the vents plugged. fingers crossed.. -2.5 here

bobbo

I'm concerned, because I didn't do it myself, the marina i purchased the boat from did the winterization. Guess I need to trust that Merc repair techs are trained the same whether they are down south or in the frigid north.

This weather should make most boat owners concerned to say the least. An extra heat source in the bilge definately couldn't hurt. Your right about someone else doing it, have to trust them. May be a few engines and heat exchangers being replaced in the spring, if it ever arrives.

I did the same test outside my house last night -18 temps...solid but zero expansion.
My motors are filled with pink. It does freeze but it isnt supposed to expand.

It is has been used in RV plumbing forever. I hope they are correct! Scares the hell out of me.

This is what I'm subscribing to. Fingers crossed.

For those of you that had a marina winterize it check the wording in your insurance policy as you may be covered if there is damage. The policies I sell up in Canada states that if it is winterized by " A Licensed Marine Mechanic or Marina" and you have a receipt that you paid them to do it the insurance company will cover the damage. You need to talk to the marina first as most reputable marinas should come good for the damage as they are responsible and if they refuse to cover it then you could contact your insurance company (if it is covered by the policy). The insurance company will most likley go after the marina to recoup thier money. Not saying this could apply to all but maybe some peace of mind for people that have the coverage. The down side is that you now have a claim against your policy and the rate will most likley go up (10% for the first claim here) for a few years but maybe better to pay that than have to pay for new engines. Just a thought and all depends on your coverage.

Someone on facebook just posted his experience. A guy had not drained the engines, just fired them up and ran 6 gallons of pink RV stuff thru each engine until it came out the exhaust. Everything was frozen solid in the hoses, so he brought the boat in the shop and thawed it all out. Long story short, both engines cracked. He tested the antifreeze mix in the blocks and it was 30% water, 70% A/F.

This winter has been extreme.

Well I guess I'll be glad mine are already apart in a pile

exactly why i use automobile antifreeze . drain n fill in fall . drain in spring. refill blocks with water . too dam expensive to be guessing .. 50 /50 is good to - 34 . it got really close couple times . so i went and dropped a light in the bilge of both my ski boat .and the powerboat . my brother used the pink . hes worried . although both are indoors so should be a little warmer inside .

Maybe a dumb question but why wouldn't a person use auto antifreeze?

The green stuff is supposed to be bad for the environment, the pink stuff isn't. I have no idea if this is true or not. I have the pink stuff in my engine. It's only gotten into the teens down here, so i'll probably be fine.

Gotcha. Well it was -9 last night and not much better tonight. I sure hope everyone's engines are ok in this frozen tundra!

Oh and it was 69 degrees last year today

same here and I never felt so good about it :D

I'm glad I drained mine, but i'd be lying if i said I wasn't nervous. I drained them the refilled with pink through the thermostat housing. First time on 500efi's... followed the book. Sure am glad I didn't just run it on the bucket.

If my engine freezes then the wife loses her argument that it runs just fine . :whistle:

Me either!

Don't wanna hijack the thread, but how do you know you have drained ALL the water out?

I pulled my engs out to do some steering linkage repairs a few weeks ago. Opened the drain plugs on the side of the block and figured that would do it, but every time I moved the eng, some more water would come sloshing out. Short of rotating the engs side to side 45 degs or more on an eng stand, how do you know it's all out?

Also, the raw water/eng oil/power steering heat exchanger on my boat has a small drain plug on it, but if the engs were both installed, there's no way to get at it.

Scary stuff abt the RV antifreeze. I always assumed it was similar to the green stuff in regards to freeze protection. Sounds like supplemental heat is the best, then just hope the power doesn't go out for any length of time.

same here...helps me sleep at night during these cold TX winters...going to be 19 tonight for three hours strait. :)

I'm concerned too...it's going to drop into the 40's here today. Gonna be at least a couple days before I can get back on the water...what is this "winterizing" you speak of?

Similar to smudge pots in the orange groves, only done right it works better.

-14°F this morning @5:30. Both engines in a warm shop.

http://roadtrek190popular.blogspot.c...reeze.html?m=1

An rv guy that did a nice write-up and test of the pink stuff.

Fingers crossed or I guess it will be a pair of LS motors in the spring.

Heated shop for the win!

I drained mine, then manually poured the pink stuff in thru the hoses on each side till it was running out of the lower unit. My engine is closed cooled so at least the engine doesn't get any water in it. I had the caps off the heat exchanger to inspect it so I know it's not full of water either. But to say I'm not nervous would be a lie! It's in a barn but not heated.

I dewinterized the boat a few years back and blew the pink stuff out the exhaust when flushing it with clean water, it killed the grass and that weed (I forget the name) that nothing will kill. I couldn't get anything to grow back for a year +. Seems pretty toxic to me even though it's not supposed to be.

I'd hate to see what would have happened with the green stuff.

Ditto, I have a huge brown spot in my lawn at the end of my driveway where I work on my boat. That stuff WILL kill fish which is why you aren't supposed to dewinterize in the lake/river. But green stuff is even worse.

Borrowed from the HotRodForums :


A southerner moves north!

Jan. 10: It's starting to snow. The first of the season and the first one we've seen in years. My wife and I took our hot buttered rum and sat by the picture window, watching the soft flakes drift down, clinging to the trees and covering the ground. It was beautiful!

Jan. 11: We awoke to a lovely blanket of crystal white snow covering the landscape. What a fantastic sight. Every tree and shrub covered with a beautiful white mantle. I shoveled snow for the first time ever and loved it. I did our driveway and sidewalk. Later, a city snowplow came along and accidentally covered up our driveway with compacted snow from the street. The driver smiled and waved. I waved back and shoveled it again.

Jan. 12: It snowed an additional 5 inches last night, and the temperature has dropped to around 11 degrees. Several limbs on the trees and shrubs snapped due to the weight of the snow. I shoveled our driveway again. Shortly afterwards, the snowplow came by and did his trick again. Much of the snow is now brownish-gray.

Jan. 13: Warmed up enough during the day to create some slush which soon became ice when the temperature dropped again. Bought snow tires for both cars. Fell on my ass in the driveway. I went to a chiropractor and spent $145, but nothing was broken. More snow and ice expected.

Jan. 14: Still cold. Sold the wife's car and bought a 4x4 to get her to work. Slid into a guardrail anyway and did a considerable amount of damage to the right rear quarter-panel. Had another 8 inches of the white **** last night. Both vehicles covered in salt and crud. More shoveling in store for me today. That goddamn snowplow came by twice today.

Jan. 15: 2 degrees outside. More ****in' snow. Not a tree or shrub on our property that hasn't been damaged. Power was off most of the night. Tried to keep from freezing to death with candles and a kerosene heater, which tipped over and nearly burned the house down. I managed to put the flames out, but suffered second degree burns on my hands and lost all my eyelashes and eyebrows. Car slid on ice on way to emergency room and was totaled.

Jan.16: Goddamn mother ****in' white **** keeps coming down. Have to put on all the clothes we own just to get to the ****in' mailbox. If I ever catch the son-of-a-***** that drives the snowplow, I'll chew open his chest and rip out his heart. I think he hides around the corner and waits for me to open our driveway again! Power still off. Toilet froze and part of the roof has started to cave in.

Jan.17: Six goddamn more ****in' inches of ****in' snow and ****in' sleet and ****in' ice and God knows what other kind of white ****in' **** fell last night. I wounded the ****in' snowplow ******* with an ice axe, but he got away. Wife left me. Car won't start. I think I'm going snow blind. I can't move my toes. I haven't seen the sun in weeks. More snow predicted. Wind chill -22 ****in' degrees. I'm moving back to South Carolina .

I could be wrong, but if this makes you feel any better, The idea is with the system filled all the way up, whether water, anti freeze etc, there is no room for expansion. So small pockets of residual water in the lower pores of the block-below the petcocks or drains, there should be room for the expansion. I believe the issues we all have are whether or not the pink anti freeze has displaced all of the straight water, or mixed with it to essentially raise the freeze protection in the wrong direction. My .02

I winterize mine myself every year, with a easy two step process.

1st. Ship it to Miami
2nd. enjoy it all winter

I know many stories and even watched a friend crack manifolds and engine blocks when the boat was winterized. I subscribe to the idea that winterizing is only 95% and personally I am not one to gamble even %5 on my beloved boats. I use heaters in the bilge and use a remote sensor to monitor the temps around the engines. So far this year all has been well with temps at 13° the engines are comfy at 65°F. When I get my shop built the boat will be inside a heated shop. That is my idea of winterizing.

I hope the best for all that have to winterize. It is a terrible thing for the opposite season to ruin our favorite season by way of boat damage.

If you used the green stuff you'd probably have a couple nice tomato plants, a few pepper plants, and beautiful tulips growing .

I've been worried for weeks now. I drained entire system and filled blocks with pink RV antifreeze through the coolant sensor at the water neck. I trust it's full of pink, but it's been f*ckin cold.

I think next year, I'll use the green stuff as this has been a very strange winter for our area.

I've always used the pink stuff and never had issues. I'm not a big fan of waiting for the stat to open then hook up the ears, I'm always afraid the stat will close. My 350 MPI I filled manually after draining all the water. My 454's I drain what I can remove the stats and run the pink stuff. As long as it doesn't expand your good. It goes in the plastic plumbing and works fine. I think the big issue is the expansion and I believe the pink stuff does expand as water does.

it does not

http://roadtrek190popular.blogspot.c...reeze.html?m=1

Just checked my 1/4 gallon of leftover pink . Outside temps have been consistently low single digits during the day and into the below zero temps at night . Wind chills of negative 17* plus or minus . Pink antifreeze is still in liquid form . No worries . :D

I know. Typo

Now for those of you wanting to upgrade and the wife is saying no...

Here is a perfect excuse to do so.

"Honey the block cracked and they need to be replaced. I will sell the old motors as parts and use the money to upgrade a closed cooling system so it can't happen again."

aquaforce what is a safe heat source? I was going to drop a light in the engine hatch but didn't like the idea with the gas fumes.