How Cold B4 Damage
 

It's supposed to go down to 24 degrees here Tuesday night. It will probably be below freezing for about 6 hours. I haven't winterized the motor or outdrive yet. Is that cold long enough to do any damage?

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

sure is... :eek:

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

You'll know in the spring!!!

My guess is you'll test the bilge pumps this spring if you don't take care of it now.

You might want to put one or two light bulbs under your engine hatch if you can't winterize now. Preferably light bulbs that are turned on...

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

There was a cold snap here one time. A good freind had not winterized his boat. The temps dropped well below 32 for over 4 days. he went down as soon as he could, the bilge water wasn't even frozen. :eek: :drink:

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

100w drop light will get you by.

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

You should be OK as long as the day warms up.

Take an empty ice cream bucket and fill it with water and set it outside (not on the concrete) and when you wake up in the morning I bet the water will nto be frozen solid. Usually a good way of setting your mind at ease.

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

Can you at least open your block drains and take the hoses off your exhaust manifolds? That will let most (not all) the water out and give you a little peace of mind.

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

You will be ok if you are only below freezing for 6 hours, especially if it is getting back up around 40 during the day. You need it to get down around 20 for a couple days straight to get that water freezing and expanding enough to crack anything. But the trouble light will ease your mind if you can get it in there.

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

I concur!

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

depends on whether the boat sees any sun during the day. Depends on if the boat is covered. Depends on the color (light vs dark) of the cover. Depends on if the bilge vents are stuffed with rags or taped. Depends on a lot.

It really doesn't take long to pull the water pump hose and suck a bucket of RV antifreeze into the motor and out the exhaust risers. Then open the TStat housing and pour in another couple of gallons. That's a quickie way if you're not ready to do a full on winterization.

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

your safe as long as its not for more than 2 or 3 days,it has to get down below freezing longer than that to do real damage.

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

Guys, hate be the bearer of bad news , but the maximum expansion of freezing water is right at 32 (within a fraction) when the ice crystals first form.

How long, how cold and will it freeze is simply a function of the temperature that the water in the block actually reaches. Wind is a major factor.

We used to keep a couple of coke bottles filled with water around the marina in the fall, we always had the guys that would call during that first cold snap, usually about 6 on a Friday nihgt and beg us to winterize their boat.

That is a lot of money to gamble with, The light bulb is a good idea, but be careful where you put it. A fire would be worse.

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

You'll be ok just go out every hour and run the engines up to temp :D the neighbors won't mind :D


I just realized you wrote this yesterday...So do you have one solid engine block or two halves :drink:

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

I think the "rule or thumb" is 24 degrees for 24 hours before it will crack a block.

However, I agree with everyone here... Pull your blue freeze plugs (if you have a Merc), and drain the exhaust manifolds.

Good luck! :cool:

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

another thing that can be done if close to water is start the motor and ru to temp
The heat in the block will keep for alot longer then you think

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

[QUOTE=Mbam]Guys, hate be the bearer of bad news , but the maximum expansion of freezing water is right at 32 (within a fraction) when the ice crystals first form.

Not too sure about this. Might be the maximum expansion, but lacks the hardness to do damage. Do a test in a closed plastic jug and you may see a different outcome. There is a big difference between when the crystals start to form, and when it really gets hard and cracks open the jug. Also, have you ever put the pink stuff in the freezer over nite. If not, try it. That stuff does not remain liquid in your block all winter. It crystalized around 10 degrees or so. Just never turns hard as a rock, therefore there is not enough force to crack steel.

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

2 nites in the teens around here, the gloves are off and it sucks

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

Does anyone know the scientific reason why water expands when it freezes.

Re: How Cold B4 Damage
 

Found this;

Water is the only compound I know of that expands when it freezes. There may be some others I don't know about, but certainly it's a very rare property. As far as the reason for water having this unusual property, basically it has to do with the structure of the crystal that forms when the water becomes ice. You could use tinker toys to demonstrate this. When the water is liquid, the water molecules (represented by the wooden disks of the tinker toys) are close together, but can slide past each other and move around freely. When it freezes, bonds form which lock the molecules in place in a regular pattern, that stays nearly fixed (molecules can't move around). You can use the sticks of the tinker toys to represent the bonds, holding the disks in place a fixed distance (the length of the sticks) from each other. Whether the compound expands or contracts when it freezes depends on the spacing and structure of these bonds. In most compounds, the molecules end up closer together in this solid state than in the liquid state. But for water, the bonding is such that the molecules end up farther apart in the ice than in the water. By the way, the fact that water expands when it freezes means that ice is less dense than water. For this reason, it floats on the water (look at an ice cube in a glass of water). This property is very important for fish in the winter, because it means the ice forms on top of a pond and insulates the rest of the pond below, preventing it from freezing all the way through