Winterizing with a XR Drive
 

When I ran the boat last time out of the water with the muffs there wasn't much water coming out of the exhaust. I noticed that most of the water was running out of four holes at the front of the nose cone. Should I try and block those off so the antifreeze goes into the motor and not on the ground.
Thanks

Gotta plug/tape those front holes too to use the side muffs

You might want to check your impeller.

gotta cover those inlets either with tape or buy the kit from mercury; looks like a bottle cap that goes over the holes and snaps together around the drive. if that does resolve the water issue, check your impeller.

It was only for a short period of time just long enough to check the fuel pressure.

Sorry reread the post, the impellers (dual stage) are in good shape. I have ran the boat several times since then and had good water pressure.

If possible, easiest thing is to put a bucket in the bilge, then pull the hose off the transom assembly and stick it in the bucket. You may need a little longer hose for it to work, but that's the way I do it and it works like a charm. I have some jobbie I rigged up with a 1-1/4 hose, then a ball valve, then an adapter to go to a garden hose. I usually pull the hose off the back of the pump and hook that up to flush, run on the hose, etc.

Of course all of this assumes that one can winterize a motor by simply running antifreeze through it. Personal opinion here, but I'm not a big fan of this method. There are simply too many chances of not getting the proper mixture of water & antifreeze in all of the different areas where the cooling water flows.

Now, if you drain everything first, then refill the system with antifreeze, I can live with that.

I will now stand by and get burned at the stake by everyone who's used this method. Remember, I work at a marina where we winerize over 400 boats each year. We're always looking for the fastest, safest, least expensive method. We experimented with using this method several times - and concluded that it was too risky for us.

That's one of those things you just assume the OP is doing prior to pumping anti-freeze in it. If you aren't doing that, then you should be.

That said, in the past I've just ran a/f in without draining, but usually ran about 12 gallons through before shutting it down...

The motor is procharged so it has a intercooler im assuming that if it shoots A/F out of the intercooler discharge port then the intercooler should be good?