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?

I have a pro charger on mine also. I drained the water best i could from the block, pulled off the inlet hose and put a funnel on it. started it up and poured 6 gallons of r/v antifreeze thru it. I made sure pink was coming out the exhaust. The intercooler was the first to start spitting out pink. I shut it off and put the hose back on leaving the antefreeze in it. Hopefully the coolant ran thru EVERYTHING. This is all done in case they shut the heat off in the storage building.

Yes, that was our issue. We could get to a point where we were reasonably sure we had the proper mixture in the whole system, but it took a ton of time and material. As you probably know, somebody who knows what they're doing can drain one pretty quickly.

I have been winterizing for over 20 years without issue. I start the engine on the muffs, and bring it up to temperature. I have a bucket that has a through hull fitting I hook a hose to it with muffs. After the engine gets up to temp I hook up the bucket, start it up and pour RV antifreeze into the bucket. I pour 6 gallons through it. While I am doing that I spray storage seal into the carb and stop the engine with too much storage seal just prior to running out of anti freeze. I have not had a problem in 20 years and I live in Wisconsin where it goes to minus 20. It is in unheated storage. I put an XR with a - 2 Sportmaster on this year so I could not use the muffs. I had to do it by taking off all the hoses and drainiing everything. I bought a hose adapter for a low water pickup from CP but it apparently only fits an Imco as it won't work on the Sportmaster. If anyone knows where I can get an adapter that will work on the Sportmaster, please speak up.

merc has one

simply duct tape the low water pickup and use the muffs