Need and Engine Expert
 

I have two questions:
1.) How many water drain plugs are on a 454 Bowtie block casting #10051107? I can only see one on the starter side but want to be sure for winterizing
2.) Approx how much antifreeze does the block itself hold if pouring in from the intake manifold?

I would appreciate your help

there should be one on each side of the bottom of the block and 2 on each manifold . I always drain my block and then run the engine to circulate the antifreeze through everything I run 6 gallons through my smallblocks it's cheap enough I don't mind wasting a little

You can't really just drain and pour in anti freeze. What kind of drives are you running? I would recommend pulling the thermo stats and running the boat on a hose that is drawing from a bucket full of antifreeze. It will probably take 4.5 gallons, but buy the extra gallon - cheap insurance.

So if I pull the block drains,drain out all the water,I pour in antifreeze in through the big hose in the circ pump until I start to see if run out of the block drains,install the block drains and keep adding until it overflows out of the thermostat housing,this does not take care of the block for the winter?

Or just hook up antifreeze up to the water intake, run the boat till you get antifreeze out the exhaust and you are done..no need to drain anything...fog thru carb with ATF after you get anti thru...Rob

That will work fine if you have a closed cooling system. If you have a fresh water cooling system Antifreeze will come out the exhaust as soon as you start the boat. The thermostat needs to be open to get the fresh water out of the block.
Depending on where you boat, its a good idea to drain the block to get sand/dirt out of the block. Buy a gallon of antifreeze mix it 50/50 and pour it down the intake manifold.

Ok, this has been covered so many times. This is how I do it.
Flush the engine with fresh water and warm up the engine. Drain the water.
Get a hose and suck the RV antifreize out of a bucket into the engine until it comes out of the tips.

I pretty much do the same thing, but I can't stand guessing about the thermostat, so I just pull the thing. It only takes me 5 minutes to get them out, so it's not really that big of a deal, and it's less run time on the hose.

You can do it this way, but IMO you're not covering everything properly. I prefer running antifreeze through the drives, seawater pump, etc., you can rely on gravity to get it out if you'd like, but I prefer forcing antifreeze through everything.

Plus, it's more difficult to pump the antifreeze through the circ pump than it is to muff the drives with ears, or rig something so the seawater pump sucks the antifreeze for you.

Thanks for your response,but my question was for the engine only,would this be o.k. ?anyone else?

How is it lower than the "thermostat assembly" if it removed from the thermostat assembly and filled from there,I can remove the hose,pull up on it a little and pour a/f in the hose until it overflows out of the thermostat housing,is it broken?

Not arguing a thing,just making sure I did it right ,it is a project boat,with just the engine and exhaust sitting in the boat,no drive,raw water pump ect,again I was just asking if it would be o.k. with the method I described,sorry you took it that way.thanks for your help.

Thanks D-ski.

I do it pretty much like you do Brian except as said go ahead and close the block drains after it has drained. Then I completely remove the thermostat housing. Leaving the big hose connected to the water pump I then pour in the antifreeze, (into the big hose) until it fills the block and comes up to where the thermostat housing bolts on to the intake manifold. Been doing it like that for 22 years with out a problem.

If you live anywhere up north and just now thinking about this is to late......2cents

I pulled my motor this year before winterizing. Took manifolds off. Drained everything and filled the block through thermostat housing. Took about 3.5 gallons.