Winterizing 500HP???
 

I just did a search on here, and found many many posts.

No now I'm a bit more confused than before.

Have been winterizing my 454 Magnum for many years, fog it, drain all the water (lower line removed) two block drains, front circulation line removed. Headers drained.

Remove the thermostat housing, pour antinfreeze, and start closing and connecting once I see anti freeze come out.

I have seen some people hook up the muffs to the motor and just run it till antifree spits out.

Hard for me to do that, I'm on the lake, so doing the above the water is hard, and I think enviromentally a big no-no. (I could put bucks below each exhaust tip and have the antifreeze go in that way??)

Would appreciate some words of wisdom!

Thanks

This is all you need to do. 5 minutes.

you are correct with the draining. Once drained, you can put the block plugs back in. You don't need to pull the Stat housing. Just pull the lines off it. The big line going to the water pump, fill with antifreeze. should take a bout 2 gallons.(this fills the block) then each line to the exhaust. should take about 1/2 gallon each. Then the line to the oil cooler. should take 1/2 gallon. done. You should NOT be using car antifreeze. use RV antifreeze. I use -100, so that if it mixes wih any remaining water its still going to protect you. If you use the -50 stuff and there is any water in the block the -50 mixes with, it becomes almost useless.

The problem with doing it this way is that you'd better hope the thermostat is open - and that all of the passages have reached the required minimum mixture of anti-freeze and water. Keep draining it just as you have. It's far safer.

Any input on winterizing a closed loop cooled 454EFI?
Like "2slow" I have gotten a million opinions.

I am in Ontario, Canada, winters get DAMN cold "up here" i have been putting about 1/2 a can of 2 stroke oil in the water sep. until I get smoke out the exhaust (running on muffs) I pull the hoses off the risers and splash anti freeze in them, same with raw water pump. Then check coolant in heat exchanger and make sure its good for -40.

I change the oil in the engine and outdrive since sitting all winter with "dirty oil" isnt good, and thats it

Thankfully, I havent had any problems, so, I was either lucky or did it correct, lol!!

Any thoughts?

Michael

I think you'll find three basic theories on the raw water side. (The closed loop side is a no brainer.) On the raw water side though, you can either drain it, or anti freeze it. Or if you want to go overboard, you can drain, then anti freeze it. The trick to using anti freeze is making sure you have the proper concentration. The only way I know of to do that is to drain everything, then refill at the correct concentration.

BTW: I'd agree that what you're doing right now is pretty safe.

I must be paranoid!:drink:

i pull all the hoses and drain plugs to drain all the water out of block, exhaust, coolers, ETC. then put all that stuff back in.Then I fill everything up with anti freeze till it pours put where it supposed to, then drain everything all over again and leave all the drain plugs out all winter so if by some freak chance there was a pocket of diluted AF that it can drain out when i tow the boat to the storage facility. probly overkill, but for the extra 15 minutes it takes to re-drain everything i know i'm not gonna have cracked motor parts!

just use -100 and you can skip the 2nd step.

If on a lift, go buy 2 - 10 foot lengths of plastic corrugated drain pipes from Lowes or Home Depot. Tape these in place over your exhaust pipes and you can catch the antifreeze in buckets or a drum.

Pull the engine and put it in a heated garage. This allows you to thoroughly clean the engine, change the oil, check hoses for wear, etc.