I have never had to winterize my boat because I keep it in a heated shop. This winter I have to take it somewhere to get some upholstry work done so I need to winterize it. I have an older Cigarette with water pickups on the hull. I can rig a pump to pump antifreeze through the engines but what else do I need to do besides pump anifreeze through the engines?

If you have thru-hull water pickups it is very easy. Most likely you have sea strainers? If you do, just take a 5 gallon jug with a hose and gravity feed it into the strainer. Close the sea-cock so that the antifreeze doesn't drain out the bottom.

If you dont have a sea strainer, pull the hose off the pickup, and stick the hose from your 5 Gallon Antifreeze jug into it, and gravity feed it again.

Oh, by the way, it may sound like common sence, but start the engine and with your gravity feed pail, it will get sucked thru the system. No need for any pumps.

don't forget to put pink stuff in the head and water system if you have one, cracked chit tanks are almost worse than cracked blocks

Make sure you run the motor a while, so it comes up to operating temp. Then drain the block, and manifolds. There are two drain plugs on the block on either side down low.

Is your motor carbureated? If it is, you need to run fogging oil thru the motor. When you are running the motor to get the antifreeze thru it, as soon as you see anti freeze comming out the exhaust ""pour slowly"" (the spray stuff takes forever!) about 1/4 quart of fogging oil down the carb. You may have to keep your had on the throttle to keep the motor running. Don't pour too fast, you'll stall it, or better yet cause some good internal motor dammage. Once the motor starts smoking, give the throttle a couple blips, and then shut the motor down. You're done!!

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