winterizing your cigeratte
 

for all you do it yourselfers, how do you go about winterizing your babies. I'm sick of paying someone to come and do it. most of the time I'm not happy with the job they do.

I put mine on the trailer, hook up to the truck and tow it 1500 miles to a warmer climate just so I dont have to worry about winterizing my boat the wrong way.

Then seeing that the boat is not winterized. I force myself to go down and use it 4-5 times in the winter.

sounds good but i like to work on it in the winter. i dont know how you can be so far away from it. it would kill me.

what power package do you have ?Mec. omc. difrent pacages take diffrent proceduers.allways stabilize your fuel.i change the moter oil and drive oil.fog the engine .drain all the water passages and don't forget to drain the water pump.pull the bilge plug 'jack up the front of the boat. make sure leaves and stuff can not get in the bilge .covering the boat is good but make sure it has ventalation ,other wise it will milldew. cover the prop. i have seen some lower gear cases split out because the weep holes became pluged with leaves and froze . and do you have closed cooling genraley ashop should charge about 200 per moter. not bad insurance and they find problems that can be repaired over the off season .find a good shop . are read the service manuel..any way good luck

I have a system that works great for me

1, add fuel stabilizer

2, grease gimbal bearing fitting and swivel pins

3, start and warm up engine

4, change oil

5, drain water from manifolds and both block plugs. Intercooler too if you have one

6, I have a 5 gal bucket with a hose fitting in the bottom, and a hose to the water intake, or ear muffs for the drive, run it to suck the antifreeze into the motor.

7, while running, spray fogging oil into the carbs until the antifreeze is gone.

8, drain manifolds to prevent possible riser gasket leakage problems.

I`ve been doing it this way for 25 yrs, never a problem in the spring

and I`ve always used the pink -50 antifreeze

...just would like to stress the part about draining manifolds after winterizing especially if you have stock center rise Merc exhaust. It`s real common for the riser gaskets to weep over the winter and drain into the center cylinders. causing lots of other problems like stuck exhaust valves :eek:

to answer your question about the power i have, they are 572 merlins. i have never used the fog, i going to give it a try i think this year. thanks guys