Any help appreciated, when flushing motor with antifreeze for winterization ... Which is better : pumping thru lower unit or garden hose flush port.

Seem to loose all antifreeze out of the lower unit water pickup when pumping into garden hose flush port on side of boat

You might be loosing antifreeze because your thermastat is closed. Have to warm her up on the garden hose or in the lake first to get the stat open, then drain block and exhaust

Get a helper to turn on the AF and then start the motor right away. My sea strainer does the same thing. When you turn on the hose, the water pours out the drive until you start the motor. So, if you time it right, you shouldn't loose much AF.

Did you tape off the front water pickups? YOu need to do that, otherwise the AF will go right out the front.

Am I missing something here? Closed cooling on the 496 H.O. protecting the block now. Why bother?
If your worried the air pump discharge is not driang all the water from say the heat exchanger or sea water pump, pull a couple hoses and be done with it.

The air pump system does not drain all the water from the sea water side of the system. Don't believe me? Go run your air pump system, and then pull the cooler drain plug out of the aft port side of the motor. Someone else just posted the same info about the heat exhanger when he pulled his end caps off.

this is the way i do mine for the last 10 years:i put a T with a valve that i can screw a short garden hose with a funnel, on the hose that come from the sea pump to the cooling system,i use the air pump till all the water stop leaking.i close the air valve,i remove 1 cap on the heat exchanger,i pour pink stuf on the funnel until it come from the heat exchanger,put back the cap on the heat exchanger,pour a little bit more pink stuf,close the valve,remove the garden hose and the funnel from the valve that all.i live in canada and it is very cold,never got a problem.

There really should be some type of valve to turn that allows the AF (or fresh water if flushing)to only go into the cooling system and not back out the drive.

Huh?????? Its a closed cooled engine. He only needs to get the AF through the exhaust and heat exchanger.