Obviously here in the Midwest one has to winterize, and I always get ribbed by my friends who live where you DON'T have to do this. Making a poll.

Si senior

Do you ask them what the preventative maintenance is during hurricane or drought season?

I’m in VA so I get to winterize, hunker down for hurricanes and deal with Nor’Easters.

honestly though - winterizing takes less than 10 minutes and costs about 40 bucks. No reason not to - sleep better and get corrosion protection.

the day I take my boat out i winterize, change oil and filters and drive lube. Couple hours and I’m ready to go the next summer. Change plugs every year over winter and wait on doing water pumps every spring so they don’t sit and get warped all winter. Fuel filters in spring also….

What is happening in this pic? How are you getting the anti freeze into the engine? Years ago when I stored my boat outside I pulled anti freeze through the drive to winterize. I used a funnel with a hose to the ear muffs and poured about 3 gallons of anti freeze in. I believe that I was lucky for several years because I performed the same ritual every year but one year I cracked the block. After that experience I took it in to have it done. I now store my boat in the basement so no problems with freezing. I still drain the blocks change the oil and filter fog them out. Change the drive oil and also fill the block with pink stuff by removing one of the plugs in the intake manifold.

I have a sump pump I bought from Harbor Freight. It has afloat switch on it (which you see hanging over the side).

hose runs down to the fresh water flush.

son lifts up the float switch, once it starts coming out the drive (usually a second or two) I fire the motors up. Normally runs about 7-10 seconds before the motors are filled and it’s coming out the exhaust/dumps. Kill motors and pat myself on the back……

(sounds like you might not have a fresh water flush, which is not much more than a T into the intake line before my sea strainers)

PS, that pink anti freeze always shows up in Walmart starting in October or so for 2-3 bucks a gallon. I normally buy 12-15 gallons. I’m fresh water cooled though so I could probably get away with 7 or 8 gallons….

Thanks for the reply. I did buy my pink stuff from Walmart funny enough in October. You are correct that I don't have a fresh water flush system. Never saw the need because I run only in fresh water. So in winterizing, you still run through the sea pump and thermostat or do you have a by-pass installed? I was thinking that the "colder" anti freeze I was running through the drive shut the thermostat and the anti freeze I was sending in just went out the exhaust and the engine was left full of mostly water.

Yes!!! A forum poll! No winterizing here but still in the cold…. Gotta love an ole 2 stroke

im fortunate because I’m closed cooling now on my tiger, but on my prior boat which was raw water cooled, I used the same process. If I was in your shoes I’d probably pull the stat because I think you’re right - your stats aren’t opening and you probably have mostly water in the blocks…..

In my Cafe Racer I never ran stats - I went the bypass route, largely because without a stat I knew I was always getting a good flush. I still got oil temp just never really had any water temp to speak of…..

fresh water flush is nice though if you’re wanting to run on the hose - no need to worry about muffs…..

just to say it out loud, I’m a Bravo boat so no impeller in the Outdrive

I winterize in Maryland. After doing the antifreeze method and losing a set of heads to cracks I asked a guy in Alaska what do they do. His reply, air dont freeze. Today I drain the exhaust manifolds and blocks and pull the big hose off the water pump. All done. 20+ years never an issue.

Funny. Used to do that, pull every plug and hose and prop them so they were hanging down. Blow air through intercooler etc. Then lost a heat exchanger. Now I run antifreeze through. Lol