Marinette Boat Forum

One thing I see (and this is observation and not from electrical know how...) each of my starting locations are fused.

Bill

My old Trojan had the older log style exhaust manifolds, and had drain plugs under the riser elbows.
The exhaust manifolds are the center dump style on my M, which I am winterizing for the first time. Are there drain plugs, or do you just remove the aft hoses to drain?

Thanks barkleydave for the step by step, I haven't owned a boat with an inboard before and it's been 10 years since I've fooled with an I/0 even so your instructions will be printed for my winterizing. Do you guys also pump antifreeze through the fresh water system or just blow it out and open up the T in the lines down in the bilge?

For the water system, if you have a water heater, make sure it is shut off, drain it down, pull hose off it and bypass the water heater. Run all the water out of the tank, disconnect inlet hose to water pump, hook up a hose to water pump and run rv anti freeze through all faucets and toilets (if they don't use raw water). Run pump until you have a solid stream of rv coming out of faucets. Shut off pump and open all faucets, done

The reason to bypass the water heater is the quantity of Pink Stuff you would need to fill it--many gallons. In addition, the hot water coming out in the spring will stink and foam if there was Pink Stuff in there.

Jeff

I just drain & blow out waterlines with the dingy pump. Haven't had a problem for 7 years.

Roger

bcassedy

Good point. I was thinking I would be tapping in (on the terminal strip) after the fuse, but I need to check, and adjust accordingly.

Use ONLY ignition protected marine approved switches blow deck! I am not aware of any that are approved for marine use in engine spaces.



safe moorings,

dave

Post by barkleydave » Mon Oct 26, 2015 7:04 pm
Use ONLY ignition protected marine approved switches blow deck! I am not aware of any that are approved for marine use in engine spaces.

I guess then, for safety, and insurance purposes, a plug in arrangement that isn't mounted in engine spaces, but still accessible while working in them, is the way to go.

Was over to the boat yesterday, and pulled drain plugs from engine blocks, but there are none on the manifolds. There is a plug where the heater hose dumps into the manifold, and a plug on the other end of the manifold. It looks like it is designed to allow heater hose connection from either end of the manifold, and plugging up the unused end. There are no plugs other than this for draining. I can try to get a picture and post it if that would help, but not sure that's necessary. The heater hose connects on the aft end of the manifolds, and is the low spot by virtue of engine attitude (although it is like the low spot on one leg of the letter "M"). Other than removing the heater hose, there are no drain plugs on the exhaust manifold. I had planned on disconnecting the hoses from the manifolds, and connecting them to a "Y" jig I made to redirect the water flow back into the strainer bowl, thus recirculating the water, but since I have drained the blocks, there really isn't much to recirculate. So I will just dump it into the bilge where I can observe it, and the block holes for antifreeze discharge. I don't see any reason to pull the thermostats, other than to inspect them. Also, since I don't need to recirculate, and warm the water (to open the thermostats) it looks like I can draw in antifreeze, and fog the engines without ever actually starting them (i.e. cranking the starter with the ignition off). This means I can do this w/o my remote starter arrangement, by jumping the starter relay (similar to hot wiring). Obviously this isn't an approved "ignition-protected" switching arrangement, which means it's going to arc, so I will have to insure everything is well ventilated (for those who want to know, that's why you pay extra for "marine ignition protected switches"' that don't arc, and ignite gasses).

Since a remote start/run box is still something I want in may tool kit, I will follow up, and refine my initial design, and post it here if anyone is interested. For now I'm not sure how much current the starter relay needs to operate (i.e. the starter switch circuit), or what the ign circuit needs, so I am not sure what gauge wire I can get away with. I probably will use 14 awg, and fuse things at 10 or 15 amps, but finding suitable quick connect plugs for the number of 14 awg connections has been difficult. If 18 awg turns out to be sufficient, there are lots of options like trailer wiring connectors.

Back to the winterizing. Does anyone see anything wrong with my proposed engine treatment?