Winterization care

[jlittle]

Can't believe they are calling for snow showers tonight in the Metro Detroit area! It's only October 1st for crying out loud!

On to my question.......Anyone else up here in the north have to store thier boat outside? Do you take any special care for your lower unit that has Bob's cone installed by Bob's? Do I need to worry about the epoxy cracking or anything like that?

Any other outside storing tips from the Northern guys?

[halveb]

I never let mine sit outside in the cold. Remove lower unit and put it under your pillow. Actually I just store mine in the garage which is semi heated (never gets below 40 degrees). If you got a basement just put it down there.

In addition, I would at a minimum fog your cylinders. Pop all the plugs and spray fogging oil into each cylinder and then rotate the flywheel to disperse.

Drain or run gasoline out of your fuel rail/carb and if possible empty your gas tank too.

I store mine indoors but it isn't heated and there are all sorts of critters that like to hibernate so I put moth balls all over inside the hull.

During the winter when you are bored you can install a new water pump on the lower unit in your basement and change the gear lube. Also a good time to sand and paint the lower unit if it took some abuse during the season.

[WATERWINGS]

I have had problems with water pressure guages freezing and speedometers freezing when left outside in the winter.

When you take the cover off of the boat in the spring, the guages are sitting on 30 MPH or 10 PSI

[NEECAPR]

Lots of places in the whole motor where water can pool and potentially make a localized crack every time it freezes. I tip mine all the way up then all the way down a dozen times and the water dripping diminishes, but, doesn't ever seem to stop.

[halveb]

I always run compressed air through my big block then fill with RV antifreeze. Maybe running some compressed air through the 2.5 EFI would be a good idea too. Wish I had a heated storage facility like Balzy's Garagamahol.

[KaptainKirk]

to the gauges and unhook the other ends also....then take a can of compressed air like the ones you use to clean yo puter....spray in the lines from the dash back...leave unhooked for winter, rehook up in spring....never have a problem again!!

For the mota...back up to big cattle trough full of rv antifreeze lower mota in while on trailer...start mota up run it....rv stuff spits out into trough pull trailer away....nothing but pink stuff in mota now.....I know I know.....just wanted ta tell how we doem at the marina....of course we fog it right there and then also.

[WATERWINGS]

Antifreeze in the motor,

Could you use the earmuffs, or the nose cone flusher, and hook a hose to it with a funnel on the hose, and keep the funnel full of anti freeze while the motor runs, until the motor is full?