Winterize/oil change question

Tbub

2004 SN Limited. What are your thoughts? When I winterize I always have done it in my driveway but the engine never really gets up to temp while idling. We are going to pull the course this week and I will drain/change the oil at our site so it is good and toasty. Now, I won't winterize for another week or two hoping for one last ride in the large body of water (Sandusky Bay) if we get a warm day. Is it OK to run the boat for one last hour or so then complete the winterization process. Maybe a stupid question but just had to ask.

Cheers.
Tom

dvskier

I have the same boat. I see no problem with your plan but I’d add some Sta Bil fuel treatment Prior to your last voyage. If the temperature gets below high twenties I’d accelerate the winterization schedule.

A_B

They say starting the motor up with new oil can cause some contamination of the new oil. I wouldn't think it would be that big of a deal. It is only sitting for a few months, and it will be cold, which slows molecules down.

I pull antifreeze through right when we take the boat out for the last time. Then drain the oil over night while it is still warm. Very hard to get up to temp in the driveway.

Ski_Dad

Yes it’s fine. I did that last fall. There is always a 1/2 quart of old oil in there anyway.

Tbub

Thanks to all.

BraceMaker

As a cheat if you ever get stuck with a cold engine needing to change oil - https://www.amazon.com/Kats-1160-300-Watt-Handi-Heat-Magnetic/dp/B000I8YOR4

Having one of these around is a godsend. You can toss these onto practically anything magnetic. Including your metal work bench.

oldjeep

Mine is never warm when I drain the oil. Winterization happens when one day I say - guess that is it. I just pull the oil drain line out the hull drain and let it drain into a bucket for a day or so. Boat is always in the attached garage.

MDB1056

+1 for the Kats heaters @BraceMaker noted. The magnetics are great. I use one on my oil pan all winter - plug it in if it's going to get cold - warms the oil and heat rises in the engine and under the box. I'm in the south (Arkansas) so boat doesn't get fully winterized as gets run 12 mos. But again the Kats are great . Mine is 20 yrs old and still works great.

BraceMaker

Exactly. Even outside of the boat they come in handy. A few winters back I needed to go into my frigid shed and fire up the air compressor. wumph wumph circuit breaker tripped.

Tossed it onto the compressor and 10 minutes later able to blow up my tractor tires and plow out my driveway.

Want to get the boat ready for use a few weeks early? Plug it in on cold nights and you're golden.

BlueSki

@A_B i have heard that about oil too, but we let that oil sit in the boat for the full ski season so it can’t be that bad. I still try to do my last oil change right after the final set of the year.

jackski

a lot of car guys will tell you that it's better to have new oil sitting on your bearings for the winter than old contaminated oil. Food for thought

Jmoski

Are you running it again to pull AF through the system?

On my 2006 SN I just drain the water out and manually pour a gallon of AF into the block via the hose that goes to the starboard exhaust manifold and then pour AF into the heater lines and push it through via compressed air until I see it out the return side.

teamsharkey

We use a vat of antifreeze to winterize our boats. We disconnect the hose coming from the thru-hull fitting where it attaches to the raw pump or the transmission cooler and attach our hose ( same type of hose that is on the boat). Drain the water out of the block, manifolds, heater, shower, etc. and replace the plugs. Put stabilizer in the fuel tank. Put the hose you attached to the boat into your antifreeze vat. You need about 8 feet of hose. We have adapters for different size exhaust thru-hull fittings, Example: If your exhaust is a 3" stainless then use 3" exhaust hose connected to 3"pvc fittings and elbows to allow the antifreeze from your exhaust to go into your vat. If you have 4" exhaust then use 4" materials. Remove the flapper and attach the hose (hoses) with the hose clamp. Use whatever hose and pvc is necessary to go from your exhaust fittings to your vat. Start the engine and let it warm up. It will come to temperature soon so keep an eye on the temperature gauge. When the engine up to temperature shut if off and change your oil. Change your transmission fluid at the same time. Restart your engine. Fog the engine at this time if you need to. Stop the engine and check you fluid levels. Remove the battery cables and charge the battery to make sure it is at full charge. Combat corrosion by spraying all the electrical fittings with WD 40 of an equivalent. Check your antifreeze vat with a tester to make sure is good to at least 40 below. We have about 15 gallons of antifreeze in our vat. When we are finished we drain the block, manifolds heater, shower, etc. into a pan under the drain hole in the boat and put it back in 5 gal jugs for use next year. If you do not want to us antifreeze in your vat, then you can use water via the same method and you boat will come up to temperature because you are recycling the water, Again watch the temp gauge so it does not overheat. Then after you change your oil you can pour antifreeze into your engine. This method also will tell you if your raw pump impeller is in good shape or not. This method makes sure that antifreeze is everywhere in the system that previously had water because the thermostat will be open. It will also go through your heater and you shower and anything else that had water from the lake. Hope this will help you.
Team Sharkey

oldjeep

I just drain it all - remove block drains, j hose, output hose from raw water pump, manifold crossover and remove the heater hoses and manually blow them out. This ensures all of the water is out of the system. Then fill the upper heater hose until I can hear it run into the circ pump. I then pour antifreeze in through the hose that goes from the thermostat to the circulation pump. Use about 2 gallons to do this. At no time do I start the engine.

LeonL

@jackski that would be my thoughts too. If you're worried about contamination with old oil, what are you protecting, the pan?

jackski

If the old oil sits in the bearings much of it drains off during extended periods of time. The residue often stay on the bearing surface. Next start up it shortens the life of the bearing somewhat.
Also, if you leave the old oil in full, "acid" (it's not real acid) that is formed goes to the top. So you can get some slight etching into the metal at that contact point. I suspect that in antique cars they are talking about a longer than 1 winter storage time but am not sure. Of course if there is water from condensation in the oil yeah you can rust out the pan.

oldjeep

Guess that is it. Supposed to get 2-4" of snow today. The oil is draining out into the home depot bucket and I'll deal with the filter/refill, replace impeller and draining all the water tomorrow.

BrennanKMN

All this seems like a lot of debate for something that has a 0.000001% chance of causing enough damage to be an issue over the 3000-4000 hour service life of a typical inboard engine. These things are work truck engines, not F-1 engines.

Change the oil when it's convenient.

oldjeep

@BrennanKMN - but what else are you supposed to do when ski season is over?

BrennanKMN

@oldjeep Change from 1 ski to 2

oldjeep

Might be a month or 2 before that is possible

robmollysilverlake

@oldjeep I did drain the water and put my boat in the garage, but hoping I'll get it on the water one more time before I add the antifreeze for the winter! Supposed to get up to 46 in Battle Lake on Nov 7th with abundant sunshine, but it's hard to depend on the extended forecast in MN

oldjeep

My driver kind of loses interest in the high 50's But in general once it starts snowing we are done. Unfortunately it looks like the motorcycles might be done for the season too unless the temp comes up and the moisture is off the roads. I don't care about the cold, but if there is any chance of ice - I'm out.

oldjeep

Turned out to be 7 inches of snow

adkh2oskier

@oldjeep Time to break out the Cross country skiis anyway

oldjeep

@adkh2oskier - that sounds like a lot of work. I'm a downhill racer