Engine flush or drain?

davidbrooks

I wanted to get the experts opinions on how well the 5 point drains work on Mercruisers.  I have a 2003 350 MPI with the 5 point drains.  So i have always fully winterized by sucking up some antifreeze through the outdrives.  This year i am on a lift and really want to take a few trips out later hopefully in the snow.  How safe is it to just open up the drains and let all the water out vs going back through the process of pulling antifreeze through the system?  Any experience here or tips would be appreciated.  It wouldn't be such an ordeal but i have to pull a float around to get to the outdrives.  Not really something i want to do later when it gets bitter out.

Ian

in my  opinion flushing is the only way to be sure all water is out of the nooks and crannies. If pink stays in there you’re safe. 

Dream_Inn

Yeah, I'm on the lift and know exactly what you are talking about.  It sounds like your engines are raw water cooled?  Meaning, you do not have heat exchangers?  If that's the case, I wouldn't trust the pump getting all the water out.  If it was fresh water cooled, I may just use the pump. (although mine are fresh water cooled and I still run pink thru)  I've thought about taking the boat into Annapolis for their parade of lights in December and doing this, but I'm just too ocd about waxing and covering the boat when it needs to be a little warmer to do that.  I also don't like the idea of hanging on the raft in December.  Good luck!

davidbrooks

@Dream_Inn they are fresh water cooled.  I agree with you all that running the pink through is the gold standard.  I just thought i would see what the experts had to say about the wonderful 5 point drain system.  I broke off one of the plugs this summer and while wrestling with it to get it out i found my self asking why i never used it.  Amazing what runs through your head when you are hanging upside down in an engine room getting scratched up from all the sharp corners the mercruiser engineers designed into that engine.

Liberty44140

Are you able to put a bilge heater in? If you drained it with the plugs and had a bilge heater you should be ok. I mean a heater designed to be in a bilge, not a home space heater stuck down in the bilge. 

Also do you have thru Hull intakes? My 350s have water coming in both from the thru Hull and the drives. I run antifreeze through the drives but I could just pour it in the strainer if I wanted to. You could do that fast and easy to be covered if you have strainers. 

davidbrooks

@Liberty44140 no thru hull intakes.  Just standard through the outdrive.  I do have a bilge heater. It plugs into the outlet by the topside fridge.  I don't like the idea of relying on that as my primary though. All it would take would be a power outage or tripped breaker and i would be looking at an insurance claim.  I am starting to wonder if there is another way to run pink through the system than by using muffs on the outdrive.  

aero3113

@davidbrooks , check out this video. He has a lot of videos out that are a huge help.

https://youtu.be/_bxpqmT1S3c

GMSLITHO

always ran anti freeze through the drives then drained the block with all my  other boats alpha drives ,the first year with my 270 it has a bravo 3 sea core with the holes in the front of the drive so I winterized with the methoud in the video and had no problems just was a little leery if the anti freeze was getting in all the right places .The past 2 yearsI now just tape up the holes with duct tape and run it through the drives and drain 

Glassguy54

Just put up a pole building that you can store the boat in and install HVAC! No need to winterize at all. I'm being facectious, of course, but I did have the luxury of having my shop building where we kept our Captiva 246 in climate controlled conditions all year round. It was a trailer boat, so always in the building where I could putz around on it any time of year. Sweltering heat outside? 72 inside. Minus 30 outside? 62 inside. It was awesome and I was indeed lucky!

Glassguy54

@Alswagg, agree with you 100% on the storage condos, but this was my personal building and I was there running my business every day and I live 5 minutes away from the building, so if there were ever any issues with power or furnace, I could be there in minutes with generators and space heaters. 

davidbrooks

Really i started this thread just to get some opinions on the drain system.  I love the input so far and didn't want it to get off track.  So far it looks like what i have learned is that no one trusts the drains to fully get the water out. Even a little water left in will really mess your day up.  No one so far has come up with a system to quickly drain and or flush an engine with the quickest being demoed on the video https://youtu.be/_bxpqmT1S3c. I guess i was hoping there was a way to open the drains and essentially quickly blow out the water.   So far i haven't found any. 

davidbrooks

Thanks Al.  Is this the attachment that basically adds a garden hose connection to the transom?  I had that on my last boat.