Winterize?

rasbury · January 29

I don't think we have experienced the 23 degree weather we will see this weekend in ov 15 years. I don't know how long it will sit at those temps. I'm fresh water vooled so nothing in the motor...water system worries me a bit. Do I have concerns?

PickleRick · January 29

It should be ok but my OCD says winterize everything.

Grahamu · January 29

If your boat is out of the water I would seriously consider draining and winterizing any system with water in it.

Cableguy Greg · January 29

Drain the block for sure. Drain the fresh water tank and at minimum, blow air through the water system lines.

Dream_Inn · January 30

Just pull your drain plug…😆sorry I had to go there. I would say as others, drain the water out

grouch0jr · January 30

I have FWC 5.7s. I winterized them by running 4 gallons of the pink stuff through each engines. With the seacocks closed and the strainers open, i started the engines (only 1 at a time) and had someone else pour the antifreeze into the strainers.

Lake_Bum · January 30

Hang a shop light, old skool bulb in the bilge. The temps wont last in Florida

aero3113 · January 30

@grouch0jr
I use 4 gallons per engine also. But I have fresh water cooled and use the kit hooked up to the outdrive intake to suck it in. I then drain it all out of the block. I’m always worried it will freeze solid one day. I did a test once ( it’s on the forum somewhere), put the different antifreezes outside in a cup and waited for them to freeze.

rasbury · January 30

I was thinking about that...bringing it home and getting some heat in there. The boat came out of Pensacola and I'd be hard pressed to bet the PO ever winterized it. I'm coolant in the block. I'm probably most concerned with the water system. New pump on there- if I pull the filter/bowl I assume that will drain the pump. The water tank is full- nasty tank is about half full. I have a drain valve on the heater inlet and a drain for the tank. What about the engine heat exchanger? I wonder how much water stays in the system?
If you ever wanted to start a landscape business in Florida, Wednesday next week would be a good day to do it- we will have landscapes gone over a lot of the state an iguana lizards falling out of trees in south Florida!

PickleRick · January 30

But is there raw water in the heat exchanger/lines to the pickup in the foot as well as the strainers?

I run 6 gallons of pink through mine and call it good. A little easier in my setup as I only pull from the thru hull.
Like other said, run the water tank until empty, bypass the water heater and let it drain fully the. Blow the hot/cold lines until no water is left.

I always run pink through after I blow the lines out, then blow the pink out as well. I remove the screens to the galley sink as I think it causes corrosion if it sits for months over winter

If you have access to power, a shop light in the bilge and small heater in the cabin would be sufficient so long as you don't lose power.

Catch those iguana and bring them north to sell at flea markets lol

rasbury · January 30

I'll have my home genset ready to go in case. My house will not heat at 25 degrees- like most of the 80's and older homes. I'm concerned about power and may pick up an electric heater just in case if there is one to be bad.
We had this 15 years ago- lots of stuff built in 15 years so we will see what the power company can do.

rasbury · January 31

Have two drop lights in the bilge and I turned the water heater on...

TonyG13 · February 1

rasbury said:

Have two drop lights in the bilge and I turned the water heater on...

Hopefully they're old fashioned incandescents and not fluorescents or LEDs! (Though some LEDs do give off a decent amount of heat.)

rasbury · February 1

TonyG13 said:

rasbury said:

Have two drop lights in the bilge and I turned the water heater on...

Hopefully they're old fashioned incandescents and not fluorescents or LEDs! (Though some LEDs do give off a decent amount of heat.)

I had a heck of a time finding lights...lowes had some but they were 200 and 300 watt lights- I bought one on the 200 but then scared to use it. I went to a dollar store thinking I would find dome there- thought I did but then at home found they were led. I had two 20w bulbs so I dropped those in there. Our low is 28 this am on the thermometer...we were below freezing around midnight...will be above it by around 11 am...but back to 28 tomorrow morning...so that's a long time of at or below freezing. My home as far as my heating ability was better than I thought. Way better than cooling in the summertime. I need new windows and insulation in the ceiling...maybe it will kill the mold in my bilge!

J3ff · February 1

Key largo this morning

PickleRick · February 1

That's a little cold for key largo.

rasbury · February 1

I still have ice hanging off my car-

Dream_Inn · February 1

I’m ready to get above freezing. We’ve had 15 days in a row with highs below freezing. Tomorrow is supposed to be high of 35 and Tuesday a balmy 39. Then back below again. Less than 5 weeks and the boat should be out! ( at least the last few years it’s been first weekend of March)

Ian · February 2

Normal here to be below freezing for 2-3 weeks

J3ff · February 2

Dream_Inn said:

I’m ready to get above freezing. We’ve had 15 days in a row with highs below freezing. Tomorrow is supposed to be high of 35 and Tuesday a balmy 39. Then back below again. Less than 5 weeks and the boat should be out! ( at least the last few years it’s been first weekend of March)

tempature in my office right now = 59F... I guess the heat doesnt work at work

LaRea · February 2

We got underway from Fort Myers this morning at 5:15 (needed a high tide to get out). It was 34*. The frost on the deck made it interesting! Just cleared our first lock of the day and the temperature has skyrocketed to 35*.

rasbury · February 2

Its still 33 here in the orlando area...we see 70 on Wednesday but I guess another cold front is coming through. We sure had it easy up until now...I'll have to check our 14 day forecast- while some winters we have some cold snaps we are seeing extended cold we are not used to normally- 16 years since we have seen this cold...which kills the brush so we will probably be on fire by July.

rasbury · February 2

LaRea said:

We got underway from Fort Myers this morning at 5:15 (needed a high tide to get out). It was 34*. The frost on the deck made it interesting! Just cleared our first lock of the day and the temperature has skyrocketed to 35*.

What locks are you going through around there? You should visit cayo costa while in the area...upper captiva is pretty cool to. We stayed there on a little house right at the point of the inlet- we stayed a week 2 different times on the few (or use to be) houses there on cayo costa- those were for sure the best vacations for really relaxing i ever had. Cayo costa, at least 20 years ago, had no power or infrastructure of any type- houses ran on solar. Love that area.

We also spent a week at the Dunedin marina which is close to caledisa island- which had pretty incredible docks there- don't recall if they had power/overnight docking- it's very shallow getting in there.

The intracoastal is very deceiving on depths. One year we were in the channel at low tide and we had sand visable on either side of us with birds on either side of us! Often passing is a bit of a clincher even in my bowrider.

PickleRick · February 2

Who's collecting frozen iguana?

LaRea · February 2

We did visit Cayo Costa ... anchored on the east side for a couple days and took the dinghy over to walk around at the park. Nice area!

rasbury · February 2

LaRea said:

We did visit Cayo Costa ... anchored on the east side for a couple days and took the dinghy over to walk around at the park. Nice area!

Yes it is! It sounds like you were on the northern end where the state park is...we were more about the middle and the house was on the west side. Bocca Grande was really nice too.

rasbury · February 2

PickleRick said:

Who's collecting frozen iguana?

Did that makes on your news? They were hauling them out by the bucket loads...

PickleRick · February 2

Didn't make the news but I figured it had to be happening all over due to low temps.

rasbury · February 2

They had big bens of them, loading up trucks, crazy! Florida's are encouraged to kill them on site. They can get pretty big and become a nuisance for sure.

raybo3 · February 2

@PickleRick the frozen Iguana made the news in Boston. The story that covered it show about 50 of them. It was kinda funny........

J3ff · February 2

raybo3 said:

@PickleRick the frozen Iguana made the news in Boston. The story that covered it show about 50 of them. It was kinda funny........

seeing these stories all over the place, 1000's of them all caught.. and then you have the Karens on facebook saying "just warm them up they are not dead!"

Even pictures of them in peoples cars and homes.. it's astounding how many of these people are such low IQ..

I wish they'd vidoe when it wakes up.

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