If you have lived in Texas long enough, you know it could be 40 degrees one day or even hour and back in the 90's the next.  I am thinking on winterizing the boat soon but am afraid after I do it, there will be some nice warm weather to take the boat out and I do not want to miss out on the opportunity should that happen.  However, there may be some freezing nights come November.  When are you winterizing your boat?  What's the risk of waiting for consistently cold weather? 

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Steve and Amy
2008 Crownline 252 EX
Irving, TX

Steve, it's pretty easy to keep the engine both safe from short cold snaps and also ready to run when the opportunity presents itsself. First, drain all the water you can out via the blue drain plugs. Second, attach a "winterizing" tank with some rv style antifreeze in it and suck in a couple of gallons. Doing this prevents any freezing or damage to the impeller housing and the low spots in the cooling system, and doesn't cost you much if you get the chance to take her back out.

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"Toy Story"

Y2K 266BR
454 Mag B-3

Steve - where do U store Ur boar? If inside in the Dallas area, I would think a couple of trouble lites with 75 - 100  watt bulbs (in the bilge area) would suffice on the rare cold nites, if U have electricity........that's what we do here in AR.....our store unit has insulation....outdoor storeage different deal!

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Larry Schaefer
07 200 LS 5L VP Garnet w/Razor
"PLAYSTATION"
Prestige BTV

Steve Teddy:

If you have lived in Texas long enough, you know it could be 40 degrees one day or even hour and back in the 90's the next.  I am thinking on winterizing the boat soon but am afraid after I do it, there will be some nice warm weather to take the boat out and I do not want to miss out on the opportunity should that happen.  However, there may be some freezing nights come November.  When are you winterizing your boat?  What's the risk of waiting for consistently cold weather? 

 I know what you mean! I just want to know an easy way to get anti-freeze into the block. I was thinking about rigging up a 5 gallon bucket, some hose and ear muffs  to gravity feed and turn on the boat for a few seconds until I see anti-freeze coming out the exhaust pipe.

I used to just winterize around Oct 1 and then regret it. Plus I  would have the dealer do the whole winterize/wrap thing. Now with the kids older, don't want to do that. At 11 & 8 years old they like to be out a lot more than just a couple of years ago.

I don't want to winterize until December. But I am wondering if I should run a lighter weight oil as the cooler water will make the engine tougher to warm up - - - and I don't want high oil pressure from molasses . .

How do you guys get anti-freeze into your block?

BTW,

Check this out:

 http://www.cityrating.com/cityweather.asp?city=San+Antonio

Look for your city:

http://www.cityrating.com/weatherhistory.asp

 

 

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Limited Edition 230BR 8.2Liter/502CI (GSI Volo Penta) DP-S

LAKATION

Project(s) Completed:
2000 Watt Stereo Systerm
Swimplatforms.com

Coming Soon:
Wakeboard Tower and Speaker Setup
Custom Graphics

Robert, no need to change oil grades for cooler weather. Unless you took out the t-stat, the engine will warm up to operating temp the same as in the summer, and the oil won't ever know how cold the lake water is.

How you described protecting the block in the first paragraph is how a lot of folks do it. Myself, I drain the block first, then suck in the pink stuff...keeps the dilution to a minimum

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"Toy Story"

Y2K 266BR
454 Mag B-3

Tony Turnlund:

Robert, no need to change oil grades for cooler weather. Unless you took out the t-stat, the engine will warm up to operating temp the same as in the summer, and the oil won't ever know how cold the lake water is.

How you described protecting the block in the first paragraph is how a lot of folks do it. Myself, I drain the block first, then suck in the pink stuff...keeps the dilution to a minimum

Tony:

Thanks! It just seems to take forever for the engine to warm up in cooler water . .  what weight oil do yo run in your 496? I have the 502 . . pretty much the same engine.

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Limited Edition 230BR 8.2Liter/502CI (GSI Volo Penta) DP-S

LAKATION

Project(s) Completed:
2000 Watt Stereo Systerm
Swimplatforms.com

Coming Soon:
Wakeboard Tower and Speaker Setup
Custom Graphics

http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/ame.aspx

This is all I've used since we got her. After our first season's 108 hour uoa came back, I've got nothing but confidence in it...

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"Toy Story"

Y2K 266BR
454 Mag B-3