Winterization

I purchased a beautiful 2001 Sport Nautique last year and had the local marina winterize it for me. What a disaster! No one cares for your boat like you do. I want to winterize myself at the end of the season, I have always winterized my own jet skis and boats, but this is my first inboard. What is the best source of information for winterizing that will ensure that I do it right? Any feed back is very much appreciated. Thanks

No need to pour antifreeze...it won't hurt anything ...some folks do it. but it's(imo) overkill....if water is drained from block,pump, hoses, manifolds etc...you are fine! You should have drain plugs on the water pump,manifolds,strainer and maybe a few other spots..look around...each boat is different.

Add stablizer to the fuel.

I use anti-freeze in the block. Not so much for the freeze protection but for corrosion protection. The water passage in the block tend to scale up when left dry.

Using antifreeze keeps the moisture of the air and the oxygen off of the metal. Bare metal and moisture with oxygen = rust. Antifreeze will make it last longer and not rust inside as much.

Thanks everyone for your input. I feel more comfortable already. Sounds like something i can handle with enough confidence to do it right. I will look for my manual this weekend. Forecast here is sunny and 96 degrees this weekend! Enjoy. Thanks again.

93SNautique wrote: Last time i had my boat in for service, the dealer loosened the raw water strainer and turned it upside down. Now it "sticks up" instead of "hangs down". The result is that it self drains when on a trailor or lift.

I have been thinking about this all weekend. I am going to do this on my boat. My main reasoning is that taking off the bowl is a PITA really, especially when it's cold and wet. Maybe I'm putting it on too tight but it is really hard to get off by hand. I bought some adhesive backed traction tape to put on, but I think I'll be returning it.

There are other benefits to being upside down as well.

-The o-ring stays wet, prolongs life.

-A poorly sealed o-ring (missing, dry rotted, pinched) will not suck air and overheat your engine as easily. Since it is upside down, gravity will keep whatever water you are able to get against the o-ring and seal they system from sucking air. You will get water leaking out obviously, which makes a bad strainer seal obvious.
-Example, this would have diagnosed the Orange Crush overheat instantly.

-Already mentioned self draining for winterization

-Easier access for removal.

The only drawback I can come up with is possible flow impedence if you are indeed sucking up a lot of garbage. Mixed up sand would make it though to your RWP instead of sinking in the bowl. I've never found more than 1 tiny leave in the strainer bowl anyway, and I beach the boat often (usually kill the power and coast in, push back out). I suppose the "safety" factor is more important to PCM/dealers and which is why the mount it the way they do, but if you don't have much need for the strainer, but want to keep it, flipping it upside down would make maintenance much easier IMO.

It is my goal to reroute the cooling system hull pickup -> RWP feed so I only have to pull the RWP feed hose and be drained all the way back to the hull pickup.