Winterize a motor with alpha drive

[alk]

I should know the answer to this, but never had an alpha ( with the pump in the drive) - all my various boats were inboards, or bravo drive - so to winterize I just put the intake hose into a bucket, pulled the thermostat for rwc motors, and then ran it.

I have friend with an alpha drive who is going to need some help winterizing, and I’m not sure how it’s done. Do I need one of those tanks, and muffs to go over the drive? I have seen a few YouTube’s where they don’t even run the motor with antifreeze, and instead remove the drain plugs and dump af into the hoses coming off the water pump. Is that proper way?

 

[BillK]

Here is what I did with my old SeaRay (Mercruiser 4.3/Alpha I).
1. Change oil / gearlube if not doing it in spring.
2. Fog engine - mine was carbureted, so just stall it out with fogging spray.
3. Pull the blue plugs from block, manifolds - may be another one around waterpump or coolfuel if it has one. Also, if your PS cooler does not drain, you may want to pull a hose from it and drain.
4. Pull the big hose from the thermostat housing - the one that connects to the circulating water pump.
5. Pour antifreeze into that hose until it runs out through exhaust.
At this point, you've drained all the water out of the engine and filled the engine block and manifolds with antifreeze. No removing the thermostat or guessing if it was open when you ran in the antifreeze. If you want to use the suck in while running method, just put muffs on the outdrive and draw the antifreeze in there. The water pump on an Alpha being in the drive "pushes" cooling water up into the engine vs "pulling" like on an inboard or other engine mounted water pump.

This is just the way I've always done, not the only way.

 

[sugilbert]

After attaching water hose cuff to Alpha drive and turning hose on at ½ flow, I started the engine and with 2 cans of fogging oil, sprayed into carb's throat until it choked out.
After draining all the water from my 4.3L carb's engines (5 blue plugs) I pulled, one by one, the 4 hoses on the thermostat housing, and, with funnel, poured ½ gal of diluted AF in each.

 

[boatbum]

I used a large deep pan with a bilge pump and a battery. It was a 1987 with twin 260 mercs and alphas. Pull the props. Drain as much water from the blocks etc. as possible, then hook up the muff, fill the pan with AF and start the pump. Then start the engine. A shower curtain between the transome and trailer rollers helps keep the AF flowing into the pan as there are exhaust ports that are located just off the transome IIRC. It all doesn't go out the hub.
Once it all looks good, let it cool down and check the protection level with the AF gauge.

 

[alk]

thanks everyone, I guess we got it done. Not the smoothest operation, but ran a short hose down to the muffs, with a large funnel at the top - and poured antifreeze in while the motor was running. Then we took the two drain plugs out of the engine block, and were surprised when barely a drop came out. After poking around with a coat hanger and some wire, eventually some water, followed by pink, came pouring out.

Five months till spring.

 

[Bob Ware]

My winterize routine was to always take extra coffee if we were heading out early.

 

[boatbum]

thanks everyone, I guess we got it done. Not the smoothest operation, but ran a short hose down to the muffs, with a large funnel at the top - and poured antifreeze in while the motor was running. Then we took the two drain plugs out of the engine block, and were surprised when barely a drop came out. After poking around with a coat hanger and some wire, eventually some water, followed by pink, came pouring out.

Five months till spring.

Mine were raw water cooled so i ran them until I saw a good solid color of AF come out before I shut them down.

 

[LouC]

If the engine is raw water cooled the most important thing is to drain it first, before sucking AF up the outdrive. Reason being, if it's still full of raw water when you start sucking in the AF, unless the engine gets hot enough for the thermostat to open, the block won't get much AF if any at all, it will all go out the exhaust. Experience shows that the thermostat usually will not open much, if at all on a cool fall day running on the water hose, the engine does not build any heat with no load on it. The thermostat is basically a gate valve, it will only open when the water in the engine gets hot enough to cause it to open but in cool weather with no load, it is risky to do it that way unless you drain the engine first.

Since we have to run on E-10 gas from most marinas, I will get an outboard tank with a few gallons of E0 94 octane Sunoco racing fuel, and use that to winterize the engine. It stores better than E10 gas does although some have no problems with E10.

First you change the oil and filter, and if it's a carbed engine, fog the engine through the carb.

What I have done is drain the engine and manifolds, disconnect that big hose on the front circulating pump at the bottom, and poke those holes in the block drains especially, they can clog pretty easily. Once it is all drained, I replace the drain plugs.

Then reconnect the bottom of that big hose and disconnect the top. Then I manually fill the engine with AF till it spurts out the neck of the thermostat housing. Then reconnect the top end of that hose to the neck. Engine is now full of AF.
Next I disconnect the feed hoses to the manifolds and fill them with AF till it runs out the exhaust. Reconnect those hoses to the 'stat housing. Then I disconnect the raw water intake hose at the 'stat housing, point it down so it drains, then hold it up and fill with AF till it runs out the outdrive water intakes (outdrive lowered). This will push raw water out of the hose, and the P/S cooler in line with the hose, and will also fill the impeller housing on either an Alpha or Cobra outdrive.
Then reconnect that hose. I coat all the hose nipples with marine grease, that way the hoses don't rust onto the thermostat housing.
I find this way easier than the suck it up the outdrive method and uses less antifreeze.
After that I spray the oil pan, block, intake manifold etc with Fluid Film/Corrosion X/Boeshield whatever I have around.

 

[boatbum]

The boat was a 1987 270 SeaRay Sundancer. If it had 4 inches between the manifolds it was alot. Everything had to be done hanging upside down.