Hello all,

I just put my boat in winter storage locally, and wonder if I've missed
something during my winterization process.

My boat has a 2005 Volvo Penta 4.3GL (actually manufactured in September
of 2004, but at least the dealer claims its a 2005 on my 2005 Larson boat).

I drained the water from the engine per the instructions in the owners
manual for raw water cooled engines (I removed the drain plugs at the rear
of the exhaust manifolds and the sides of the engine block and disconnected
the hoses at the impeller housing and circulation pump).

Now that I've dropped my boat off for winter storage (naturally...), I
notice that also in the owners manual under the procedure for draining
closed cooling systems, there is an extra step for the 4.3GL where a drain
plug on the intake manifold needs to be removed as well.

I think I'm reasonably safe since my boat does not have a closed cooling
system, and the intake manifold drain is not mentioned under the procedure
for raw water cooling systems, but conversely I'm sure this manual was
originally written in Swedish and translated to English. I'd like to know
that my engine isn't sitting there rusting away right now (or worse, if
somehow their heating system fails over the winter, freezing and cracking an
engine).

Am I ok here, or do I need to worry that there is left over water sitting
in my engine?

Thanks for any help on this one,

Scott

Where is the boat being stored? Sounds like it's indoors? My 1999 Merc
5.7 has a similar setup. One drain on each manifold, two on the block,
and one on the circ. pump hose at the low point. Has the engine been
winterized? Draining the water will prevent freezing damage to the
block but just leaving it empty is inviting corrosion in the coolant
passages.

When I winterize (gets pretty damn cold here in CT) I'll run the engine
on the hose until it's up to temp (175F) and the thermostat opens -
then shut it off and pull all the drain plugs. After it's drained the
plugs go back in and I restart the engine while my wife pours marine/RV
antifreeze into a funnel going to the earmuff on the drive leg. It
takes over two gallons to fill the entire engine, and once the exhaust
starts spewing red liquid I fog the carburator with preservative until
the engine quits and I'm done. Last step is have the boat shrink
wrapped as it sits outside all winter.

Being a RWC engine I doubt there's enough residual water left in your
engine after pulling the drains to do any damage if it froze, but for
$10 in antifreeze why take the chance? And then there's the corrosion
issue.