Winterizing question

[tsciberras]

2017 R23. Do I need to pull all the blue plugs to drain if I am hooking up a fake a lake anyways and running antifreeze through it?


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[freeheel4life]

It helps as the water will dilute the antifreeze. If undo the exhaust crossover hoses(or on other models pull the brass exhaust manifold plugs) and then kick the engine over for a second the impeller will push most the water out first. Then run on the pink stuff.

If you dont bother draining first I would plan on running 3-5 gallons thru. We use a refactometer to verify the freeze/burst point.

[Bamer]

Is the thermostat in the closed cooling section or in the raw water section?


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[freeheel4life]

Thermostat is on the block/closed cool side and just let's coolant into the exchanger when open. Coolant stays in the engine and runs thru the heater loop when tstat is closed. Raw water goes thru Vdrive on suction, then thru trans/oil coolers and exchanger on the pressure side of raw water pump and splits into the manifolds after the exchanger.

So if you push most the water out thru exhaust drain hose or pull the brass plugs and run it for a few seconds theres very little residual water in the loop when you run the antifreeze in.

[Bamer]

Cool. So no need to warm engine up for the thermostat to open to get antifreeze into rest of raw water sections......

Then is the only benefit of putting antifreeze in is for anti-corrosion? Seems slightly risky to leave any fluid in raw water sections, right? Is it best to just drain it?


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[freeheel4life]

Drain it and leave plugs out on Raptor is fine. We go with the antifreeze as insurance but EVERY boat gets the coolant coming out of the exhaust checked with a refractometer so we know its not diluted.