antifreeze with fake a lake

[Edwards85]

First time putting antifreeze in engine. I drained engined then hooked up fake a lake to 5gl bucket with rv antifreeze. Can't get get engine to suck the antifreeze in?

[Heffs08rz2]

probably because engine has to be up to temp for the thermostat to open but i may be dead wrong sense that is how a normal engine works.

[chpthril]

Although the raw water impeller pump is somewhat self-priming, it will not draw from a bucket that below the level of the pump. You need to either have the bucket up high and use gravity or pump the antifreeze into the F-a-L.

[ericinmich]

Either the bucket is too low and the impeller can't pull it up that far or there is a slight leak in the F-A-L where it seals to the hull of the boat.

On my motor (PCM) the water intake hose comes up from the bottom of the boat to a sea strainer mounted just forward of the engine. I'm thinking next year why not just pull that hose off the strainer and hook a short hose on it to a bucket of antifreeze. That would seem to be a very easy way to pump the pink stuff through the engine.

[Edwards85]

thank you, I put bucket above pump and let gravity help and put 6 gal through in no time.

[Vicseek]

I have been thinking about doing this method for a couple years now however I assume you'd definately have to get the engine warmed up (160F for my thermostat) in order for the antifreeze to get into the block.
Did you by chance pull one of the knock sensors from the block to make sure the antifreeze made it all the way around?

[robert theisen]

I drain both knock sensors as well as exhaust manifolds and crossover. I also remove Transmission cooler line.Then i angle the boat down to the bow. I remove one of the heater hoses and fill through it.Also pour a little antifreeze in the exhaust crossover.Remove the fresh water strainer and clean the screen.Before i take the boat out one last time to warm it up i add Blue Marine Stabilizer to the tank and make sure it has plenty of time to mix and run through the fuel filters and injectors.

[chpthril]

I have been thinking about doing this method for a couple years now however I assume you'd definately have to get the engine warmed up (160F for my thermostat) in order for the antifreeze to get into the block.
Did you by chance pull one of the knock sensors from the block to make sure the antifreeze made it all the way around?

Marine/RV antifreeze is best when used at 100% full strength. So step 1 is to drain the block of all water. Once the engine is restarted, the antifreeze will fill the block.

[racerdave]

So guys.... is this what our summer has came to????? I feel like such a quitter! I say lets go surfing!

[Timmy!]

When I used to do this, I put the bucket on the swim platform and had a hole in the bottom of the bucket with a piece of hose that was long enough to reach the water intake/fake-a-lake.

[Ruger761]

I ended up getting a plastic 5 gallon water container and threading a $30 800gph bilge pump into it. Then set it up on the rear locker. Works well for the little bit of extra freeze protection. Makes you feel good when pink runs out of all the plugs and hoses when you remove them. Probably way over kill but worth the few minutes and few $ it takes to do it. Just have to get it up to operating temps first on regular water hose.

[Heffs08rz2]

Ruger your a smart man I got an extra pump laying around I'll have to do it this way.

[chpthril]

I ended up getting a plastic 5 gallon water container and threading a $30 800gph bilge pump into it. Then set it up on the rear locker. Works well for the little bit of extra freeze protection. Makes you feel good when pink runs out of all the plugs and hoses when you remove them. Probably way over kill but worth the few minutes and few $ it takes to do it. Just have to get it up to operating temps first on regular water hose.

So you then drain all the antifreeze? Do you drain the water first?

[Ruger761]

I have done both; drained the water and left it in. If you drain the water first you still get about the same about of antifreeze in the block as you would if your block is up to 160F due to t-stat. The t-stat tends to close if you drain the hot water off of it and try to add cold aniti freeze. But either way, I always drain everything after antifreeze. Every plug/hose I remove pours straight pink out except for the block which is normally about half and half if you dont drain water first. So you basically pour 5 gallons on the ground time its said and done (yes I know I over kill it) but its a nice piece of mind if you forgot anything or the boat was at an angle and it didnt fully drain out the water. Plus you will have 100% antifreeze on your raw water pump which seems to help the life of the rubber (I still change every 2 years) and you dont have to mess with Vdrive plugs (friends are rusted up) because it gets 100% anitfreeze in it since its inbetween the intake and raw water pump.

[Timmy!]

That thermostat closes the second it's not at 160 degrees anymore. If you drain the water, that t-stat is closed.