Winterizing 2012 RZR Heater - Fake A Lake

[Johnnymac]

Made it to home DePot today to purchase everything to make a DIY Fake A Lake. Very simple to do. Built it to winterize & use to warm oil prior to completing an oil change.

I have reviewed the PCM manual (343) regarding winterize. Wanted to get your feedback if I should follow this process or running 5 Gallons of anti-freeze through it will be sufficient? (To clarify omiting manually taking off drain plugs on manifold, block exhaust and just relying on the 5 gallons to displace all water including in the heater.)

The boat has a heater, if just fake a lake with antifreeze is common... Do you turn the heater on high wile going through the process?

Storing in indoor heated storage so this is in case of power outage during a storm.

Let me know your thoughts from experience preferably.

I know everyone likes Pictures:

[chpthril]

Heres 2 things ive found through years of winterizing snd working on boats: 1) water freezes, air doesnt. If you drain the system thoroughly, theres no water to freeze. 2) marine/rv antifreeze is best served 100% strength. Running it through a block that's already full of water dilutes the antifreeze, reducing its protection level. 3) even it the engine is warm when the hose is swapped over to antifreeze, its cold enough to close the thermostat. This diverts the majority antifreeze to the exhaust manifolds and then out of the exhaust. Unless you have a lot of antifreeze, your bucket may run dry before the thermo warms up and opens. This could leave a lot of water and little antifreeze in the block itself.

I think one of the most efficient ways to induce antifreeze into the block is drain the block and then pull the thermostat housing and and thermostat and just pour the antifreeze in til the block is full. re-install the thermo with a new gasket.

Just my thoughts.

[IDBoating]

I think one of the most efficient ways to induce antifreeze into the block is drain the block and then pull the thermostat housing and and thermostat and just pour the antifreeze in til the block is full.

I believe this is exactly how PCM recommends it be done in their engine docs.

x2 on ChpThril's water vs. air comment. If you properly drain the water out, there's nothing left to freeze. Otherwise you just might not be certain the antifreeze got everywhere. It would be very unpleasant to learn that at the start of next season.

[Johnnymac]

Going to run on fake a lake for 10 min to allow stabilizer to work in then drain as per manual. Then fill lines with antifreze. Safer route.. & maybee an extra hour tomorrow vs the lazy purge!

Thx for your input!

[Johnnymac]

PCM winterizing method to drain water is simple,not worth skipping and hoping water to be displaced by antifreze via fake a lake...just follow the water flow diagram. Fake a lake worked great for running to work fuel stabilizer through. Now in heasted storage...see you in 5 Months RZR!

[shawndoggy]

As for the heater, how high you turn it has nothing to do with water circulation. It's basically a radiator. All turning the fan up or down will do is increase or decrease the speed of the air blowing across the radiator.

I generally agree with CHP about the draining issue, but with heater cores, depending how yours is mounted, it may not be reasonably possible to fully drain it. I disconnect both my heater hoses and then blow them out both directions with a tube pump. There's still always a little water in the core after that (you can hear it "bonging" when you blow through one hose), so then I fill one hose with pink antifreeze till I see it come out the other end and then blow out both ends again. That way even if there's some residual liquid, it's going to be predominantly antifreeze.

As for the block, exhaust manifolds, v-drive, tranny cooler, and raw water pump, meh, drain em and button it back up. If there's no water in there to freeze, there's no water to freeze.

[IDBoating]

PCM winterizing method to drain water is simple,not worth skipping and hoping water to be displaced by antifreze via fake a lake

Welllllll... I wouldn't say it's exactly simple. On my PCM EX343 there are seven drain plugs, plus the raw water pump and impeller, plus the transmission intercooler, plus the v-drive plug, plus the raw water strainer. Maybe it's simple in theory, but time-wise it takes me several hours to remove all the plugs, drain all the water, clean the holes, apply thread sealant, and reinstall the plugs. (The starboard block plug/knock sensor is especially unpleasant because it mechanically interferes with the transmission intercooler.)

That said, it's a labor of love and I do it myself willingly instead of paying some shop to do it because this way I know it is done, and done properly. If Fortes were closer I'd happily trust them to do it, but otherwise it's all me.

[boardman74]

This is the way i was taught and have always done it. Drain everything overnight, I even pull most of the hoses on the low end. Then put everything back in and fill with the pink fish friendly antifreeze. The marina where I used to keep my cruising boat pulled and drained everything, pulled the main hoses and left everything off/out. That was the way they winterized every boat(no antifreeze) and said they had never bought anyone a block due to freeze. This is in Minnesota where it's plenty cold for plenty long.