Fake a lake and a five gallon bucket...

[UNSTUCK]

Just wondering how to get antifreeze into the system, or even if I need to put antifreeze in.

If I fill a bucket with antifreeze and put a hose into it attached to my fake a lake will the water pump suck it into the engine or does the antifreeze need to be pressurized and pushed into the engine?

Do I need to do that? Can I drain all the ports, then maybe blow air through it all and call it good? I ran a fuel stabilizer/fogger last week while we were on the lake so I should be good there. I have no ballest system or shower installed.

I was going to put my travel cover on it with my storage cover on top of that. It will be stored under cover, but out in the cold, so no snow will get on it. I was thinking a box or two of baking soda inside it. Will that help keep it fresh?

I have a merc black scorpion 330 hp. Anyone know how many drain plugs I should be draining? Is there a write up for this motor?

Thanks!

[skippabcool]

Several put the antifreeze in it for extra protection. If you do you have to make sure to run the engine long enough to open the thermostat. My brother in Cache Valley, typically colder than SLC, and myself drain the water and leave the plugs out. So far we have been fine. You can try jacking your boat up higher than normal to try and move any water that might be in the system.

If you do run antifreeze remember in the spring to run it on the fak a lake again to empty the antifreeze out prior to heading to the lake.

The last several years I started to put bounce sheets in the lockers and different areas. Don't know if it does anything but another one of those peace of mind items.

[ChrisSnow]

I pull all the plugs and several hoses and suck them all dry with a wet vac. You can pull a suprising amount of water out. Main offender was the recirculation pump and the hose leading to the through hull.

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[IDBoating]

I pull all the plugs and several hoses and suck them all dry with a wet vac. You can pull a suprising amount of water out. Main offender was the recirculation pump and the hose leading to the through hull.

x2. I shop vac every drain port and all of the hoses that are accessible. I don't remove the exhaust water hoses, for example. There can be a lot of water still sitting in there, as you say. I then reverse the shop vac and blow the hoses through, which can again release a lot of spray. Technically as long as there's airspace the freezing won't matter, but better safe than sorry and residual water can cause corrosion too.

[99bison]

Fwiw, Getting the pump to prime with the bucket sometimes doesn't work well - so put the bucket up on platform, first get the garden hose running and start it up, the once its going swap source into your bucket instead of the faucet.

[mrmattaponi]

I did this today
I used an old cooler. Drilled a hole in it, attached a throughhull, attached a piece of hose with the hose adaptors from lawn and garden at lowes. I had all this in garage from previous projects. Amazon has it for $25.

Hook it to fake a lake and drop regular hose running just water into cooler. Put cooler on swim platform. I ran water through engine for about 5 minutes then i cut water off and watched the cooler lose water from engine drawing. Once it was super low about to suck air i started dumping antifreeze mixture in cooler. Did it for 5 minutes and used about $16 of antifreeze. Mixture started to change color out of my exhaust about 2 minutes later. Ran engine until antifreeze was gone. Left fake a lake and hose attached for winter just for kicks in case i get bored and want to run boat again.

After all this i crawled into side storage, removed engine panels to pull plugs. Manifold is so easy because i have a hand plug that i can back out. All antifreeze drained out, then the two engine plugs were almost as easy. My engine plugs had a wire attached with a screw holding it and once i backed that out with a 1/2 inch i had to back out the plug with a 3/4 inch. I Didnt need to drain or i didnt need to put antifreeze in. Next year ill just do one or the other. I then removed custom bags and put a funnel into hose going to pump and sucked some antfreeze through it by hitting drain switch....3 pumps. If i did it all again i could do it in 25 minutes. I have owned 8 ski boats and never had problems. Before this year i just ran antifreeze through thermostat housing and drained intake hose.

Fake a lake is great to have with cooler because now i know i can easily go out again on a warm day and quickly run another $16 through engine. Or just start boat up a few times over winter for 15 minutes or so. Thats why i just left it connected under boat.

[BCRider]

Personally I pull the raw water hose off right where it connects to the pump. I have a 4' piece of hose as shown below that goes straight in to a 5 gallon bucket filled with antifreeze and a few more jugs with the lids off ready to go. There is plenty of suction so no need to worry. I used to use a fake a lake under the boat before I got my Tige last year. with the main so easily accessible it's way easier doing it this way.

[UNSTUCK]

I really like the cooler idea. Wish I would have read it sooner. Tonight I removed a total of 4 blue plugs. 2 on each side of the engine. Then I removed a copper plug going into the block close to the starter. After that I removed the water pump so I could pull out the impeller to replace it. I was expecting to get more water than I did.
I ran out of light at that point. I don't have a vacuum to suck out water so I'll have to use compressed air try to blow out water. I need to blow out the heater core and the v drive cooler. I'll blow through all the plug holes as well.

Anything I'm missing?

[Thegerman618]

Just did mine a few weeks ago:

5 Gallon bucket full of marine RV/Antifreeze with 2 spare bottles ready to go.
1 spare ballast pump 800GPH
1 Fake-a-lake

(Before I started anything, Oil and Filter change, seafoam in the fuel and oil and stabil in the fuel)

Started the boat and ran to about 170 degrees indicated on the gauge.

Found a basic barbed end and NPT that fit my fake-a-lake so I could hook the ballast pump into the fake-a-lake. Put the ballast pump in the 5 gallon bucket, and had my girlfriend in the boat. I started the ballast pump and primed the system, then started the boat and watched to my surprise how quickly the antifreeze drained from the bucket. Took about 15 seconds/3 gallons worth till the water changed to antifreeze. I shut the boat off refilled the bucket, and did it again till it was straight RV Pink coming out. I quickly checked all the engine plugs and made sure they all had pink in them, and put the plugs back it but did not drain the block of antifreeze. My thought is, if there is any water left in the system it should be diluted enough with antifreeze that it wont freeze completely. Checked the oil levels, wrapped the engine in a blue tarp, moth balls and bounty dryer sheets in all the compartments and left them all cracked, hard wired the on-board battery charger to a Christmas light timer to come on every night at midnight and turn off around 0800.

[UNSTUCK]

So I finished up the engine last night. I took my blow gun and blew air through the system. I also found a third blue plug on the starbord side under the knock sensor and a rubber plug in the same spot on the port side of the block. When I put air to that one at the end I could feel air coming out of every open port. I blew through the intake tube of the water pump and pushed water back through the water pick up. Also removed one of the heater hoses and blew that system out.
I feel pretty confident that I got all/most of the water out. Good thing to as it was 37* this morning so I know we're getting close.

[alwayssummer]

So, quick question for the antifreeze folks. If I run engine to temp with the fake a lake feeding off the 5 gallon bucket and then when it's to temp change over to antifreeze until it's running out the exhaust then there is no need to pull any plugs right? I would think the whole system is full of antifreeze and thus, no need to worry about water. Do you still pull the impeller? I just want to make sure I do this right so here's the plan.
1. Put sta-bil 360 in fuel filter canister and tank. (I assume just a splash in the canister)
2. Run boat up to temp on fake a lake, once up to temp switch to antifreeze until it runs pink out of the exhaust.
3. Shut off engine change oil.
4. Pull impeller.....?
5. Pulls spark plugs. Fog cylinders.
Done?

[chpthril]

Marine/RV antifreeze is best when its in the engine @ 100%. To do this, its best to drain block of water, prior to introducing the AF.

Also, you need to complete the oil change and run the engine one last time prior to the AF. This circulates fresh clean oil through the engine before you are done.

[IDBoating]

So, quick question for the antifreeze folks. Do you still pull the impeller?

Pulling the impeller, and storing it away from the stress of being compressed in the pump's volute, is more about properly storing the impeller and less about getting water out. Though I always do seem to get water out of the raw water pump when I remove the impeller during storage.

[jslayde1]

Marine/RV antifreeze is best when its in the engine @ 100%. To do this, its best to drain block of water, prior to introducing the AF. .

This is how I do it as well - diluted antifreeze could cause some problems...

[alwayssummer]

Thanks guys. Also decided to ditch the fake a lake and tie the supply into the raw water intake on the V-drive. Seems way easier, and I've read a lot of bad reviews about the fake a lake being difficult to use