Winterizing the engine on Dun Wurkin (Tuggers Vol. 62)

By John Barker, Dun Wurkin #45

 

With winter passing and the need to winterize your engine passing along with it, I thought I would share how I winterized the engine on Dun Wurkin to possibly help my fellow Tuggers NEXT winter!  There is nothing like timeliness, and this is nothing like timeliness!

 

Tools.  The picture below shows some of the tools and materials I used.  

1. Bucket: The bucket is a special "no-drip" 4 gallon flat bottomed paint bucket from Lowes (it held 5 gallons).

2. Hose: The hose is a reinforced radiator hose from Auto Zone that I cut to a length of 13 inches.  The hose has an inside diameter of 1.5 inches.

3. Antifreeze:  I bought 5 gallons of pink RV antifreeze from Walmart and I used about 4.5 gallons.

4. A flat tipped screwdriver for taking off the impeller hose clamps and installing/uninstalling the Auto Zone radiator hose.

5. Funnel from Walmart to pour the left over antifreeze back into the bottle.

6. Two new SS hose clamps.

7. Towel or paper towels.

 

 

Here is a close-up of the label on the bucket.  The wide flat bottom was to reduce the chance of the bucket tipping over and making a mess. 

Step One:  Gather materials.

 

Step Two:  Place a towel or paper towels under the impeller housing.  Note: I chose to flush the engine with antifreeze through the impeller on the forward-port side of my engine because that was where I had the best access.

 

Step Three: Remove the upper end of the raw water intake hose leading into the impeller housing.  For me this meant using a flat tipped screwdriver and taking off the two hose clamps (I used this opportunity to replace my SS clamps).  I reused one of the old hose clamps to temporarily install the radiator hose.  

 

Step Four: Install the radiator hose using one of the old hose clamps.  This is a tight fit because there is not much room on my engine between the bottom of the impeller housing and the bottom of the bilge, so I shoved the bucket underneath the impeller housing and then installed the radiator hose.  The radiator hose pressed down into the bottom of the bucket and helped hold the bucket in place.  Here is a picture:

 

Step Five:  Fill the bucket with antifreeze.  I filled mine with 5 gallons.  Here is a picture:

Step Six:  Crank the engine and watch until the environmentally friendly pink antifreeze comes out the back of the boat with the exhaust, then turn off the engine.  Here is a picture showing the level of antifreeze remaining in the bucket when I turned off the engine (Note: the red gas can in this picture is not for gasoline.  It catches the periodic oil that comes from the engine turbocharger).

 

 

 

Step Seven: Take the radiator hose off of the impeller housing and remove the mostly-empty bucket from the engine room and clean-up.  Here is a picture of the antifreeze bottle showing how much antifreeze was left in the bucket when I turned the engine off:

 

You are done.