OUTBOARD WINTERIZATION

Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned boater, it’s easy to make mistakes or forget things when prepping your marine engine for the cold snaps of winter ahead. Let’s take a look at some common and not-so-common pitfalls of winterization.

1. When draining the water in an inboard or sterndrive engine’s cooling passages, what might someone not familiar with the process miss?

A. On an older engine, the block and exhaust manifolds both have drain petcocks. A wire or pipe cleaner should be pushed through the open drain to ensure no debris or rust flakes can block the drain and keep water inside that will freeze, expand and crack the block or manifold.

B. You should pump pink “RV” antifreeze through the engine to prevent freezing, and watch so you can see it run out of all the open drains. C. Tilting the drive down ensures that all water from the block, manifolds and drive runs out and will be sufficient. D. If you have to store the drive tilted up, run the water out first, then tape over the propeller hub.

E. A, B and D

F. All of the above

2. What is the best route to take with your boat’s fuel supply before putting the rig up for winter?

A. Do nothing.

B. Treat the fuel with fuel conditioner. C. Run all the fuel out of the engine by disconnecting the fuel line and running the engine until it stalls. D. Treat the fuel with stabilizer and run the engine for at least 15 minutes to ensure the treated fuel gets into the engine thoroughly. Disconnect the fuel line and run the engine dry.

3. What helps keep injectors and combustion chambers clean, plus cleans piston tops and valves of hard carbon deposits? A. Run the engine with a mix of Marvel

Mystery Oil and transmission fluid. B. Run the engine on Dawn dish soap. C. Do nothing.

D. Inject Engine Tuner, Power Tune, Sea Foam or equivalent according to the directions on the label.

4. While draining the gear case (lower unit) to refill it with fresh lube, you notice that the lube that drains out is coffee-colored and milky. What now? A. Nothing, it needs no maintenance. B. Drain it and leave it empty for winter. C. A milky appearance means water intrusion through one or more of the seals. Have the gear case resealed. D. Clean and wax it, remove the propeller, and grease the prop shaft.

E. A or B

F. C and D

5. Just before the first snow flies, you peek under the hem of your boat’s shrink-wrap and see mold inside. What went wrong?

A. You didn’t heat the shrink-wrap

enough.

B. You didn’t hem the wrap tight.

C. You didn’t allow the boat to dry

before wrapping it.

D. You neglected to vent the

shrink-wrap.

E. C and/or D

F. None of the above

6. You put your boat away in October, but the weather’s been unseasonably warm, and you decide to take it for a ride in December. When trying to start, the boat will crank but won’t fire. It ran fine before you put it away. What might you check first?

A. Is the battery charged? Low voltage could provide enough juice to turn the engine over, but not enough to crank it fast enough for the ignition to provide spark to the plugs.

B. Ensure that the ignition is providing spark. (Hint: Is the ECOS lanyard attached to the switch?)

C. Check to see if fuel delivery is the problem. If you didn’t condition the fuel properly, this is the highest probable cause.

D. All of the above