Rusty Exhaust Water?

[Okie Boarder]

I summerized the boat Monday and when I ran the boat on the hose, the exhaust water was a little tinged. It left some rust stains on the driveway and some of the gutter in the street. Has anyone seen this before? This year was the first year I did not drain water from the block and only sucked up antifreeze out of a bucket through the raw water intake until it was coming out solid from the exhaust.

[docdrs]

I hope nothing cracked. No antifreeze will enter the block until the thermostat opens. All the antifreeze will bypass the engine and out the exhaust. You have to have an external recirculating system to do this properly or have drained your block prior to this. If your block or intake manifold isn't cracked your lucky. .02

[Salty87]

having seen the junk that can accumulate in manifolds/risers i wouldn't sweat it yet. you checked the oil?

[wotan2525]

I hope nothing cracked. No antifreeze will enter the block until the thermostat opens. All the antifreeze will bypass the engine and out the exhaust. You have to have an external recirculating system to do this properly or have drained your block prior to this. If your block or intake manifold isn't cracked your lucky. .02

Or.... do what I do and just remove the thermostat when you winterize. ;)

[csuggs]

Like Salty said, I wouldn't sweat it unless you see water in your oil or signs of a cracked block. If you ever take the riser off the manifold you will see all the rust. I think I get a little rusty colored water out the exhaust when I fire mine up at the beginning of the season. But I run mine so often throughout the summer that it stays clean after that. I'd bet if I let it sit longer between running it would stain the water again.

[villain]

working at a boat dealer, rusty water for people who just drained the blocks is really common. if you cracked your block you probably wont know untill you run it on the lake for a little bit if it is a chevy. if its a ford, they usually pop out a freeze plug. i see 5 cracked chevy blocks to every pushed out plug on the fords. thicker castings. also why they take longer to warm up and run richer.

[cadunkle]

What type of antifreeze did you use? RV antifreeze has less rust and corrosion protection and even a small amount of water in it will drastically raise the freeze point. If you sued the pink -50 stuff you need to get all the water out first. What I do is drain the block, manifolds, heater core, and any low hoses (intake before pump) then run 5 gallons of pink -50 through it and drain again. If you don't want to drain the block I would run straight green automotive antifreeze through a hot engine, as it can mix with water and still protect. I choose not to do this because I don't want that type of antifreeze all over the yard.

You'll know if it's cracked when you run it on the water and put some load on the engine. Check the oil often your first trip or two on the water, often it will not get water in oil until a bit of run time under load.

[haugy]

No worries man. It just means you had an air pocket in there somewhere and will all that moisture still in the boat that area got a lot of surface rust. Happens to boats all the time.

As long as you don't see any cracks, have any leaks, and the oil isn't milky I wouldn't sweat it. But do make sure you have a new impeller. With all that moisture, and if rust built up in the housing, it can booger up an impeller pretty good.

I thought you sold your boat? Or did I lose my mind?

[Okie Boarder]

IIRC, the engine was warm before we sucked up the antifreeze, but not for sure on that. Also, not for sure the thermostat would have been open. I do use the pink RV stuff and the boat is stored in an inside storage uninsulated metal building. Obviously in OK we don't get too cold, but we can get down in the teens or single digits at night once in a while. I'll check the oil to be sure and might go out on a test run with some oil checks before we go out as a family. I did run it for about 20 minutes in the driveway and never saw anything abnormal. Next year, I'll either go back to draining the block or do the process with the thermostat removed, just to be safe.

haugy,

We are using this season to evaluate whether we want to sell. I did talk about selling it in a thread over the winter, but if it does happen, it won't be until after this season. Both boys have been asking when we're going to start going to the lake, so maybe their excitement level has come back. That will be our determining factor as to whether we decide to keep it or sell it.

[villain]

im willing to put money on your boat being fine as far as freeze damage. just keep an eye on the oil to make sure. the blue (-100 straight) is what we use to winterize with at the shop. we run the boats on blue untill the antifreeze coming out the exhaust is -15 or better.

[jzelt]

I run it on the hose to get hot, drain everything and then run antifreeze thru at 75% (figuring remaining water will dilute to the 50%).

[Okie Boarder]

villain, can you explain in a little more detail what you mean about it coming out the exhaust and the -15 or better? Do you wait for it just to start coming out of the exhaust? What does -15 or better mean?

[docdrs]

It means they reuse the antifreeze on an on going basis and test it coming out the exhaust on i/o , o/b, and i/b as they winterize.All good shops do this , maybe even lower depending on latitude, as a diy you should alway drain your block first unless you have the equipment to test the quality of the antifreeze. Or you can replace your block or intake due to neglect

[Okie Boarder]

I see. Well, I checked the oil yesterday when I stopped by storage and it looks normal...golden and clean. I'll keep an eye on it when I take it out the first couple times, but I'd bet I'm OK. I'll plan for a different method this winter...either I'll go back to the drain and fill method, or I'll remove the t-stat.

[Okie Boarder]

Forgot to update this. Took the boat out last Friday for the first one water run. Everything seemed fine and the engine ran very well. I checked the oil a couple times and it was nothing but nice, clean oil...golden brown. It seems like we're OK.

[docdrs]

Good to know all is ok

[DAFF]

Glad for the happy ending to the story. Mostly due to your latitude, in the north the results would of been much more expensive.

[TitanTn]

Forgot to update this. Took the boat out last Friday for the first one water run. Everything seemed fine and the engine ran very well. I checked the oil a couple times and it was nothing but nice, clean oil...golden brown. It seems like we're OK.

This is good to hear, but also glad that the boys are still showing interest. You need to stick with us!

[Okie Boarder]

We went out Saturday and my youngest had a blast. He is getting so much better on the wake board and even starting to jump the wake a bit. Our oldest wanted to spend the night at a friend's house Friday night so he didn't go. Seems like the interest is still there to some extent.