trayson
11-12-2013, 06:20 PM
So I finished up my winterization last night.
I started a few days ago, but it started raining so I had to stop abruptly. I had just finished adding oil after the oil change. So, last night I fired up the engine to circulate the oil. And watched oil starting to flow down the bilge from under the filter! UGH. I was dumbfounded and thought I had got the wrong filter. Turns out the filter was correct (Motorcraft FL-1A) but when the old filter came off, it left the gasket and the old gasket got crumpled in there when I spun on the new gasket. So once I got rid of the old gasket, I was back in business.
I had no trouble removing the drain plugs on either side of the block and the one on the front near the water pump. I took out the impeller and this is what I found:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-frH492RYFjY/UoKi0XDEW4I/AAAAAAAAPgM/QhQZQ7Kxz54/s800/20131111_181054.jpg
Was planning on a new impeller anyway, so no biggie there.
I couldn't get out the drain plugs at the back of the manifolds though. They look like this (not my picture).
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e260/TRBenj/exhaustmanifolddrains.jpg
I did blow out most all the water with my air compressor. Also removed one of the lines going to/from my heater craft box and blew out that water. And removed a hose from the tranny cooler and blew that water out. I removed the upper hose on the cooler because I wanted to see if there was anything clogging the cooler (nope, all good).
I'm hoping that blowing lots of air through the remaining holes will suffice and that now being able to get the plugs out of the manifolds won't cause me grief... We really don't have very hard winters here. Low 30's and maybe upper 20's is the worst is really gets. I threw a 100 watt shop light in the boat for good measure though.
First winter with the boat. hopefully all goes well.
I started a few days ago, but it started raining so I had to stop abruptly. I had just finished adding oil after the oil change. So, last night I fired up the engine to circulate the oil. And watched oil starting to flow down the bilge from under the filter! UGH. I was dumbfounded and thought I had got the wrong filter. Turns out the filter was correct (Motorcraft FL-1A) but when the old filter came off, it left the gasket and the old gasket got crumpled in there when I spun on the new gasket. So once I got rid of the old gasket, I was back in business.
I had no trouble removing the drain plugs on either side of the block and the one on the front near the water pump. I took out the impeller and this is what I found:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-frH492RYFjY/UoKi0XDEW4I/AAAAAAAAPgM/QhQZQ7Kxz54/s800/20131111_181054.jpg
Was planning on a new impeller anyway, so no biggie there.
I couldn't get out the drain plugs at the back of the manifolds though. They look like this (not my picture).
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e260/TRBenj/exhaustmanifolddrains.jpg
I did blow out most all the water with my air compressor. Also removed one of the lines going to/from my heater craft box and blew out that water. And removed a hose from the tranny cooler and blew that water out. I removed the upper hose on the cooler because I wanted to see if there was anything clogging the cooler (nope, all good).
I'm hoping that blowing lots of air through the remaining holes will suffice and that now being able to get the plugs out of the manifolds won't cause me grief... We really don't have very hard winters here. Low 30's and maybe upper 20's is the worst is really gets. I threw a 100 watt shop light in the boat for good measure though.
First winter with the boat. hopefully all goes well.