5.7 boat engine help

[kpc01]

Yeah, the closed systems aren't very common until you get up into the higher end boats...typically those that float in salt water. It is more crap to deal with, but also much easier to winterize one that's closed with coolant on the engine side.

What you are dealing with is such a common issue too....there are a ton of people that either don't know that they need to winterize or just instead take the chance b/c they are in dry storage or something. Either way, it's not all that hard...instead of trying to entirely drain it, I used to just drain my manifolds and then pull the upper hose and add a gallon of coolant...then turn it over a little just until I saw that it was coming out the outdrive.

thats what I'll be doing on this one. Now that I've got it all out I surely know where the plugs are so won't be too bad to drain. hoping to get the long block back next week and get it running again!

[shumpertdavid]

I pop the manifold and block drains, and the last couple of years I've been adding the pink RV coolant to mine. I've always winterized mine before storage but heard tons of horror stories of people that haven't. At the very least a small heater or chicken lamp in the engine compartment to help protect from freeze, but whose to say the power wouldn't go out or the bulb go bad. Cheap easy insurance in my book. I remember as early as 7 or 8 going down with my dad to winterize the trojan cabin cruiser in the slip. Pop the plugs, take a pick or pocket screwdriver to break the rust if it doesn't flow well and all is good. I just drained mine Monday night.