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Ballast Winterization up North


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I have a 2016 Wakesetter VLX.  Indmar 6.2L 420. Closed antifreeze system.  I believe I have the engine winterization figured out.  2 Drains, v drive drain.  Heater system is also in closed system, so it should have antifreeze already in it.  Im nit sure which lines are which, but I may have a buddy come over and show me.  Maybe blow those out.

The ballast tanks are empty but he recommends antifreeze for the pumps and lines.  It appears the drain and vent ports have some sort of valve preventing me from pouring antifreeze back into tank that way.  I think I can get to all the tanks and disconnect a hose and then pour antifreeze in that way, run drain pump a bit, etc.  I also see the "in" pumps.  Should I disassemble and suck water out?

any ways to do this that I am not thinking of.  The pumps are self priming and they do not seem to want to draw from a fake a lake type set up.

 

Thanks

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59 minutes ago, Punchie said:

The pumps are self priming and they do not seem to want to draw from a fake a lake type set up

They are not self priming but standard live well aerator pumps. To supply a fill pump, you would have to have the bucket up well above the level of the pump in order to feed the pump. 

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13 hours ago, MLA said:

They are not self priming but standard live well aerator pumps. To supply a fill pump, you would have to have the bucket up well above the level of the pump in order to feed the pump. 

Agreed, the water, while boat is in the water, is at the level of the pump.  Thats kind of my point, there is no good way to get the pumps to push antifreeze into the system.

 

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First year winterizing for me, what I did was drag the boat to the steepest hill I could find.  Ran the ballast drains til nothing else would come out.  Got back home and pulled the cartridges from the pumps.  My thinking was if the cartridges were pulled there is no way they can freeze IF there was anything left in the tanks.  Does this sound logical?

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So, stopped by the dealer and a tech described what they did.  I bought a drill pump from Home Depot and some 1/2 tubing.  I'm gonna pump in antifreeze via the VENT discharge for each tank.  Then I will pump out just a little thru the Tank drain, thus the lines, tank and tank pump all have a touch of antifreeze in them.  I had to put water into each tank t figure out which port was drain, which was vent and which was bilge.

On my VLX,  Rear vent port - driver side- middle port/ left side - forward port.............Forward ports, the 2nd and 4th ports are the vents

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9 hours ago, klingsdesigns said:

Do you have to do anything with the pumps that suck water into ballasts?

Some people take the little set screw off, unscrew the top of the pump  and pull out the impeller out that is in there.  When I pulled my rear two to give it a look, they were completely dry so I am not going to bother with those.  The tech at the Malibu dealership said they don't bother with those, just the tanks and the lines from tank to drain/vent.  It can't hurt tho.  It's kind of like adding anti freeze to heater, exhaust side of engine.  If you pull the drain plugs, all the water should be out, but why not add insurance by throwing in some antifreeze.  Same with heater.  Heater uses coolant from engine side so it should be protected, but moist still blow out the line just in case.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I don't know if this is the best procedure since this is my first year doing this, but what I did was the following:

 

1. Drain all ballast tanks to the extent you can with the drain pumps

2. Use Fake a Lake fed by an aquarium pump I had laying around (1000GPH) in a 5 gallon bucket of anti freeze

3. Run fill pumps a little while to suck up anti freeze

4. Run drain pumps a little to pump a little out (ensuring that both the fill and drain pumps have anti freeze in them)

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  • 4 weeks later...

on my VLX i found that i could screw a 3/4 npt fitting into the bottom of the thru hulls, only about a thread or two, but enough to run a old bilge pump in a bucket to pump some antifreeze thru the fill pump so that i could run antifreeze through the drain pumps...

 

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