Freezing temperatures

[Michigan boarder]

Well that escalated quickly.

I knew it was going to get cold, but figured I would drain the water on Thursday before the cold temps over the weekend.  I haven't seen an updated forecast in several days, spending all my time remodeling a house, getting little sleep, etc.

My boat is stored in a 35x20 pole barn at work, no insulation.  Yesterday it was 44 and sunny, no wind.  Here's how my morning went today:

• 07:00 - 28 degrees in my driveway.  I have a 41 mile commute via highways
• 07:20 - 20 degrees read on the car (I am halfway to work at this point, a little worried), temps read as low as 20 and high as 28 on my route
• 07:40 - 26 degrees read on the car, sun is coming up, arriving at work
• 07:45 - I grab an infrared temp scanner and head to the pole barn
• 07:46 - 17 degrees scanned on the hand rail outside the office
• 07:46 - 17 degrees scanned on a truck that's been here since 05:45
• 07:46 - 32 degrees scanned on the pavement
• 07:47 - 13 degrees scanned on the grass
• 07:47 - 18 degrees scanned on the outside of the barn siding
• 07:47 - 33 degrees scanned on the concrete floor of the barn
• 07:48 - 26 degrees scanned on the hull of the boat.  I notice I had left the engine cover up.
• 07:48 - 26 degrees scanned on the engine block
• 07:49 - open the port manifold petcock, water pours out.  Water comes out of the starboard one too.  No slush or obstructions.
• 07:50 - open the block drains, water comes out, no slush or obstructions.
• 07:51 - wrestle the j hose off, water comes out.
• 07:52 - I reach down to the transmission cooler hose to disconnect and find that the water that has been draining and splashing around is crystalizing on the hull.
• 07:53 - water out of the transmission cooler

That's about as close as you can get to wrecking an engine.

 

 

 

 

[minnmarker]

Just in time!  I drain the last boat when the forecast hits the low 40s or high 30s.  This has been a cold early Nov. in the Midwest.

You're braver than me.  If you love late boating so much recommend you get a bilge heater for peace of mind and comfort.  That must have been cold on the hands.

[ibelonginprison]

I'm wearing a short sleeved shirt today..... **shrug**

[oldjeep]

1 minute ago, ibelonginprison said:

I'm wearing a short sleeved shirt today..... **shrug**

Me too, but it is about 25 degrees outside

[Michigan boarder]

34 minutes ago, minnmarker said:

Just in time!  I drain the last boat when the forecast hits the low 40s or high 30s.  This has been a cold early Nov. in the Midwest.

You're braver than me.  If you love late boating so much recommend you get a bilge heater for peace of mind and comfort.  That must have been cold on the hands.

Actually it felt great to have water hitting my hands, a sign that it was not frozen! 

The boat has been parked since Sept 14th, "just too much going on".  Which is really stupid, it took me all of 5 minutes to drain it.  At lunch I'm going to reassemble and pour antifreeze in thru the J hose.

[Michigan boarder]

Wow....about 80 yards away is another business and I can see water shooting up the side of their building behind some bushes.  I'm guessing they froze a pipe!

[robbennett]

It's common for me to just pull the plugs every time I take the boat out of the water when we start seeing lows in the lower 30's. I don't trust the weather man enough to leave them in and it's too easy to just do it while I'm there than to have to drive up to the lake in a panic. 

On a side note there's no winterization in sight here in Georgia! 

[bbattiste247]

5 hours ago, ibelonginprison said:

I'm wearing a short sleeved shirt today..... **shrug**

We'll be on the lake this Friday, and my son probably won't even wear a wet suit.

[Pra4sno]

@chief  Good catch for sure!  Was just going to bring up pouring some room temp antifreeze through the block to make sure there wasn't any obstruction anywhere else but looks like you're doing that.  

[gobble]

I wonder how many days at that temperature it would really take to wreck the engine? Doesn't the block insulate the water from freezing somewhat?

[Cole2001]

Read this 

http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/showthread.php?27219-My-first-time-winterizing/page2&highlight=Freezing

it shows exactly the temperatures inside the boat compared to the temperatures on the outside. Definitely interesting 

[The Hulk]

Waiting for Malibu to incorporate electronic ball valves on new engine so u can hit a switch and all 5 water drains open automatically.. wired in a way it can not be done with engine on.. 

maybethey can make it auto temp sensor in engine compartment .. hard wired to battery when engine not on to still auto dump below x temp.. seems pretty easy.. but what a selling point!

[ahopkins22LSV]

1 minute ago, The Hulk said:

Waiting for Malibu to incorporate electronic ball valves on new engine so u can hit a switch and all 5 water drains open automatically.. wired in a way it can not be done with engine on.. 

maybethey can make it auto temp sensor in engine compartment .. hard wired to battery when engine not on to still auto dump below x temp.. seems pretty easy.. but what a selling point!

Also a catastrophic failure point. 

@Michigan boarder I got mine drained Monday. There was one night about two weeks ago though that when I got in my truck to leave for work it said 28 degrees! I know It takes some time at freezing temperatures to freeze a block but I was was worried more about my heater core. Was happy to see everything drain normally on Monday. 

[minnmarker]

A few years ago I did a test using the type of temp monitors we use to track refrigerated trucks and saw that the engine compartment temp lagged the outdoor temp by about 2 hours in weather with a high of @40 and low in the mid 20s (what we typically see in the fall).  I imagine the block temp would lag by more.  So if its not going to be below freezing for maybe 4 hours then you're fine.  How far below freezing would also effect the time so you would have more time if it only got down to 30 than if it got down to the low 20s.

[oldjeep]

6 hours ago, The Hulk said:

Waiting for Malibu to incorporate electronic ball valves on new engine so u can hit a switch and all 5 water drains open automatically.. wired in a way it can not be done with engine on.. 

maybethey can make it auto temp sensor in engine compartment .. hard wired to battery when engine not on to still auto dump below x temp.. seems pretty easy.. but what a selling point!

LOL, like the old mercruiser single point drain/block cracking system?

Problem is that if a human does not see that water is actually flowing you have no idea if your drain(s) got plugged up without draining the water

[Michigan boarder]

Blew my sprinklers out last night too.  Sure I could wait another week or two, but why?

[The Hulk]

Honestly why not tie all of the five drain points into one single line with a single point of drainage something like that to make it easier than crawling all around the boat

[Dfowkes]

9 minutes ago, The Hulk said:

Honestly why not tie all of the five drain points into one single line with a single point of drainage something like that to make it easier than crawling all around the boat

Agreed.  How difficult would it be to engineer a single and accessible drain point?

[The Hulk]

11 minutes ago, Dfowkes said:

Agreed.  How difficult would it be to engineer a single and accessible drain point?

A few white connectors and some hoes I think you can do it

[JeffC]

26 minutes ago, The Hulk said:

Honestly why not tie all of the five drain points into one single line with a single point of drainage something like that to make it easier than crawling all around the boat

I would very much go for this.  I like the idea of being able to summerize early, winterize late, and be able to reliably drain during both times.   My '17 VLX does not seem to make this easy.  

[minnmarker]

20 minutes ago, Dfowkes said:

Agreed.  How difficult would it be to engineer a single and accessible drain point?

Or switch that controls about 5 valves.

Not that hard, but a bilge heater is so much easier and lets you keep the anti knock sensor.

[Bill_AirJunky]

You guys reinventing the wheel today? Do some searching on this forum. It's all been discussed. Petcocks, quick release heater hoses/caps. A product that was a bunch of pipes & valves so all you had to do was open the valves & it all drained. Globe impellers. Etc. Not quite as fancy as a switch, but it's been working for me for years over multiple boats.

Got tired of posting the info here & being told it'll never work. Well, it works. I know a handful of guys in Seattle & Portland who have been doing it for years too. I've already winterized mine a couple times this fall. I did it at the ramp, took less than 5 minutes. And no tools.

[The Hulk]

1 hour ago, minnmarker said:

Or switch that controls about 5 valves.

Not that hard, but a bilge heater is so much easier and lets you keep the anti knock sensor.

I mentioned above but as mentioned a possibile failure of valve not working leads to a big problem.. tie em all to one point one valve at end would be best so u can visualize and confirm water coming out. Bring em all together near tranny  and have one valve there and tranny bolt only two things then in same spot.. or add tranny bolt connector of some sort 

[oldjeep]

1 hour ago, The Hulk said:

Honestly why not tie all of the five drain points into one single line with a single point of drainage something like that to make it easier than crawling all around the boat

as I said.  Mercruiser used to do that.  Problem was that one of the drains could clog at the source, you would never know and walla - cracked block.

[Pra4sno]

After having to clear my drains out with a piece of coat hanger to get them to empty this year I can't imagine using an all in one valve would be safe, at least for me with an older motor.  

The simplicity would be great though.