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Have to wonder how effective Fake a lake is?


WaveMake'nLSV

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After winterization of my boat today...

I came to the same conclusion my buddy did and would discourage the routine, long run use of fake-a-lake. With his adapter, and a 1.25" clear hose we attached it to the intake hose directly and then we filled the hose all the way with water and submerged it in a 5 gallon bucket of fresh water, so as to lessen the amount of air entrapped. We then started the boat with the bucket FULL of water and the water hose simultaneously going full blast attempting to refill.

In about 45 seconds the bucket was dry and the hose couldn't keep up. Which brings me to the question (in my mind) of "if the hose cannot keep up with filling the bucket we were drawing out of...the how in the heck can a water hose thru a plunger attached to the bottom of the boat keep up?" Certainly am NEVER going to use a fake-a-lake for anything I do if I can help it. I am sure opinions will vary on this, but was startled to see the volume of water consumed in such a short period of time via our said mechanism. It drains a 5 gallon bucket in 30-45 seconds!

Just thought I would report my discovery...am sure this, as with most of my topics, has been hammered at one point or another. ;-) Tongue.gif

Scott

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Even through a T fitting or flush pro you can slow the garden hose flow down significantly in order to bring the engine up to operating temperature. I'm with RiverRunner, as long as you don't run it dry or overheat, no problem.

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The only beef I have with Fake a Lake is I didn't invent it. Until a few years ago, I used the rubber part of a toilet plunger supported by a piece of wood. When the Fake a Lake came out, it was "why didn't I think of that". I finally splurged when we got the Sporty.

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The only beef I have with Fake a Lake is I didn't invent it. Until a few years ago, I used the rubber part of a toilet plunger supported by a piece of wood. When the Fake a Lake came out, it was "why didn't I think of that". I finally splurged when we got the Sporty.

I've not got a fake a lake, never seen one in fact but isn't it just a toilet plunger with a hose fitting ? I was thinking of making one somtime rather than importing from US

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The only beef I have with Fake a Lake is I didn't invent it. Until a few years ago, I used the rubber part of a toilet plunger supported by a piece of wood. When the Fake a Lake came out, it was "why didn't I think of that". I finally splurged when we got the Sporty.

I've not got a fake a lake, never seen one in fact but isn't it just a toilet plunger with a hose fitting ? I was thinking of making one somtime rather than importing from US

Yup - I made my own.

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I wouldn't run it much faster than idle, but as long as plenty of water is coming out the exhaust - should be good

Edited by SacRiverRat
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The fake a lake isn't made for winterizing. Its designed for running your boat on a water hose that is under pressure. It does not seal tight enough for sucking water into the engine.

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The fake a lake isn't made for winterizing. Its designed for running your boat on a water hose that is under pressure. It does not seal tight enough for sucking water into the engine.

What do you mean? How else do you winterize your boat? You run it, change the oil, filter, tranny fluid, run it again, fog it out, and then drain it down, if you want add antifreeze through the thermostat housing.

And you can run a boat all day long at 2000 rpms on a fake a lake, if you hammer on it hard you have to just wait for the block to fill back up....

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If you want to use the Fake a Lake to install anti freeze, just take a 5' section of garden hose with the male end, attach the other end to a one gallon jug that the bottom has been cut out. Attach the hose to the fake a lake, hold the jug with the bottom cut out above the level of the intake, fill with anti freeze, start boat, start dumping anti freeze into the jug with the bottom cut out. It works kind of like a giant enema bag.

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The fake a lake isn't made for winterizing. Its designed for running your boat on a water hose that is under pressure. It does not seal tight enough for sucking water into the engine.

What do you mean? How else do you winterize your boat? You run it, change the oil, filter, tranny fluid, run it again, fog it out, and then drain it down, if you want add antifreeze through the thermostat housing.

And you can run a boat all day long at 2000 rpms on a fake a lake, if you hammer on it hard you have to just wait for the block to fill back up....

I have tried the method of using the fake a lake attached to a hose stuck in a bucket. DIdn't work worth a crap. The fake a lake sucked more air than anti freeze out of the bucket. I just won't seal up tight enough under the boat for this. Basically your cavatating your fresh water pump.

I installed a shut off valve right after the fresh water intake. Then installed a quick disconnect valve behind it. I drain everything first and blow out the heater manually, then I attach my short hose on the quick connector, stick it in a five gallon bucket of rv antifreeze, start the boat let it idle and suck the antifreeze mixture into the boat until I see pink out the exhaust. Usually takes 3 or 4 minutes to drain the bucket.

Total time to winterize 15 to 30 minutes.

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I too have used a fake-a-lake for years without any problems. The only thing I would add is never leave the boat unattended while running it on a fake-a-lake. I saw a boat in the shop that had the engine fried from someone running it on the fake-a-lake that had fallen off (not properly adjusted) while the owner had gone in the house while the boat warming up. He came back out to smoke coming out of the engine cover.

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A 3/4 inch hose is rated at 15 gallons per minute@65 PSI water pressure....I think you must have some water pressure issues at your house.

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I think the title of this thread should be:

"Have to wonder how effective a hose is"

because in the test the OP described, he didn't use a Fake-A-Lake...

the test described a hose not being able to keep-up with the intake rate of his raw water impeller (drained the bucket faster than the hose could fill it).

so, in this test - the hose quick connect, fake-a-lake, or any other method using a hose would seem inadequate.

however, like many above have stated...

at lower rpms, the engine doesn't overheat, and water burps out the exhausts...

as long as it doesn't fall off, and you keep the (average) rpms low - things should be fine.

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In another thread I posted how I hook my garden hose up to the quick connect I have on my heater hose that goes through the low rpm heater Y pipe. There is a very small restrictor hole (1/8") in this Y. I actually sort of forgot it was there, but I've never had any problems running the engine off of water that goes through this hole. As others have said, engine temp never exceeds 160, water comes out the exhaust, and the raw water impeller is seeing enough water to keep it cool.

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The fake a lake isn't made for winterizing. Its designed for running your boat on a water hose that is under pressure. It does not seal tight enough for sucking water into the engine.

It doesn't fit (seal) tight around the intake so that you do not overpressurize your cooling system with city water pressure. It is make to leak when a certain pressure is reached. You guys with the toilet plungers, I wonder if you figured that into your designs.

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It is make to leak when a certain pressure is reached.

You're giving far too much credit to the guy that came up with this. No way is a pressure-point designed into this thing.

Also, I don't think it would be possible to over pressurize the cooling system. The impeller and ID of hoses will restrict the flow sufficiently. Not that I'd turn my garden hose on full blast, however.

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I've leak tested fully dressed engines before with air pressure, so I know it is possible to overpressurize a cooling system. However, I don't think it's possible on our marine engines because they are OPEN systems unlike a car. Won't the overpressure just go right out the exhaust.

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Anyone with a Flush Pro can see that effect if they just turn on the hose, water will come out the exhaust. I think your right the open system dosen't let you overpressurize. And I don't see much of a difference between a toilet plunger material and a fake-a-lake, I really doubt it was engineered to that point.

Chris

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Ummmm,

I got rid of my "freak-a-lake" and bought a "Super-Extreme-Fake-A-Lake" for $150 and I haven't had any problems. It seems to keep water consumption at bay.

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