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cracked block concern


Hentz

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Hey guys does anyone know at what temperature you should be concerned about your block cracking? It is now getting to about 28 degrees for just a couple hours overnight here but the boat is in the storage garage that is unheated. Any thoughts???

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Hey guys does anyone know at what temperature you should be concerned about your block cracking? It is now getting to about 28 degrees for just a couple hours overnight here but the boat is in the storage garage that is unheated. Any thoughts???

I would think you should be fine as my guess is it'll be 5-10 warmer in the garage, esp this time of year + it's going to take an extended period of cold to freeze a block.

Lots of us put shop lights in our engine compartment. Be careful to not put it to close to something that can melt and secure it so it doesn't move around ... and break ... would hate to hear about a fire. Another thing I do is check it first thing when I get up to make sure the light didn't burn out.

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You should be fine if it's just one or two days. Keep in mind though, every night the water in your block gets a little colder and when it finally gets close to the freezing point it will only take a couple hours at 28 degrees to do damage.

Any reason you dont just take 10 minutes to drain the block for peace of mind?

Edited by msuwaterski
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You should be fine if it's just one or two days. Keep in mind though, every night the water in your block gets a little colder and when it finally gets close to the freezing point it will only take a couple hours at 28 degrees to do damage.

Any reason you dont just take 10 minutes to drain the block for peace of mind?

:plus1: A night or two you should be fine, but be careful. My block is drained and my homemade block heater has been plugged the last 3 nights. It has been 29, 27, and 28 the last three nights. This coming week is supposed to be back into the mid to high 30's at night so I can unplug my heater. I'm probably a bit paranoid, but I'd rather error on the side of caution than be pulling my engine.

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You should be fine if it's just one or two days. Keep in mind though, every night the water in your block gets a little colder and when it finally gets close to the freezing point it will only take a couple hours at 28 degrees to do damage.

Any reason you dont just take 10 minutes to drain the block for peace of mind?

I was planning on it, I just haven't been able to get to where the boat is located yet and I didn't anticipate it getting to 28 degrees. Never trust a weatherman

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I have my boat in a detached garage at my house. I put a cup of water on the swimstep last winter and it never froze. But the dog's water outside the garage froze solid. considering that the block is under another level of insulation in the engine compartment, I am pretty safe, even when the weather outside gets into the teens. I think you are going to be just fine in the high 20's in an enclosed garage.

Keep in mind it usually warms up where I live during the day to the 40's, even on a cold day (we consider into the teens as really cold).

Reading that you don't have the boat on your immediate property, it won't help you, but I consider the cup of water a poor man's thermometer. You should get the block drained soon since it is not where you can just hop outside and drain it. On the other engines I have had, the process takes 15 minutes max, once you have it down, and the heater was the hardest part.

Not to hijack, but is there a decent link to a tutorial on what all needs to be drained on a Hammerhead engine to protect it from freezing, if I do get a colder than usual snap here?

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For the time it takes I'd be draining the block and exhaust manifolds. As others have said don't forget heaters and shower. I would sleep much better at night knowing that's done.

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For me the problem is not that it'll be cold one night, but that I'll get busy/distracted all week & not get it done at all. So it's better to learn how to get it done & make it happen as I pull the boat out. Takes me a few minutes to drain everything. And then I plug in the on-board battery charger & bilge heater. Done. The boat & heater are safe. And it's ready to ride the next time we want to get it out. :rockon:

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For me the problem is not that it'll be cold one night, but that I'll get busy/distracted all week & not get it done at all. So it's better to learn how to get it done & make it happen as I pull the boat out. Takes me a few minutes to drain everything. And then I plug in the on-board battery charger & bilge heater. Done. The boat & heater are safe. And it's ready to ride the next time we want to get it out. :rockon:

Just out of curiosity, why use a bilge heater after draining everything? I'm in FL so I'm not that familiar w/ winterization.

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Playing with fire. 5-10k repair and loss of your boat for 1-2 months next spring, and that is IF you have a good dealer, AND he can put it back together correctly, IF you can find someone to do it.... get on here in March - June and garaunteed there'll be another 3-5 guys postig about their nightmare issues of a cracked block... the worst ones are those where it happened IN the dealer's lot!!

drain the block or run antifreeze thru if its easy for you. or do the light bulb or bilge heater...

temp were hitting low 30s here this week and immediately I ran 8 gals of the pink AF thru my RV waterlines...

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Drain and forget about it. As others have said, takes minutes.

Now to contradict my self...a friend of mine a few years back had an I/o. Boat sat outside. Had several nights in the upper teens and highs right around freezing. He came to work one day and asked if he should winterize. Holy crap! I encouraged him to do so asap, even offered to do it for him. He waited another week til the dealer could do it. Surprisingly there was no damage.

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Drain and forget about it. As others have said, takes minutes.

Now to contradict my self...a friend of mine a few years back had an I/o. Boat sat outside. Had several nights in the upper teens and highs right around freezing. He came to work one day and asked if he should winterize. Holy crap! I encouraged him to do so asap, even offered to do it for him. He waited another week til the dealer could do it. Surprisingly there was no damage.

Same story-

My neighbor with a early 00s Mastercraft Prostart 195? with a LT1 "Corvette" engine. The last couple seasons she didn't winterize her boat and it sat OUTSIDE under a cover. No damage. Furthermore, she didn't know you should change the oil once a season, not remembering the last time the oil was changed. I winterized it for her, and changed the fluids. The engine oil was below low, and the trans oil looked like a while milkshake.

How the boat survived all that, I don't know. I skied behind it a couple times this season.

Edited by Indyxc
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Same story-

My neighbor with a early 00s Mastercraft Prostart 195? with a LT1 "Corvette" engine. The last couple seasons she didn't winterize her boat and it sat OUTSIDE under a cover. No damage. Furthermore, she didn't know you should change the oil once a season, not remembering the last time the oil was changed. I winterized it for her, and changed the fluids. The engine oil was below low, and the trans oil looked like a while milkshake.

How the boat survived all that, I don't know. I skied behind it a couple times this season.

If it was the 00's, it wasn't an LT1. Probably the "LTR" which wouldn't be called a Corvette motor (Vette's haven't had a GEN-I SBC since 1991). The LTR was a closed cooling GEN-I SBC with Northstar Coil packs, and is closed cooling, just like the Marine LT1 and LS1 motors. But with closed cooling, the motor is full of coolant = no freeze. I know with mine, it drains so much water just sitting there I could probably get away without even winterizing, but that didn't stop me from running a couple gallons of the pink stuff through her to make sure, as I'd hate to crack my manifolds or heat exchanger on the off chance there was enough water in there to cause damage.

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Did some research, and it appears it was is a 1998 prostar 195 not 2000s.. In the manual it lists is a Corvette LT-1. It definitely was a iron block, had "corvette" value covers ,had coil packs, and open cooling. Definitely open cooling, because there was a nipple on one side of the block feeding the shower. Right? It wouldn't feed a second heat exchanger for hot water would it?

It's amazing it still runs with the minimal maintenance that has been done to it. She always like to tell me, it has the engine corvettes come with. Lol, yeah 13 years ago.

One of the spark plugs was also so loose that when it was idling you could just see the plug rocking with the exhaust pulses. :/

Edited by Indyxc
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Did some research, and it appears it was is a 1998 prostar 195 not 2000s.. In the manual it lists is a Corvette LT-1. It definitely was a iron block, had "corvette" value covers ,had coil packs, and open cooling. Definitely open cooling, because there was a nipple on one side of the block feeding the shower. Right? It wouldn't feed a second heat exchanger for hot water would it?

I did a bit of research on this one. Looks like the Indmar LT1 was open cooling (LT-1 designates a GEN-I SBC 350 that was a high performance varient in the Vettes and Z28 from 1970-72). Indmar did something really neat with the LT1. While installing a new ECU, they eliminated the Optispark ignition, instead going for Northstar coil packs, and I'm unsure what they did for a cam positioning sensor without the Optispark doing that function. How it got away from not freezing is very lucky, the only real difference in the cooling is these are reverse cooled motors, cooling the heads before the block. But that's a function of flow (and a couple changes to allow the reverse flow), but the water is all still there.

She always like to tell me, it has the engine corvettes come with. Lol, yeah 13 years ago.

Not 13 years ago. Last LT1 put in a Corvette was the Automatic equipped 1996 Corvette (all standards got the LT4 that year). In 1997, with the introduction of the very much updated Vette (C5) came the LS1. LT1 was put in the Vette from 1992-96, F-body (Camaro/Firebird) from 93-97, and the 94-96 Impala SS (with iron heads). A few other B-body cars and the Cadillac Fleetwood could also have the iron headed LT1 from 94-96, though many didn't. The LT1, LT4, and 4.3L L99 (lame version not talked about much) are the GEN-II SBC's. How boat manufacturers are still getting away with putting GEN-I SBC's in current boats amazes me.

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Did some research, and it appears it was is a 1998 prostar 195 not 2000s.. In the manual it lists is a Corvette LT-1. It definitely was a iron block, had "corvette" value covers ,had coil packs, and open cooling. Definitely open cooling, because there was a nipple on one side of the block feeding the shower. Right? It wouldn't feed a second heat exchanger for hot water would it?

It's amazing it still runs with the minimal maintenance that has been done to it. She always like to tell me, it has the engine corvettes come with. Lol, yeah 13 years ago.

One of the spark plugs was also so loose that when it was idling you could just see the plug rocking with the exhaust pulses. :/

Next time she brings that up, tell her at least it has a descent motor in it. Because that year hull had a ton of other issues. :Doh:

Crazy that it survived those winters though. I'd suspect the "milkshake" in the trans is a sign of pending failure.

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Next time she brings that up, tell her at least it has a descent motor in it. Because that year hull had a ton of other issues. :Doh:

Crazy that it survived those winters though. I'd suspect the "milkshake" in the trans is a sign of pending failure.

Sounds like she must have some good karma going that keeps the boat going and going and going !

Steve B.

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Yeah and i wasn't too happy winterizing it for her, because 1 I'll have to help her de winterize it now, and 2 if something breaks next year I might somehow be implicated. But being a neighbor I figured it was good to help, and I did slalom ski behind it 5 or so times this year.

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Full winterization today took 2 hours, including running up to temp,oil change, fogging, etc... Draining is the easiest part and took all of 15 min. When in doubt, drain.

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