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Ls3 winterizing


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I just picked up this boat 6 or 7 weeks ago and was told all I had to do is drain the v-drive because it's a closed cooling system. I have only winterized my echelon and that was pretty easy. Is it something I can do easily? If someone can walk me through it I would be in your debt. 

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You will need to do more than that ...

drain all ballast and pour in some RV antifreeze

make sure any pumps are water free.

for your engine, even tho it's closed cooling you will have at least 2 if not 3 heat exchangers. Each need to be drained. Check the sacrificial anodes. I usually run RV antifreeze through the heat exchangers now to flush them of water and ensure nothing can happen.

i also take the time to do an oil change, check plugs, fog my cylinders, check impeller and often change the fuel filter.

 

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FYI, these are usually half closed systems, so while the block itself is protected, there are heat exchangers and a raw water system that still need to be drained. The raw water cools the antifreeze in the exchanger. 

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What year ls3? If it's an indmar ls3 with salt series package then it is a full closed cooling system and all you will need to worry about is the single heat exchanger and the v-drive lines since that's the lowest part in the raw water system. 

 

Either way, just make sure your pulling a raw water line and not a line full of antifreeze. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

MP LS3 is real easy.  there's a blue thumb screw to drain the starboard manifold, and on the port side you drain the heat exchanger, which will also drain the manifold.  the engine block itself is full of antifreeze so nothing to do there.  pull the hoses from the vdrive and you'll drain the oil and tranny cooler.  It's been a while, but from memory that's basically it for freeze protection.  Super easy.  Probably will take 45 minutes the first time and then once you've figured it out less than 30.

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16 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

MP LS3 is real easy.  there's a blue thumb screw to drain the starboard manifold, and on the port side you drain the heat exchanger, which will also drain the manifold.  the engine block itself is full of antifreeze so nothing to do there.  pull the hoses from the vdrive and you'll drain the oil and tranny cooler.  It's been a while, but from memory that's basically it for freeze protection.  Super easy.  Probably will take 45 minutes the first time and then once you've figured it out less than 30.

I really need to learn to do this and do it myself next year.  More just a comfort level to know it was done right.  I've got better thing to spend $1k on.  

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59 minutes ago, DAI said:

I really need to learn to do this and do it myself next year.  More just a comfort level to know it was done right.  I've got better thing to spend $1k on.  

Your dealer charges 1,000 bucks to winterize?

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3 minutes ago, oldjeep said:

Holy crap, I thought the around $500 that my dealer charged for that was high

Why next year I've got to get comfortable doing it myself . . . 

Update:  went back and looked at my bill and it was $800 winterization.  Indoor storage was a little more of my $1,500 end of the season bill than I remembered.

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Wow I would lose trust in any dealer immediately if they charged more than $300 for a winterization. How do they  come up with $800 they must charge based on how expensive your boat is.

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1 hour ago, DAI said:

Yep . . . Winterize engine, heater, 4 ballast tanks, and oil change comes in at $1,000.

uhhh... you should DEFINITELY ask for the refund on the heater winterizing since it's part of the closed cooling loop (filled with antifreeze all the time).  Or maybe to be a real jerk, ask the tech to show you how he did it.

(what I'm saying is that the heater doesn't need to be winterized on an MP LS3)

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3 hours ago, shawndoggy said:

uhhh... you should DEFINITELY ask for the refund on the heater winterizing since it's part of the closed cooling loop (filled with antifreeze all the time).  Or maybe to be a real jerk, ask the tech to show you how he did it.

(what I'm saying is that the heater doesn't need to be winterized on an MP LS3)

Interesting.  Definitely need to ask about that.  Thanks.

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  • 5 weeks later...

That's price is ridiculous! However, "Winterize" is a term that has a lot of different meanings. It can be simply draining the components that have water in them all the way to a complete oil change/tune up and detailing. Just "draining" it for basic freeze protection is very quick and easy and should be cheap.  I just had my 15 LS3 VLX in the shop getting some warranty work done in November and I couldn't pick it up in time to freeze protect it myself before a big cold front blew in. My dealer did me a solid and only charged me a 1/2 hour labor to freeze protect it. They would have drained it for free if they were still working on it but I had to leave it up there a couple weeks after they were done with it.

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