Volvo 5.7 Engine - winterizing worries

C

Chriznat20

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17066
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Last year before I had my engine winterized, I pulled all of the plugs (block/manifolds) on my Volvo 5.7L engine. I also pulled off the lower water circulating pump hose and let the water drain out of there too...

This year I did not. The mechanic who shrinkwrapped and winterized my boat did not pull the bottom hose. Rather, he pulled the engine/manifold plugs and let the water drain, then put the purple stuff (-60F) until it came out of the plugs. He then put the plugs in and filled it up with anti-freeze.

My question is should we have pulled off the bottom recirc. pump hose? Or will antifreeze have made its way done there from the t-stat housing? The support for the shrinkwrap is right over my engine cover so Im wondering if its worth it to breach the shrinkwrap or if Im worrying over nothing....
 
Did he "bump" the starter to circulate through the raw water pump since he didn't run any through with the engine running?
 
Sounds like he did it exactly the way that I did mine last year. I had no problem, and in fact just did the same this year. I did backfill from all four large hoses at the housing (took each one off and poured antifreeze in until it came out of a plug, put that plug in and kept filling). At some point when backfilling through one of the manifold hoses, it will start coming out of your outdrives also.
 
Ok well I hope you are right! And no, he didnt bump the starter.

I talked to somebody else who also agreed that it wouldnt be a problem.
 
Ok well I hope you are right! And no, he didnt bump the starter.

I talked to somebody else who also agreed that it wouldnt be a problem.
 
Every year I always pull off that hose, and after everything drains I re-connect the bottom of the hose, then pour some AF in the hose with the engine drains open till some comes out the drains, once that happens I replace the drains and fill the engine thru the hose till it comes out the thermo housing. A lot of water does come out that hose. I'd be inclined to check it again, I'd probably drain it and refill with -100. The issue is that the water that did not drain from that hose is still in there and is diluting the -60 AF which should be used full strength. I like to use the -100(burst rated not freeze rated for that temp )for extra insurance in that it does not freeze till about -50 ( I checked it with a propylene glycol antifreeze tester, ones for EG will not work on PG) so that if there is some water that didn't drain, you are still likely to not have a problem.
 
quote:
Originally posted by LouC

Every year I always pull off that hose, and after everything drains I re-connect the bottom of the hose, then pour some AF in the hose with the engine drains open till some comes out the drains, once that happens I replace the drains and fill the engine thru the hose till it comes out the thermo housing. A lot of water does come out that hose. I'd be inclined to check it again, I'd probably drain it and refill with -100.

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Ahh! I was just starting to relax about this and now you're putting back into spaz mode [xx(] I guess I should probably go over and drain the hose but that will mean (possibly) wrecking the $180 shrinkwrap job I just paid for! Then again, I guess that is still a lot better than buying a new long block!
 
Sorry about putting you in spaz mode!
It's like what happened to me the first year I tried to winterize with one of those Camco kits. Did the quick n easy suck up the drive with 5 gallons trick. A little voice inside my head said...'check the block and manifold drains'....well there was AF in the manifolds, but the block had mostly water! Never used the Camco kit again, turned it into a power flusher for my trailer drum brakes! And that's why I drain and back fill. Of course in a freshwater region, most would say you really don't NEED antifreeze, just drain it all.

PS can they 'patch' your shrink wrap job if you do have to get in there?
 
quote:
Originally posted by LouC

Sorry about putting you in spaz mode!
It's like what happened to me the first year I tried to winterize with one of those Camco kits. Did the quick n easy suck up the drive with 5 gallons trick. A little voice inside my head said...'check the block and manifold drains'....well there was AF in the manifolds, but the block had mostly water! Never used the Camco kit again, turned it into a power flusher for my trailer drum brakes! And that's why I drain and back fill. Of course in a freshwater region, most would say you really don't NEED antifreeze, just drain it all.

PS can they 'patch' your shrink wrap job if you do have to get in there?

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yeah ok. I called around and was told to certainly get in there and drain the water pump. I will do it this weekend. I was told that I can remove the support and just wedge it back in and no damage to the wrap should occur.
 
You should be able to bump the starter a few times to push the water out. But like you already know, if the hose wasn't drained, you still have water there all the way to your raw water pump. (unless it's in the outdrive?)
 
Smart to go back, drain, and finish correctly. Probably good he didn't bump the starter after all, as the water in the raw water pump and hoze would have gone into the motor.

If all else fails with the shrink wrap, you can put in a zippered door. They can be used over and over.
 
Bumping the starter is going to push the water out of the water intake lines and raw water pump. That little bit of water isn't going to dilute the antifreeze in the block enough to change the freeze point.
 
Again, I didn't do this last year and I was fine. I just assumed that the water below the pump would drain back out of the outdrives, since it's all downhill from the pump down.

I may have been just lucky, although the mechanic that helped me also thought the same thing! However, based on what I hear here, I'll go back and pull that hose just to make sure.

Maybe last year I was just lucky after all?
 
quote:
Originally posted by Gregory Saracco

Bumping the starter is going to push the water out of the water intake lines and raw water pump. That little bit of water isn't going to dilute the antifreeze in the block enough to change the freeze point.

Click to expand...


Probably right, but I wouldn't want to take that chance.
 
That little bit of water isn't going to dilute 3 + gallons of antifreeze in the blocks. If you can't sleep, test what's in the blocks, that's what I do to sleep well all winter.
 
The issue is what AF you used, yes with -100 which costs 2x as much as -50 you may not get dilution that will put you at risk because full strenth -100 has a freeze rating of about -60, but the -50 AF has a freeze rating of about +10 so if that's diluted, it's possible that you could be in a danger zone.
 
quote:
Originally posted by SPIKE

Smart to go back, drain, and finish correctly. Probably good he didn't bump the starter after all, as the water in the raw water pump and hoze would have gone into the motor.

If all else fails with the shrink wrap, you can put in a zippered door. They can be used over and over.

Click to expand...


I have a zippered door. Thats not an issue. The issue is the shrinkwrap 2x4 support in on TOP of my engine hatch and when I moved the support out of the way, I still couldnt lift my engine hatch up. The shrinkwrap is simply too tight.

Also I spoke with the guy who winterized my boat and he assured me that he DID drain the bottom hose, but was only 98% sure. The boat is tilted a great deal to raise the bow up high so any water would drain out the plug at the transom. Im wondering if the anti-freeze did in fact mix in (seeing that the blocks/manifolds were drained) with the water down by the water pump and I'll be fine...... any last comments?
 
Well, I went back to MY boat and disconnected both hoses from the impeller housing. Indeed, one of them spewed quite a bit of water out. Which REALLY begs the question as to why I didn't have any issues last year as I did not do this... I guess we all overprepare but at the end of the day if you miss something it's not necessarily the end of the world... Even the impellers were fine this year... It started right up!

But well, I ended up draining out all the antifreeze anyway and left all the plugs out, and now I'm pretty sure that if there's any residue in there, at least it's antifreeze.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Ernesto

Well, I went back to MY boat and disconnected both hoses from the impeller housing. Indeed, one of them spewed quite a bit of water out. Which REALLY begs the question as to why I didn't have any issues last year as I did not do this... I guess we all overprepare but at the end of the day if you miss something it's not necessarily the end of the world... Even the impellers were fine this year... It started right up!

But well, I ended up draining out all the antifreeze anyway and left all the plugs out, and now I'm pretty sure that if there's any residue in there, at least it's antifreeze.

Click to expand...


According to the owner's manual you should turnover the engine a few clicks to drain the pump:

Raw water pump
1. Loosen and slide clamps back.
2. Remove hoses from the water pump and drain.
3. Crank the engine no more than 2 seconds (DO NOT START) to expel any water trapped in water pump.
4. Reattach water pump hoses and tighten clamps.

Also dont forget to drain the vapor separator tank on the fuel system.
 
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