adding antifreeze to Atomic 4?

[nightowle]

Now that local night temps in Seattle are approaching freezing, I wanted to know if I should keep antifreeze in my raw water cooled A4 engine. If so, what are the directions for doing so? 50/50 antifreeze-water mix? Do I close the water intake sea cock and just suck in the antifreeze via the hose attaching to the sea water strainer? Approximately how much will fill the engine cooling chambers? TIAO'Day 27 ownerSeattle

 

[Tim R.]

Easy

Close the seacock, disconnect the input to the raw water pump or strainer and run a hose from that input to a 5 gal bucket(with fresh water hose) in the cockpit. As the WP is usually on the rear of the engine, going through the strainer is probably the easiest. Run fresh water through for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, let the water in the bucket go down to the bottom. Just as the water runs out, add a few gallons of AF. Shortly, your exhaust will spew out the pink(or whatever color AF) you use.Tim R.

 

[Brian M H23]

If it's going to be there a while

you might want to think about the green stuff. It's got additives and uch that are supposedly good at protecting your block from the corrosion that you get with standing water in there

 

[MoonSailer]

In the water??

With the boat in the water I doubt that it will get cold enough to freeze. At least that is what I hope. I have a freshwater cooled engine with antifreeze but leave the water tanks with water and the heat exchanger unprotected. BUT we never get much ice in northern Alabama. Maybe a thin sheet back in protected coves. The water temperature in the lake generally stays near 50 at the coldest except in really shallow water back in the coves. Last winter no problems.

 

[Steve Dion]

At the dock?

If you are at the dock, you can just use a small heater (like a golden rod) in the engine compartment. I would check with your harbor mates to see what they do. I cannot imagine that it gets cold enough to freeze salt water in Seattle!

 

[CalebD]

I just winterized my A4 (mostly)

and there are a lot of things that you can do to winterize your engine should you choose to. Since you are probably raw salt water cooled you should run some fresh water through the engine before sucking any anti-freeze through the engine. I ran 15 gallons of fresh water through my engine which raised the coolant temperature up to the setting of the thermostat (140 degrees). Then I ran a gallon of pink anti freeze through and stopped the engine. I then 'fogged' the cylinders with a couple of squirts of Marvel Mystery oil into each of the four cylinders. Next I shut off the fuel intake valve for the engine and run it for about 10 seconds while it smokes a bit.For the website that knows everything about your Atomic 4 click on Moyer Marines website: http://www.moyermarine.com/forums/index.php

 

[nightowle]

thanks for the answers

Thanks folks.....good advise here. The boat is in fresh water just inside the locks off Puget Sound. The water never freezes over, but I was concerned that fresh water inside the engine would freeze up.

 

[Jeff D]

Whoa!

If you are running the anti freeze through the raw water intake, make sure it is they non-toxic, usually pink,not auto antifreeze, which is a contaminate.

 

[CalebD]

Always use the pink or purple anti freeze NOT the

green stuff you use in your car which is fairly toxic. I worry about the pink and purple stuff hurting the environment so ran a lot of water (15 gals) through the engine so I could heat up the thermostat to 140* and then I ran only 1 gallon of the pink stuff through as I could already see it coming out of the exhaust. It might be better to remove the thermostat altogether before winterizing if you do not want to get the engine hot enough to open up the thermostat which takes about 15 minutes or less when running the engine on fresh or raw water intake.Post below is spot on: don't use green anti-freeze in the marine environment.Love your A4 and it will (hopefully) love you back.