UN-winterizing in September
Brent, Congratulations on your new boat. To winterize your boat, you have to protect three systems: engine, potable water, and head/holding tank. For the 1GM10, my Yanmar service manual shows only a direct sea water cooled version. If this is what you have (i.e., no heat exchanger), the engine's cooling system should have been charged with non-toxic anti-freeze, which is usually pink and thus called "pink stuff". All you have to do is make sure all the hoses are connected. The anti-freeze will be flushed overboard as soon as you start the engine. Before you do that, you should change the oil. Everyone has their own plan for this. Mine is change it two weeks after the beginning of the season, at mid-season, and then at the end of the season before storing the boat. Always change the filter when you change the oil. You should also check the rubber impeller that pumps the sea water through the engine. Everyone has their own plan for changing these, too. My advice, since you don't know how old it is, go ahead and change it. Lastly, don't forget to check the oil level in the tranny, and check the air filter. Next the potable water system. Find the hot water heater and assess how it was winterized. Are the hoses connected? It either has to be drained dry or have some pink-stuff left in it to prevent freezing. If there is pink-stuff in it, you must either drain it or reconnect to the water system and flush it out. The water tank should also have pink-stuff in it. Run the taps to drain the tank of the pink stuff, fill the tank and run the taps again to give the tank and lines a good flush. Then go to Peggy Hall's Marine Sanitation Forum and read her advice on treating water tanks at the beginning of the system. Lastly, the head/holding tank. The holding tank should have some pink stuff in it, but it doesn't have to be flushed. Check to make sure all hoses on the head are connected, and then give it a test flush. There really isn't much to do to un-winterize a head, unless you've disconnected some hoses. Lastly, try searching the archives. I recall a thread just a few weeks ago about winterizing preparations. Finding it may fill in anything I've overlooked. Good luck. Eric Lorgus S/V Explorer
at any rate, the engine is still winterized can anyone tell me what needs to be done (in a related question i saw on the BB it looks like there is is still a 1/2 tank of fuel i was told that is not a problem?) thanks!