So you are one the hard and you put anti in the raw water side?????
You do know that there are stopcocks at key locations so you can just drain the seawater from the system riight?
I think it took me 5 minutes to turn the three stopcocks and drain the strainer with a rag.
You should exercise the stopcocks to keep them from leaking in any case.
Also, know your engine as there are also stopcocks for the engine antifreeze.
Bill,
I'm glad you
think you know my engine better than I do..
There are no stopcocks on my engines raw water circuit, none. The only one is the one I installed on the strainer which I do drain even after sucking in the antifreeze. There are also low spots on these HX's that will not fully drain even with the end caps off. To remove the HX end caps for draining it would require an additional cost of 4 new gaskets. The bottom tube/tubes can still have water in them, even when drained as much as you can and the tubes are very, very thin and easily prone to freeze splitting. Over the years I have had the pleasure to replace a few of these HX's that have frozen and leaked even after being "drained". Also been on the recieving end of a few "frozen" drained RW cooled engines that were "fully drained" according to the owners.. Replacing a freeze plug on and in-place engine is a big $$$$ job as the engine very often has to be removed to get at and replace the spit freeze plugs. A few jugs of AF is a LOT less money...
Some of the Universal/Westerbeke HX's also only have one end cap which does not allow full water evacuation. I have one that split internally during winter layup sitting in my shop.
There is good history up here in the great frozen North as to why this type of engine winterization is standard protocol. SOME engines can effectively be drained but many can not.
To properly drain an impeller pump requires removal of the cover plate, which again, requires a new gasket, at the least. I have seen leaking shaft seals displaced and deformed by ice in the pumps. I do suggest to most customers to remove the impeller for winter but many don't want to incur the added expense.
Many owners do not want to pay for all this extra labor, parts and time so running antifreeze through the RW loop is a pretty standard & simple protocol..
Also this boat has a SeaFrost engine driven refrigeration system with a large HX in the RW circuit. It is a royal PITA, and rather time consuming, to drain it. For me to drain my system would take about 3-4X as long, would entail added parts expense, and, time is money, a lot more than the $16.95 in antifreeze I used and the 5-10 minutes it too to hook it all up and suck it in.....
What works on your engine may not work on ALL engines..
