winterizing Mako 224

[pete]

New owner of a 1986 Mako 224 with twin 1986 Yamaha 115's - all original. Had mechanic go over engines early in summer and made some repairs, new carb kits, water pumps, impellers, thermostates - runnig like new.

Winter has come and am located on SC coast. Storing the boat for the winter and have put in fuel stabilizer. What else would you suggest doing to engines for winter. Plan to run them on cups about once a month for whatever time needed to keep batteries charged up etc.. Until March/April.

Pete

[Trident]

Pete-

I don't think you'll even need to run the engines each month. Up here in Boston...our boats sit under shrinkwrap for about 6 months per year.

If I were you, I would put some of the pink marine antifreeze in a bucket and run it through the engine, change the lower unit oil, fog the carberutors (spelling) and run fuel stabilizer through the entire system.

Next, spary down the powerhead with some CRC and make sure you grease all of the zerk fittings. Finally, put the engine in the down position (so water can drain out), take off the prop and grease the prop shaft and you should be all set until the spring.

Lastly, take the batteries and put them in your garage and hook them up to a trickle charger.

That should be about it....

Ed

[3QUARTERS]

Pete, ed is exactly right..Follow his instructions....P.S How do you like the 224...Do you have pics...E-mail to [email protected]

[pete]

Being a novice, can you walk me through fogging the carbs - with what - how? Engines are 115hp Yamahas V-4. And as far as spraying down the power head with CRC. Are you referring to Carb Cleaner (CRC) here and just spraying down the entire visible part of the power head under the engine hoods?

Don't know much but trying to learn it all steady as she goes.

I have already run fuel stabilizer in the entire system and can handle running the antifreeze in the system, changing lower unit oil etc..

[Trident]

Pete-

Go to West Marine and tell them you need a can or two of fogging oil. Then with the engines running, spray the fogging oil into the carburetors until the engines start to smoke and bog down.

No, I am not referring to the CRC carb cleaner. CRC makes an anti-corrosion spray that you can spray the powerheads with to keep the corrosion down.

[saltyballs]

Pete,

Basically you spray the oil into the carbs while the engine is at an idle speed (of course you have the running hose and ear muffs on the lower unit....) ..there will and should be a good deal of smoke in the air when you do this (hence the term fogging i guess) Fuel injected engines may have similar process but through the trottle body. You continue untill you've stalled the motor being sure to get good coverage if you have multiple carbs/trottle body(s). I've only fogged my old Merc with 3 carbs, I'm not sure if this is the method for electronic ignitions or for your certain motor(s). You might want to run that by a mechanic or possibly someone else on the forum could add to this.

The last thing I did was to take each spark plug out and give it a good spray of the oil as well. (remember your anti lock on the plugs before you re-install them !! )

This should be one of the last things you do to the engine as you want to keep the oil in the internal chambers for the period it's in storage. Don't run the motor untill you're ready to open the boat up this Spring. So change the lower unit oil and run the antifreeze/cleaner through it before you begin this fogging. You'll want to get the lower unit warm before you change the oil. And once your done store the engine in an upright position possible. You want the oil inside the engine to be evenly spread out. Meaning, you don't want to store the motor up or on it's side.

I hope this helps. It's about 2 deg outside right now and I'm not worried about my engine at all. Take the batts with you, there better off inside for the winter, keep them of the concrete floor and throw a trickle charger on it and by spring you be golden.

Enjoy,

SB

Here's a link to pictures of my fogging day. Damn, i need to move to Key West!!!

http://www.classicmako.com/forum/top...?TOPIC_ID=2305

PSS: as for the outside of the engine,, take a look at this site, seems like a few good products

http://www.woody-wax.com/