? about cold weather snap in Dallas TX and winterizing my 3 skis. HELP!

[TheGrayt1]

So we bought 3 new skis and a boat for the new lake house and this is the first winter we have gone through with them. The vessels are as follows

2017 SXR1500 sits inside attached garage on stand
2015 Kawi STX15f sits outside under carport on trailer with jet ski cover and blanket in engine bay
2008 Yam VX110 same as above with the 15f
2003 Sea Ray 176 w 3.0 mercruiser outside covered under carport with blanket around the engine cover. I took the two quick drain hoses off for block and manifold and emptied them out and left unattached.

My question for the group is in Dallas Texas the lows over the next week will be in the lower teens at night. I winterized all of them by fogging the engines and draining the water out by starting the engines periodically several times but did not run atnifreeze thru them. Will all of them be ok with no antifreeze RV or do I need to run antifreeze through them? I do not want a cracked block. I think the SXR in the garage should be fine right? Am I worrying over nothing? Should I add more blankets to them over the covers?

 

[JFGJetski]

I lived in michigan where it would get in the negatives, all I would do would run my ski on dry land for 2-3 minutes the take spark plugs out and spray wd-40 in the cylinders then turn the engine over by hand. And that would be it, no blankets or covers and never had an issue, as for your boat, I had an old Mastercraft with a 351 Windsor, and we would pull all the plugs in the manifolds and block then disconnect the waterpump belt from the pulleys then just start the boat up on dry land and run 2 stroke oil through the carburetor until it dies or until it was adequately fogged out. Never had an issue with ethier, both ways were done by me for years and by my dad for even longer.

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[TheGrayt1]

I also forgot to mention I hooked a shop vac up to the exahust tailpipe and flush ports and sucked for about a minute on each. I just want to make sure I got all the water out and I do not need to run antifreeze through it. Maybe I am being crazy but just trying to be safe than sorry.

 

[mikidymac]

Follow the owner's manual on the new skis for winterizing. Some of them use antifreeze in the engines and a heat exchanger for cooling. The antifreeze area will be fine but if water is trapped in a heat exchanger it can freeze and crack coolers. Each brand and model is different and might need RV Antifreeze in areas so follow the manual.

 

[faceplant2]

Some people put a 60 watt incandescent ( NOT LED ) light bulb in engine compartment and close the cover. Heat from bulb warms the air in the compartment.

 

[tipafew]

With our stx15 I hook up to the flush port under the hood and pour RV antifreeze down while running it.

for the boat I would pull the block plugs and manifold plugs. Then I would suck up some RV antifreeze. Might be okay just pulling water pump hoses like was mentioned.

 

[TheGrayt1]

yea I drained the block and manifold hoses on the boat but I did not pull the water pump hoses off. I am not near the boat either so hoping it would be okay. I guess the worst thing that would happen is the water pump might crack but at least not the engine.

 

[Ben34]

Ever have a problem not running the antifreeze?

 

[fastgtfairlane]

If I lived in Texas I'd never winterize anything haha.

 

[N3vrSat1sfied]

Ever have a problem not running the antifreeze?

Been in north Texas for 6 years, never ran rv antifreeze thru the skis.


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[Ben34]

Been in north Texas for 6 years, never ran rv antifreeze thru the skis.


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What’s the lowest temps you get there?

 

[N3vrSat1sfied]

Normally we don’t get below freezing for very long but last winter we had the issue with below freezing for weeks and no power/intermittent power.
Lots of plumbing damage to houses here. We lost water at our lake house and had 8 different breaks inside, and destroyed our filter system (no water damage thankfully).

I didn’t even pink our boat during this. It was in our shop and just drained down.


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[Ben34]

Normally we don’t get below freezing for very long but last winter we had the issue with below freezing for weeks and no power/intermittent power.
Lots of plumbing damage to houses here. We lost water at our lake house and had 8 different breaks inside, and destroyed our filter system (no water damage thankfully).

I didn’t even pink our boat during this. It was in our shop and just drained down.


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Yeah it gets very cold where I’m at. I’m just going to use anti freeze to be safe

 

[JetWash]

for the og poster..all ur units (pwc) will self drain most all water out. sounds like you already started an blew them out, so thats good. only thing i have seen is with kawi 4 strokes is some water gets trapped in the pto cover/housing. there is 2 hoses that run to it and will sometimes hold a small amount of water. in this case i always run some rv anti frezee thru the flush fitting.
the merc thats in the boat will most likly have 2 small brass plugs one for block / one for manifold to drain. can remember in 03 if they had the quick drains or not. other thing would be to check the out drive oil if thers water you dont want that to freeze or if its milky i like to get that out of there..
never had any issuses with yamahas.

 

[Yami-Rider]

Is that merc a bravo or alpha? When you drain the block, best to run a piece of wire inside the hole, sand can cause it to not fully drain.
Never put a a heat lamp in the engine bay, you run the risk of a fire, I've seen a boat burnt to the ground from one. They make special bilge heaters, if you wanted to go that route.

I've seen 2 vx110 with crack blocks from sand trapped and not being able to drain properly.
I run -50 marine antifreeze threw ever ski I winterize. Better safe then sorry..

I'm 1.5hr north of dallas.

 

[Ben34]

Is that merc a bravo or alpha? When you drain the block, best to run a piece of wire inside the hole, sand can cause it to not fully drain.
Never put a a heat lamp in the engine bay, you run the risk of a fire, I've seen a boat burnt to the ground from one. They make special bilge heaters, if you wanted to go that route.

I've seen 2 vx110 with crack blocks from sand trapped and not being able to drain properly.
I run -50 marine antifreeze threw ever ski I winterize. Better safe then sorry..

I'm 1.5hr north of dallas.

How do you get it through the skis? Pump? If so what kind? I’ve just been pouring some through the head fitting and exhaust fitting on my 550.

 

[Yami-Rider]

20psi pressurized fluid tank (Mityvac mv6400) with at least half a gallon of marine/rv antifreeze in it. I hook it to the water hook up or pissers on a older 2 stroke.

 

[Ben34]

20psi pressurized fluid tank (ill update the brand i use later) with at least half a gallon of marine/rv antifreeze in it. I hook it to the water hook up or pissers on a older 2 stroke.

Yeah. Let me know the brand

 

[Yami-Rider]

Mityvac mv6400 with a garden hose fitting on the end, so I can hook up to the ski or any adapter needed

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Antifreeze is cheap , engines are not