Up here in Canada on the north side of NY, we get the variations of all temps it seems. But we can have some insanely frozen days where boiling water will freeze instantly when thrown in the air. My process for winterization is this:
1. Remove airbox cover and prep the engine water lines with an extension hose and funnel. If you have a dry pipe like I do, you will need to set up a T in your flushing line. One to the lowest water fitting on the pipe and one to the cylinder head. This process is imperative to preventing the thin water jacket on the pipe from splitting.
2. Find a good couple of gallons of plumbing antifreeze for the freeze protection flushing (3 gals if there is a dry pipe installed).
3. Find a good quality fuel stabilizer and add to your fuel accordingly. I prefer OMC 2+4 fuel stabilizer but it's getting hard to find nowadays. I think Maxima sells some decent stuff too.
4. Fire up the ski, allow it to idle while pouring the plumbing antifreeze into the funnel (about a gallon and a half is needed to properly treat the block and get into the waterbox, two and a half gallons if a dry pipe is installed).
5. Once you stop pouring in the plumbing antifreeze, with the engine still idling, start spraying the fogging oil into the carb throats and try to keep the ski running for a minute or so while you pump that fogging oil to it. You want to see a thick lingering heavy cloud of blue floating around you from the exhaust. That will tell you it is well fogged, at that point while still spraying the fogging oil, let the engine come back to idle and snuff it with more fogging. It will shut the engine down just keep spraying.
6. Disconnect the battery, top up its fluids with distilled water, and charge once a month.
7. Pour the rest of the plumbing antifreeze into the bilge and flush the bilge pump by pumping out the hull.
That's all there is to it. You can spray the head bolts if you want with fogging oil too. No need to pull the plugs and spray anything down the holes, the engine fog will get into the rings anyway so all you will be doing is leaving a heavy dose of oil on top of your pistons, if there is too much you could hydro-lock the engine in the spring. I have never seen it happen from fogging oil but why risk it if you don't have to. I have been winterizing my skis for the last 22 years this way and never once had a block split from freezing...or a waterbox or exhaust jacket....and yes it does happen. Seen it happen to an inboard marine engine a few times. I also saw it happen to a friend's SX-R, his headpipe split from freezing, the ski didn't get winterized and didn't drain fully. Where I used to work, we would warranty any freeze damage if the boat/pwc was winterized before the first frost, after that, no warranty. I hope this helps, and give it a hug before you put it to bed
http://www.maximausa.com/
http://www.maximausa.com/product/fuel-stabilizer/
