Newb question: Starting the engine on dry land

[BrennanK]

I would agree with most everyone here. I didn't go for the typical 'tee' method though. I like having more control over pressures and what not. This way I can pressure check the system if I need or I can verify that the impeller is working properly by watching it pull water from the bucket. Plus this way all I have to do in the winter is start the boat on water, fill the 5 gallon bucket with anti-freeze and then switch over the valves to pull the anti-freeze into the engine instead of the water.


In this one you can see that the hose valve it shut off and the bucket valve is turned on, thus forcing the impeller to pull the water from the bucket. It is a nice way to verify everything is working properly.


There is a nice safety too, if you leave the bucket valve open and you have too much hose pressure the 'unneeded' water takes the path of least resistance to the bucket. So as long as the bucket valve is open you don't risk over pressurizing the system.

[TRBenj]

There is no way to "overpressure" the system. Anyone who says otherwise doesnt understand how the cooling system works.

Thats a nice contraption if you need to test the RWP, but otherwise its overly complicated, IMHO. Mike's comments regarding the simple tee above could have come from my own mouth- I agree 100%.

BTW, hope youre draining the water out of the engine before introducing antifreeze when winterizing... otherwise, its a total crapshoot on how much A/F vs. water is in the block. Could be anywhere between a 0% and 100% mix and theres no way to be sure unless you drain it all and test it. The PCM prescribed method is to drain then manually fill- simple, easy, and guaranteed not to be an issue- just like the tee method of running on the hose.

[Zach@n3]

Yeah, if you can blow out any gasket on a non sealed non pressurized cooling system then hats off to you. All this is over complicated if you are just looking to star the boat on land. Simple and easiest way with no extra parts, as long as your system is 1" id hose, pull the supply hose off the hull fitting, insert hose end and tighten the clamp on the garden hose itself. Turn it on hop back in the boat and roll with it. Every boat in the shop is started that way unless it's on the winterization pits , or in for a cooling issue. Think about the pressure/volume output the RWP has when the engine is spinning 5000 rpms traveling down the lake. It would look like old faithful if the hose wasn't on it. Point is, like Tim said, there is NO pressure to speak of on the system because it just flows out the manifolds if the hose is on. The only blockage in the system is the RWP impeller itself.