Fluid / impeller change questions

[Shooter]

I'm planning on doing my "California winterization" and yearly maintenance this week. With some research and a lot of help from everyone on this site, I feel comfortable doing it myself. I have a few final questions.

How important is draining the block if it never gets below freezing?

How often should I change the fuel filter?
How often should I change the Trans fluid?
How often should I change the impeller? (I'm leaning toward every two years and keeping a emergency spare on hand)

I know many will say to just do everything every year to be safe, but I only get about 100+ hours a year and the boat is always stored inside above freezing. I rather not waist money and time doing unnecessary maintenance.

[DanielC]

RE: Fluid / impeller change questions

There are two reasons to drain the water. One, prevent freezing, and two, prevent diluting antifreeze if you live somewhere where a warm day is 14 degrees above zero, Fahrenheit. You should pull the plugs out of the exhaust manifolds, and clean them out, because rust flakes inside the engine migrate there, and stay.
For the fuel filter, it depends on how clean the gas you use is. You can get a clue on how dirty the filter is by draining the FCC, and seeing how much crud comes out. Every year is probably changing more often than necessary, going five years is too long.
Change the transmission fluid every other oil change. If you do not use the boat for a few months in the winter, you should change all the fluids before you quit using the boat.
Your impeller change interval sounds about right. How does the old one look when you decide to change it?

[bobchris]

Re: RE: Fluid / impeller change questions

[quote="DanielC"] You should pull the plugs out of the exhaust manifolds, and clean them out, because rust flakes inside the engine migrate there, and stay.
quote]

actually it's the manifold it's self that rust and flakes due to the heat they see. The block doesn't flake like the manifolds because it doesn't see the same amount of heat and the passage is always filled with fluid so there is no air present for the metal to rust and flake unless you drain the block and leave it sit for extended periods.

With the residual heat the manifolds see's, it will boil most of the water out as it sits and rust internally. The bottom of the manifold is much hoter than the top riser ever gets.

[east tx skier]

As for the impeller, if you are going to keep it for two years and you plan to have a layup in between seasons, remove it. The vanes can become formed to the shape of the pump housing if it sits in on position for an extended period of time. The result is that it's not as good of a water mover.

[jmo]

Your manual should have the change interval for all 3 of those items, but in general they are...

Fuel Filter: Once a year
Transmission fluid: every 100 hours (this is important because there is no filter)
Impeller -funny, nothing in the manual, I change it out after two seasons, but I only log 50 hrs/year.

[JUST-IN-TIME]

everything is 1 year or 100hrs, which every comes first