Bucket method

[dominator]

Hey guys, I am planning to do boat maintenance myself for the first time and need a solid plan for running the boat on the trailer. I think I am going to use the "bucket method" and need to make sure I understand raw water cooling mechanism on my PCM GT40 and make the right connections

I narrowed it down to 2 options:

1. Buy Bucket Hose Adapter and connect it to the hose exiting raw water strainer (marked #2 on the pic)

or

2. Buy 1.25" PVC Hose and connect it to the elbow connector entering raw water strainer (marked #1)


Option #2 is a bit cheaper and I can get longer hose to allow the bucket to stand on the ground. With option #1 the hose is not long enough and I would have to put the bucket somewhere on the boat. With option #1 the water will be bypassing the water strainer, is that ok?

Just to make sure I understand the cooling mechanism, the arrow on the water strainer (#4) shows direction of the water flow - hose attached to #1 is coming from thru hull fitting, and hose #2 is going to transmission cooler-->water pump-->engine. Am I right or wrong here?

Also, what is that small blue hose marked #3 on the picture and where it's going?

[NautiqueJeff]

Not sure what number 3 is. Do you happen to have the shower option on your boat? Might be the cold water connection for that.

[dominator]

Not sure what number 3 is. Do you happen to have the shower option on your boat? Might be the cold water connection for that.

Yes that's it, I do have cold/hot shower.

[Infinity]

Guess I am not sure why you don't just add a Perko Flush Pro or something similar so you can just hook the boat up to your garden hose and run it for as long as you need.
A 5 gal bucket of water will only run the boat for roughly 60 seconds on my boat (if I am properly understanding what you plan to do). I use 5 gallon bucket for the anti-freeze after I drain my engine when winterizing and use a transfer pump simply cause after you drain all the water it doesnt always want to prime immediately. Within 45-60 seconds, all 5 gallons is in the engine and starting to come out of the exhaust.

Just not sure why you would want to retro something that will only allow you to briefly run the boat compared to a Perko where you can run it as long as you need. As long as you have a quality hose and dont live somewhere with extremely low pressure, you wont have issues with starving the engine for water or collapsing the hose. Perhaps you do have very low water pressure due to well or something and why you are looking at this option but wanted to be sure you knew how briefly a 5 gallon bucket will allow you to fire up the boat.

[dominator]

Guess I am not sure why you don't just add a Perko Flush Pro or something similar so you can just hook the boat up to your garden hose and run it for as long as you need.
A 5 gal bucket of water will only run the boat for roughly 60 seconds on my boat (if I am properly understanding what you plan to do). I use 5 gallon bucket for the anti-freeze after I drain my engine when winterizing and use a transfer pump simply cause after you drain all the water it doesnt always want to prime immediately. Within 45-60 seconds, all 5 gallons is in the engine and starting to come out of the exhaust.

Just not sure why you would want to retro something that will only allow you to briefly run the boat compared to a Perko where you can run it as long as you need. As long as you have a quality hose and dont live somewhere with extremely low pressure, you wont have issues with starving the engine for water or collapsing the hose. Perhaps you do have very low water pressure due to well or something and why you are looking at this option but wanted to be sure you knew how briefly a 5 gallon bucket will allow you to fire up the boat.

The idea is to keep adding water to the bucket as engine runs, see video here. I think that would work as long as I run engine at idle and have enough water continuously coming into the bucket.

I did think about installing Perko Flush Pro, but per installation instructions, you want at least 6" of hose on both sides and as you can see on the picture the space is tight. I would love to see a picture of Perko Flush Pro installed on PCM GT40 v-drive engine.

[memerr]

This may help. I have an 03 210 which appears very similar to your fresh water intake. I added a tee, two valves and a female garden hose fitting to quickly connect to a garden hose and run engine as long as I want. This also makes winterization a breeze. Simply leave the red valve open and blue valve closed during normal boating operation. When on trailer/lift etc and want to run engine, simply reverse valve open/closed position and hook up garden hose and turn on. Maybe $40 in material from hardware store and an hour to install. Good luck and hope this helps.

[dominator]

Very nice set up, I guess I can do something like that, I just need to make sure I don't forget to open and keep open the red valve

[hal2814]

Guess I am not sure why you don't just add a Perko Flush Pro or something similar so you can just hook the boat up to your garden hose and run it for as long as you need.
A 5 gal bucket of water will only run the boat for roughly 60 seconds on my boat (if I am properly understanding what you plan to do). I use 5 gallon bucket for the anti-freeze after I drain my engine when winterizing and use a transfer pump simply cause after you drain all the water it doesnt always want to prime immediately. Within 45-60 seconds, all 5 gallons is in the engine and starting to come out of the exhaust.

Just not sure why you would want to retro something that will only allow you to briefly run the boat compared to a Perko where you can run it as long as you need. As long as you have a quality hose and dont live somewhere with extremely low pressure, you wont have issues with starving the engine for water or collapsing the hose. Perhaps you do have very low water pressure due to well or something and why you are looking at this option but wanted to be sure you knew how briefly a 5 gallon bucket will allow you to fire up the boat.

The idea behind using a bucket is to continually feed water into the bucket from the hose and the boat feeds off of the bucket. The reason to do it this way is avoid forcing water into the water intake. I have personally caught a worn impeller in the driveway before using the bucket method that I would not have caught directly running off a hose. That $5 bucket was the difference between me changing the impeller in my driveway vs having to do it in the water. I don’t think it’s a big enough deal to change your current process but I’ve always used a bucket and usually encourage that method if asked.

[03SANTE]

I use a fitting now but I used a bucket the first season. If going the bucket route if you don't have a helper tie the supply hose and your hose going into the boat system to a brick or something to keep everything at the bottom of the bucket. As someone mentioned it doesn't take long to suck the bucket dry.

[Infinity]

The idea behind using a bucket is to continually feed water into the bucket from the hose and the boat feeds off of the bucket. The reason to do it this way is avoid forcing water into the water intake. I have personally caught a worn impeller in the driveway before using the bucket method that I would not have caught directly running off a hose. That $5 bucket was the difference between me changing the impeller in my driveway vs having to do it in the water. I don’t think it’s a big enough deal to change your current process but I’ve always used a bucket and usually encourage that method if asked.

Makes sense, had not thought of it that way since I change my impeller every Spring regardless of hours and keep the prior years impeller as a backup spare.