2016 G23 Winterization

[Last302]

I’ve searched this info high and low, and have found pieces, but nothing dedicated to my boat with the 6.2L 450hp motor. I am parking my boat at home in southern Utah where it will regularly get into the -negatives. I’ve seen -20 here over the years living here. My dealer indicated to do the following-

• pull the nine blue drain plugs-done
• pull the strainer-done
• start the motor and rev until water is blown out of everywhere that I pulled the plugs.(NOT done yet)Does it matter if strainer is connected or not when performing this last startup?

-The manual states a little more. Do I need to unscrew the bolt underneath the fuel control cell? If so, what’s the process? Do I do this before, or after I start the boat one more time?
-Do I remove the water separator filter completely, or leave it alone? If the advice is to remove it, do I do that before, or after I start the boat one more time?
-Is there anything else other than insuring my ballasts are empty?
-FYI I do NOT have a heater. Thanks in advance for anyone able to help!!

[bturner]

I can only comment on part of this as I've only winterized 1 of the closed cooling system boats before. Not sure where the dealer is coming up with revving the boat with no water or antifreeze running through the system but that sounds suspect to me. Is that actually in the manual? Running the engine dry for more than a few seconds will tear up the raw water pump impeller at idle let alone revving it so, this sounds suspect to me. I do bump the ones I do over after pickling the system but this would be for 2 maybe 5 seconds tops, just to make sure there wasn't water trapped anywhere. As soon as we seen antifreeze coming out the exhaust we shut it down. Sometimes this happens as soon as you bump the key. I have minimal antifreeze leave the system when I do this.

Based on the environment, if I were looking to add some extra insurance to the winterization process past going with a dry raw water side, I would do the bucket of antifreeze method on the raw water cooling side and suck up about 2 gallons of -100 marine antifreeze after draining the system and reinstalling the strainer and plugs. To me, this sounds a lot better than running the system dry but then again, I've only done one of these. On the one I did I followed the instructions in the manual and left the system dry. I did not start the boat once I drained the system.

On the ballast..... I personally run a gallon of antifreeze into each tank. I know people who don't and have never had a problem but this is just part of the process I've done on all the wake boats I've owned or winterized. On the MCs and Malibu's I work on, I'll pour a gallon into the overflow then hit drain for each tank and stop the drain when I hear of we see antifreeze coming out of the drain fitting.

On the fuel system.... Per the manual and stickers all over the fuel system, I run marine Stabil 360 all year long so I don't worry about doing anything past that to the fuel system for the winter. I've never pulled any drains of done anything further to the fuel systems on the boats I've done and have never had a problem. That said, when I do maintenance on the fuel system I do it in the fall. You may want to check to see when the maintenance for your fuel system is due and complete it at this time.

All this said I could be completely wrong on this particular system. It should be interesting to read what others with similar systems are doing.

[Scooter G]

Antifreeze is over the top and not necessary, but cheap assurance, and if you are into peace of mind, follow bturner's prescription. I feel that antifreeze also offers a little internal protection against corrosion, perhaps.
In my minds eye, I worry about the fresh water impeller, and the ballasts, so I pull the cover off all the pumps, for inspection, final draining, and impeller replacement as necessary. Fresh water impeller gets updated once a season, again, cheap assurance. I noticed that our starboard bag is being a little slow on the empty cycle, impellers are fairly new, but close to time to to take a look there.
Remove the fresh water strainer cup, empty, inspect the O-ring, lubricate w/ silicone, replace.
The only time I drain the fuel cell is when the filter is being replaced, once a season.
Didn't see hours listed, and assuming this is a new boat to you. You have found a great source of useful information and comradery on Planet Nautique, welcome!
If you run a search on winterization and the likes you will find plenty of information here, maybe not year specific, but plenty enough to get you there. Don't over think it, these newer PCM systems have made it really easy on us. 1st time I winterized, I spent just as much time thinking, that was way too easy, what did I miss? I have a heater, so one extra step in that process. There are also some good resources on filters (fuel & fuel water separator) R&R, impeller changes, and oil changes.
Best of luck, let us know how it goes, throw in some pics of the process, we are here to help each other...

[bturner]

Great top tip on the silicone. I started using plumbers grease on the O ring and the threads on my strainers years ago. A little goes a long way. I think I'm just getting to the bottom of the container I bought 5 or 6 years ago.....

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Oatey-0-5-f..._428rcRgXq-Ddc