Another Winterizing Question

[Craig]

Well, I'm sure this has been covered before and I feel kind of stupid for asking, but with the old Holman Moody Fords in many of these little classic Donzis with just the single raw water pump cooling system, does it make perhaps better sense to just remove the thermostat before winterizing? I have always let the engine warm up to a point where, looking at the temp gage, I think the thermostat has opened and then added the antifreeze mix, BUT it's always a little tricky doing it alone (which is usually the case) when you gotta, start the boat, pour antifreeze, spray fogging oil, ALL in the right amounts until you see antifreeze in the exhaust water, etc, etc.!

I just thought, if I took the thermostat out, wouldn't that just eliminate that waiting and wondering if the thermostat is letting antifreeze go everywhere it's suppose to? Seemed reasonable when I thought of it because the thermostat is pretty easy to get out (two little bolts) and then I could just put it back in come spring.

Any thoughts?

[BigGrizzly]

Craig yes it is the better way to remove the T-stat. I did it until I closed cooling mine

[Craig]

Thanks BG (also for the reply on the paint thread). And by the way I saw the happy birthday thread...

Happy Birthday!

Craig

[mattyboy]

I had a flush valve on my HM 351 I never removed the tstat I had a setup with a sump pump with a garden hose and some pvc pipes and a keg tub 4 gallons of 50/50 and 1 gallon of straight auto motive antifreeze for the water already in the block start the pump wait till it dumped out of the thru hull pipes into the pvc pipes which dumped it back into the keg tub and ran the boat for 15 - 20 minutes giving time to get hot makes oil changes easier too

then drained the motor and pulled the low water hose
never had a problem

[Craig]

That's funny! I was actually working on something like that a while back using an old sump pump I had but when I got it all ready, the sump pump died!