Winterizing a Saildrive

[merrytimer]

Hi. I'm getting ready to winterized my Volvo Penta MD2030 with Saildrive (MS25S?) for the first time. Do I need to drain water out of it or do anything else to prepare it for freezing temperatures? Thanks very much.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by merrytimer

Hi. I'm getting ready to winterized my Volvo Penta MD2030 with Saildrive (MS25S?) for the first time. Do I need to drain water out of it or do anything else to prepare it for freezing temperatures? Thanks very much.

I live in MD where we get a few weeks of freezing weather with the water in our bay freezing enough to walk on many years. I close the valve to the saildrive intake, remove the intake hose from the saildrive and use it to suck rv antifreeze through the engine, and always pour a quarter cup or so back into the saildrive intake just to make sure there's no water trapped right on top of the valve, then replace the intake hose. Haven't had any problems over several years.

[merrytimer]

Thanks very much for that advice. That's pretty much what I planned to do & did today, only I disconnected at the impeller pump and used a different hose to intake the anti-freeze. I just left my seacock open though, because it's on the hard. Do you leave your in the water?

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by merrytimer

Thanks very much for that advice. That's pretty much what I planned to do & did today, only I disconnected at the impeller pump and used a different hose to intake the anti-freeze. I just left my seacock open though, because it's on the hard. Do you leave your in the water?

Sorry, should have specified that and asked about yours. Yes, mine does stay in the water. If you're on the hard then yes, I'd just leave the seacock open and for good measure dump enough rv antifreeze through the hose you disconnected from the impeller until red water uns out the bottom of the sail drive.