Winterizing Yanmar 2GM20, drain plugs

[lk240]

I put this little system together to winterize my 2gm20f, short vid shows it briefly. used a 5 gallon plastic gas tank, rigged a hose to the raw water intake with a shut off valve from the tank, then ran tubes with a y connector either back to tank while the engine warmed up and then once warm, switched to out through the muffler and out the exhaust. seemed to work well, more complicated than just a bucket with hose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF1zNLEIEac

[lk240]

better view of the y connector

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNU4LT4Px_8

[redbeard1]

Originally Posted by hamburking

First, do an an oil change.

Disconnect the seawater intake from the seacock and use it to suck up a few gallons of antifreeze. ...

OP, you asked about the engine, and most points have been covered (change oil, run propylene glycol through your raw water system).



You just need to customize the information to your boat. Depending on the size of your engine, hose lengths and diameter you may need more/less propylene glycol. We used to run 5 gallons through our 3 cylinder volvo that has a long anti-siphon run. This year we emptied our water lift muffler before starting the process to reduce the dilution of the anti-freeze and thereby decrease the amount needed. This last change reduced the amount of anti-freeze used from 5 gallons 3 gallons.


Two more points. Making an error when winterizing your boat (engine or other aspects like water tanks, hoses, heads, water heaters) can be very expensive in the spring. Make sure you read extensively. There is an excellent appendix checklist in Calder about winterizing. There is also great information on this site. As others have mentioned, sometimes there are errors or badly worded replies, but in general if you read twenty threads on winterizing your engine, you will learn what is probably true and what is just a bad opinion.


Second point. Reading all this stuff is just the first step. You need to customize it for your boat. As a general rule, anything that held water during the sailing season, needs to be evaluated for winterizing. For example, our boat has a second icebox that is not refrigerated. The icebox is emptied via a small hose that leads to the sink in the head. We very nearly forgot to winterize this hose our first year. Had the hose ruptured, the repair would not have been expensive. But this illustrates how only you can trace every hose in your boat to make sure water has either been drained or, even better, replaced with propylene glycol then drained.


Here is a good link to the process that I got from a post on this site.


https://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/...em_winterizing


https://pbase.com/mainecruising/engi...eze_protection


I will repeat this again for emphasis. I think winterizing your own boat is a great idea. In addition to enuring the job is done well, you learn much about your boat in the process. But, the job must be done well or very expensive fixes will be needed. I learned from these forums but checked every step in Calder or some other book that has withstood the test of time and had a good reputation.


Hope it goes well.

[MarkusK]

Originally Posted by hamburking

I owned a yanmar 2gmf. Also a Volvo 2002 and a couple of atomic 4s. Winterizing is similar on all of them.

I live in Kingston, Canada (Lake Ontario), where the water gets hard for the winter. And we get many freeze/thaw cycles.

First, do an an oil change.

Disconnect the seawater intake from the seacock and use it to suck up a few gallons of antifreeze. In the old days we used automotive antifreeze (like for a car radiator) but now we use plumbing antifreeze. I learned to run antifreeze through until the discharge over the stern looked the same as what was going in. For a 2gm that would be about 2 gallons. But antifreeze is SOOO much cheaper than a new engine (or engine repair) so I would run 4 gallons through. Shut down the engine, and you are done. Put away the key. This method means the water strainer, engine, muffler, water pump, everything is full of antifreeze. Thats what you want. Exposure to air is when you get corrosion (rust) or rubber parts dry out and become brittle.

Then find all the other components on your boat that have water in them and do the same with more antifreeze...the head, bilge pump, fresh water system, and even splash some into the bilge just in case.

Fill the diesel tank to the very top to limit water condensation. Charge the batteries and disconnect them. Open all the lockers below to help ventilation and reduce the chance of mold.

I've done this more times than I care to remember, with never any freezing damage.

Good luck to you.

Every step you mention...is EXACTLY what I do!