Winterize a motor with alpha drive

[alk]

I should know the answer to this, but never had an alpha ( with the pump in the drive) - all my various boats were inboards, or bravo drive - so to winterize I just put the intake hose into a bucket, pulled the thermostat for rwc motors, and then ran it.

I have friend with an alpha drive who is going to need some help winterizing, and I’m not sure how it’s done. Do I need one of those tanks, and muffs to go over the drive? I have seen a few YouTube’s where they don’t even run the motor with antifreeze, and instead remove the drain plugs and dump af into the hoses coming off the water pump. Is that proper way?

 

[BillK]

Here is what I did with my old SeaRay (Mercruiser 4.3/Alpha I).
1. Change oil / gearlube if not doing it in spring.
2. Fog engine - mine was carbureted, so just stall it out with fogging spray.
3. Pull the blue plugs from block, manifolds - may be another one around waterpump or coolfuel if it has one. Also, if your PS cooler does not drain, you may want to pull a hose from it and drain.
4. Pull the big hose from the thermostat housing - the one that connects to the circulating water pump.
5. Pour antifreeze into that hose until it runs out through exhaust.
At this point, you've drained all the water out of the engine and filled the engine block and manifolds with antifreeze. No removing the thermostat or guessing if it was open when you ran in the antifreeze. If you want to use the suck in while running method, just put muffs on the outdrive and draw the antifreeze in there. The water pump on an Alpha being in the drive "pushes" cooling water up into the engine vs "pulling" like on an inboard or other engine mounted water pump.

This is just the way I've always done, not the only way.

 

[sugilbert]

After attaching water hose cuff to Alpha drive and turning hose on at ½ flow, I started the engine and with 2 cans of fogging oil, sprayed into carb's throat until it choked out.
After draining all the water from my 4.3L carb's engines (5 blue plugs) I pulled, one by one, the 4 hoses on the thermostat housing, and, with funnel, poured ½ gal of diluted AF in each.

 

[boatbum]

I used a large deep pan with a bilge pump and a battery. It was a 1987 with twin 260 mercs and alphas. Pull the props. Drain as much water from the blocks etc. as possible, then hook up the muff, fill the pan with AF and start the pump. Then start the engine. A shower curtain between the transome and trailer rollers helps keep the AF flowing into the pan as there are exhaust ports that are located just off the transome IIRC. It all doesn't go out the hub.
Once it all looks good, let it cool down and check the protection level with the AF gauge.