HELP....Trying to run antifreeze thru engine

[naturechick23]

Hi all,
I really need some advice before i lose my mind. I am in the process of winterizing my 2010 21EC. I unscewed the small black adapter attatched the hose and ran freshwater thru the engine. I then attempted to fill a bucket with antifreeze to suck thru the engine...except i could not get it to draw out of the bucket and into the engine. It worked with fresh water with the hose attatched....why wouldn't it draw up the antifreeze? I even shortened the hose thinking maybe it was too far of a distance. Should seacocks be opened or closed? I had them closed. Any help would be appreciated
Vickie

 

[rt11002003]

I'm wondering about the possible effect of running fresh water (I'm assuming pressurized city water) thru the raw water system. City water pressure can easily be in excess of 100 pounds per square inch. That's a lot of pressure. It's possible you blew one of the hoses off a fitting, or split a hose. If that's the case your raw water pump might not be able to pickup the antifreeze. I'd also check the pump impeller.

The seacock should be closed when flushing and when pumping antifreeze. When flushing with fresh water, it's best to run the fresh water into a large container and draw the fresh water from the container. That eliminates the possibility of too much city water pressure.

My raw water system takes just over a half gallon of antifreeze to fill and begin pumping it overboard. I use a washing machine hose. Attach one end to the raw water fitting and stick the other end in the gallon container of antifreeze. I leave the container on cockpit floor. This process is repeated a number of times during the winter. I run the boat as much as I can, year round. I only winterize when a really cold period is forecasted.

Gene

 

[tlkenyon]

When I did this just a couple of weeks ago for the first time, I ran into the same problem i.e., the pump would not draw the AF out of the jug. I found that the connection to the tee fitting was intermittently leaking just a very little bit and killing the suction. The fitting felt tight, but I re-tightened the fitting anyway and then it worked great. It took about a 3/4 of a gallon to see the pink in the exhaust and then I ran in another half gallon just for good measure. The remainder got dumped into the bilge where the pump kicked on and we got pink out the discharge. Pulled the hull plug and it was done.

A very small air leak on the suction side can really kill the capability of the pump. Good luck.

TK

 

[K7MXE]

This year I had the same problem and not in the past so I rigged a piece of hose that coupled into the T fitting on one end and on the other end I used a funnel and just poured in the anti freeze with the motor running and waited for it to come out the exhaust then killed the motor and put the cap back on the T fitting. It always picked up out of my five gallon handy bucket in the past but not this year. It got down to +5 last week so hope it worked out ok. Bob Heselberg near Eatonville Wa

 

[Andrew Custis]

I have an idea of what may be happening. When we run antifreeze through the engines we use a large funnel and stick it right in the same tee fitting that the hose goes on to flush with fresh water. We just pour the antifreeze in as the engine sucks it through. If you do this, you need the make sure the seacock is closed, otherwise it will run right out of the high speed intake. Just a thought 😀

 

[K7MXE]

Andrew is very right about this. I did it the way he suggests but had good luck sucking it with the pump in the past.
Bob Heselberg

 

[ac holmes]

I had the same problem and solved it by tightening the hose connection...as mentioned above, even a small air leak needs to be eliminated.