Oil and Winter Questions from a Newbie

[Oceanwarryer]

Hello folks - I've had Ocean Warryer - a 2012 21EC for about a month now - I love using a dollar an hour on fuel!

I have a few newbie questions I have condensed into one post:

a) I can never seem to top the dipstick oil level off - it always seems to top off at 3/4 between the two marks - but I don't want to blow a seal trying to go higher. Does the Yanmar 30hp burn a certain amount of oil as it runs? (Mine only had 300 hours on it when I got it.)

b) and tips for winterizing? Obvious things I may not know? I just put new coolant in....my water and waste tanks are empty-ish.

thanks
Vince Warry

 

[sheral]

hey vince. just across the pond from you.

we have a volvo penta in our 2015 so i can’t speak to your oil level question. for winterizing, off the top of my head:
remove all your upholstered pieces and store inside the house/garage. add propylene glycol plumbing antifreeze to your fresh water holding tank and pump it through your system and then add a bit into the trap of your sink. After you have run fresh water through your engine (I first run a mix of ‘salt away’ and fresh water through it) then run a 50/50 mix of (I use Amsoil engine antifreeze the non-toxic version but lots of people use 100% strength plumbing antifreeze) engine antifreeze (and I also mix in ’salt away’) and run your engine until you see the antifreeze exiting the exhaust. shut er down, change your engine oil, trans oil, and fuel filters. throw some warm soapy water through the bilge and let your bilge pump - pump out the warm soapy water. then run some plumbing antifreeze into and through the bilge pump. remove your hull plug (if out of the water). spray all your electrical connections with an appropriate spray, take out your batteries or put a trickle charger on them, check all bolts for tightnes - especially your engine mount bolts, remove your impeller and check it for damage and either place it in a plastic zip-lock bag until spring, or have a new one ready, clean and wax the boat, and apply a fresh coat of bottom paint.

probably missed a few things, but hopefully it gives you food for thought.

 

[Oceanwarryer]

Thank you for the extensive list.
I just completed the oil change. Haven't done a tranny oil change yet - do I have to suck that out of the dipstick hole as well? What type of fluid do I use?

The boat had a dry water tank when I got it...but I will add some antifreeze as you mentioned, to be safe.

I am keeping her in the water over the winter, as I am a SCUBA diver and am looking forward to getting out in the cold clear water and diving some wrecks.

🙂

 

[sheral]

Please keep in mind that we have the Volvo Penta engine and likely a different reverse gear. On my reverse gear, yes I just suck the trans oil out of the dipstick hole. Our reverse gear calls for 15w-40 oil.

The other thing I would suggest, if I didn’t already mention it, would be to drain your closed loop coolant and flush your heat exchanger with tap water, then replace fresh closed loop coolant. I like to keep ahead of any heat exchanger problems 🙂 I do have a friend with the Yanmar in a R21 and his heat exchanger packed it in a couple years ago...very expensive fix.