6-71 J&T

[Trojan]

What do I need to do to winterize My Johnson & towers heat exchangers? I'm not quite clear on them. I know what I want to do. Like a complete antifreeze flush .Is there an easier way maybe drain plugs? I don't have a manual on the engines. Bill

[Banshee36]

I assume you have engine raw water strainers. Shut off the seacock open up the top of the strainer and pour in you antifreeze, with the engine running till it runs out the exhaust pipe. This is how I have been winterizing engines for a long long time.
JW

[Trojan]

I usually try to drain any water that I can first. Than add the antifreeze. I can't just pore it in the strainers,they lay horizontal. So I need to figure out something differant. I thought there would be some drain plugs someplace. Bill

[jzanni]

I made a permanent mounting with a T made from copper piping , cut the hose from sea strainer to raw water pump, and connected the long end of the T into the hose running from the strainer, connected one side of the T to the hose going into the raw water pump and put a plug in the other side of the T.
When I winterize I shut the sea cock, take out the plug in the T, connect a copper elbow with a hose connected and put this in a 5 gal bucket filled with pink antifreeze. Start the engine and keep pouring antifreeze into the bucket until it comes out the exhaust.
Hope this is somewhat clear.
Let me know if you need some pictures.

[Nick]

Here's how I do the 671 TIs run in salt water. Close the seacock and drain the strainer or pump out the water from the strainer manually with a hand pump. Close the lid on the strainer. Pull the zinc plugs on the heat exchanger, the raw water pump intake, the gear cooler, the fuel cooler and the intercooler ( brass pugs on the inlet side) and drain the salt water out of the raw water side of the cooling system. Replace the zincs and brass plugs. Connect a threaded (NPT) to hose barb fitting on the intake side of the raw water pump and connect a hose to the fitting and place it in a 5 gallon bucket. Fill the bucket with antifreeze. Start and run the engine until the bucket is nearly empty and then stop the engine. It should take about five minutes to empty the bucket. Refill the bucket with antifreeze and run the engine again until the bucket is about empty and watch the exhaust. Antifreeze should be coming out the exhaust after about two buckets of antifreeze. If not repeat the last step. Some folks flush the salt water out of the cooling system with fresh water before the antifreeze and then drain the water. You can fill the firsty two or three buckets with fresh water and run it through the engines and then use the antifreeze as described above. It takes about 10 gallons each to winterize our 671TIs.

May we have a short winter!

Nick

[Trojan]

Ten gallon of pink stuff each! OK! I will go to the boat this week and see what type of jury rigging I'm going to need. Thanks for the help Guys. Bill

[Capt K]

I had enough room to permantly thread a T into the strainer and then go into the intake hose. Now, all I have to do is remove the plug from the T and thread in a hose clamped to a threaded barb that I keep in a large covered container for winterizing. Put the proper amount of antifreeze into the bucket, start the engine, shut it down when finished. Everything goes back in the container and is ready for next year!

After ten years with the same boat, it gets a little more routine.

K

[newinlet]

This is what we do to winterize our J&T 671


Drain fresh water holding tank, by-pass the hot water heater, add enough non toxic anti-freeze to winterize all systems Approx; 24 Gal .
When the boat is haulded & blocked engines still warm
1) Remove sea stainer cover or intake hose @ raw water intake
2) Run a fresh water supply hose(Water supply @ marina) into sea strainer, run engine at an idle for 10 Min. Stop water supply, shut off engine
3) you should have a fresh water spicket in your engine room or somewhere on your boat. Make a length of hose that will reach your sea strainers, head intake, A/C intake Ect..
4) Run that hose into your sea stainer & turn on the fresh water pump then start the engine.
5) Have someone observe when the water from the exhaust, When it goes from clear (fresh water) to pink (anti-freeze) - At that point catch the pink stuff in a 5 Gal. bucket. when it is almost full kill the engine & fresh water pump you are done.
6) I use my fresh water supply to winterize all systems in my boat.
7) In the spring I flush my fresh water tank out a few times, It has never been a problem
8) We live in Mass. very cold & never any winterizing problems
9) using the fresh water as a anti-freeze holding tank is fast & reduces the mess. Hope this helps !!

[Trojan]

Great ideas. I'll check out what I can use on my boat.Thanks guys. Bill

[NAN-PO 41]

I also installed a tee between the strainer and seacock but I put a valve onto the tee and have a hose which reaches into the bilge with a screen pickup on it. In an emergency I can turn my main engines into bilge pumps. All I do to winterize is close the seacock,open the valve on the tee, put the bilge hose into a 5 gal bucket put two freshwater hoses in the bucket and flush the raw water side until the eng is up to temp, kill the fresh water, empty the bucket, refill with a/freeze, restart and run until exhaust water is pink. (you can add to bucket while running if ness.) You only have to be careful not to run the water pump dry. You will be amazed how much the raw water pump will consume. Two hoses will barely keep up with my 8v53's at idle.
Fred