Winterization?

[wsander5785]

first off...new to forum and i'm not very mechanically inclined.

i'm wondering if i need to winterize my 2005 rxp. I live north of atl, ga and it does freeze.

if i need to winterize I was also wondering if i put a marine heater in the engine compartment...could i get around winterizing. for me...The cost of a heater would be better then pulling them out winterizing and then unwinterizing. i have a dock on lake lanier so it sits on a ramp.

sorry for the amatuer question....but i like to go for a ride occassionally during the winter when no one is out on the lake and it looks like glass.

any advice would be great

 

[DavesNotHereMan]

Hey! And welcome.

I also have a place on Lake Lanier. I have a 2 stroke and a 4 - tec. I pull mine for the winter and leave them in the garage. The 2 stroke needs the full winterization because it is an open system, meaning it uses lake water to cool the engine. Yours is a closed loop system, meaning it uses antifreeze and cools the engine by means of a heat exchanger at the ride plate.

I know a number of people that put a small heater or even a 100w light bulb in the engine compartment.

When was the last time you checked / changed the pump grease / oil? What about the engine oil itself? That should be an annual event.

My 2011 GTI requires that you blow out any water in the system with a self/fabricated air hose at 55psi. That would be the biggest issue for us. Remember last Feb when we lost power for a few days and it went down to 4F? That would be the biggest concern. The guys that leave theirs out also trickle charge their battery. One even has a solar panel setup to do so.

I have used a heater in my boat left on the dock all winter for 12 years with no issue. I can only remember our cove freezing over once in the past decade. Usually, the lake temp will get down to the lower 40's, so it is always slightly warmer than the air.


-Dave
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[DavesNotHereMan]

Oh, I forgot ...

If it will sit for awhile, you should fog the engine. I think you will need to pull the plugs to do so.

Some of the other guys with an SC will chime in about water in the intercooler as that will need to be blown out.


-Dave
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[3ftDeep]

There are lots of reasons to winterize. Check out the following video ...
https://youtu.be/kCEVRg0zr80

 

[Coastiejoe]

Can you get away with a heater and or the 100 amp bulb trick? Probably.

But yes, you really should winterize the ski. If you lose power the reason you will likely lose power will be because of a storm. And in the winter, storms are Snow and Cold storms,,,, less than 24 hours it can freeze and cause damage.

As noted above, the 4-tec is a closed loop engine so the engine does not need much. It should be fogged.

The intercooler and the exhaust are cooled by Raw Water (The water you are riding in).

So,,, they need to be winterized and or blown out with a air hose at the minimum.

 

[poolguy]

I did not have enough time this fall to learn to winterize mine myself. I feel confident on my '14 155 GTX but I did not feel confident on the '09 255GTX. My thought was to to cycle a few gallons of antifreeze thru it then blow it out. But I did not know if when pumping thru flush port if antifreeze would make it thru intercooler and manifold or if it would just dump into the exhaust.

 

[poolguy]

Is anybody winterizing the 255/260 themselves?