230 Challenger winterization in north Texas

[jrhunt84]

Hi all,

I'm sure this may have been hashed out on another thread but can't seem to find it (if so). I purchased a 230 Challenger in May of this year and this will be my first winter with it. Aside from fuel treatment, is anything else recommended. Last year we had quite a few days below freezing but that is not the norm for winters here.

I don't want to pay $400+ for the boat to be winterized if its not needed.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[JPass]

Oil change should be done prior to laying up the boat for any length as the oil tends to become acidic with use and its better to leave fresh oil in a boat that's sitting as opposed to old, contaminated oil. Might as well do the plugs as well while you're at it.

As for the coolant winterization, that depends on how cold the temps get. If it's below freezing for the whole day or days, that might be enough to warrant a proper winterization as you may way wind up paying more should anything freeze and damage something.

If it only gets below freezing for a few hours, it might not be enough to hard freeze any water in the exhaust to cause damage, but there's certainly more risk involved in not doing so.

We can get frost on occasion down here in central FL, but hard freezes don't really happen, so we never winterize our boat.

At the very least, do your best to evacuate as much water as possible out of the exhaust system to give any remaining water room to expand if it does freeze.

The items that would contain water in them are:
intercooler
exhaust manifold
exhaust hoses
exhaust mufflers and resonators.

 

[10forty2]

You should be able to evacuate most if not all water out of the exhaust system by cranking the engine(s) and running up the rpms to around 5K for no more than 30 seconds WITHOUT cooling water attached. Let the engine(s) cool completely for an hour or so and then do it again. I can't see where any damage would/could be done with that short of a run time, and whatever water that was left in the exhaust will be expelled through the pump, and the rest will evaporate from the heat.

 

[gb387]

You can also attach an air fitting to you water inlet and use an air compressor to expell any water in the system. The air method is a Sea Doo recommendation, as so not to confuse some in colder climates.