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Paranoid to Winterize

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sbhcom

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Hello everyone, I have extensively read through the posts and have not been able to find an exact match to what I need so here goes my question.

I have been paying a shop to winterize my 2 2001 GTX RFI and have happily paid the $180 for both without too much concern. But alas things have changed and while I am very good at most DIY I have always been paranoid to winterize these. I just want to be sure that I am doing the procedure correctly for my particular model and year pwc.

Well here is my plan:

Add stable to the gas and top off.

Purchase a pump (recommendations welcome), gallons of pink RV antifreeze and use a length of garden hose to hook to the hose connector at the rear of the pwc and the pump, start the pwc and then start the pump to pump the pink stuff into the pwc until at least 1 gallon goes thru and the pink stuff is spilling out from the back of the pwc, shutoff the pump shut off the pwc. This is the part I am most concerned with (paranoid). Is this all I need to do to protect the engine from freezing temps? Or is there another hose I need to be dealing with?

Remove the plugs and fog thoroughly crank the engine without the plugs to coat the cylinders, reinstall plugs.

Disconnect the battery and place on a trickle charge.

Am I good?? I know that the jet pump requires service also, but the shop has told me you can do that every other year. The pwcs have only been ridden about 15 hours this year..crappy Michigan weather.

Thank you for your help.

Tony
 
You don't need antifreeze. Get the air hose adapter and blast it out with high pressure air. It will be fine. With the previous owner, mine survived NH winters for 12 years without doing anything at all. Last year when I bought it, I used the air and tons of water came out. I tipped the trailer back all the way till the Doo was on the ground. Don't stress about antifreeze, find a buddy or a garage with air.
 
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Dustindu4 thanks for the reply, I have a 6 gallon pancake compressor, what is the "air hose adapter" and how do I do the procedure ?

Thanks again.
 
Yeah that compressor should do it. As far as the procedure, google search "seadoo manuals" and download the shop manual. The winterizing procedure is in the beginning.

The garden hose air attachment I use is from Vibrant Yard Company. I got mine with the shut off valve, although you really don't need it. Just google search it and it will come up. Part number is ACMGH or ACMGHSV

Seadoo I believe also sells an adapter, the local stealership should have them. It's a plastic molded piece. I've seen them there.
 
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compressed air simply won't clear all the water out of the system, the reason you run RV antifreeze through it is to flush the water out and mix or replace with antifreeze. there can still be enough water in the jug to freeze solid and push your base gasket out or crack a jug.
 
Yup what Strizzo said.
Its practically impossible to get all of the water out, the rv antifreeze flush is to replace or mix with the remaining water to prevent the freezing. I seen a cold spell do tremendous damage to an engine that wasnt winterized correctly
 
I just used a funnel and some of that cheap RV antifreeze. I popped off the water feed hose off the head and plugged another hose with a funnel attached to it. I just pour a half gallon or so down the gullet and fog it, along with topping off with stabil and forget it until next season. I don't bother running it as I don't even put in enough water for it to come out of the exhaust pipe. All the water is out of there anyway just due to gravity. Honestly, my family had two skis with 580 motors and NEVER winterized them. NC winters routinely get down into the 20s, sometimes lower. We never had a problem with blocks cracking or anything, but now that they're MY skis, I'm a bit more paranoid.
 
The proper procedure is adequately covered in the shop manual for this ski, some shops will use a pump but the shop manual procedure doesn't require anything quite so elaborate. IMO, the shop manual procedure using gravity should work just fine for the purposes of the annual do-it-yourselfer.

I do many winterizations daily during the fall season, so to speed my day I use a tank with a pump (a large bilge pump) mounted in it. I made this tank from a plastic barrel cut in half along it's length and bolted to a cart which rolls up under the aft-end of the ski(or boat) to catch the antifreeze as it pours out the back. I also fog the engine while running the antifreeze through, and sample the return antifreeze with a propylene glycol refractometer as it pours out of the ski.

I typically go through a 50gal barrel of propylene glycol every year, LOL, not cheap!

http://www.process-controls.com/Metex/Misco/misco_glycol_battery_tester2.htm
 
Strizzo said:
compressed air simply won't clear all the water out of the system, the reason you run RV antifreeze through it is to flush the water out and mix or replace with antifreeze. there can still be enough water in the jug to freeze solid and push your base gasket out or crack a jug.
Click to expand...

This is especially true with Super Charged engines..
The manual states to disconnect it so that you can pour out approximately a pint of water that settles in the bottom of the SC.
 
Personally, I'm not answering any winterizing threads until, at least next month, and then only for members north of the US.

Lou
 
LouDoo said:
Personally, I'm not answering any winterizing threads until, at least next month, and then only for members north of the US.

Lou
Click to expand...

This is the BEST answer hands down...

There should be a program that prevents the word "winterize" from showing up before the predetermined date.
 
OK, well if I could I would keep my pwc in the water till Christmas, buy unfortunately Northern Michigan has suffered a terribly cold summer and I need to pull them out on Labor Day weekend. So I guess I'll ask again if the procedure and pump I have referenced will do the trick?
 
Personally I follow the procedure in the manual, no pump, no fancy blow jobs, just follow the manual. There is more to the RFI and you need to pay attention to the procedure.

Follow the first link that comes up if you don't have the manual, then select your ski. The procedure starts on 02-05-1
http://bit.ly/125w3AF
 
Well I have to pull them out this Labor Day weekend and I'm still hoping someone can answer my question. I am worried about following the manual as the photos suck and it is difficult to understand the procedure based on the manual. I know nobody wants to think of winterizing but I have no choice. My situation is this:

The pwcs are over 500 miles round trip away so I need to pull them out off the lift drop them off at the local boat place wait a week and then drive another 500 miles just to pick them up and drop them off into the garage. That is why I would love to just pull them out and winterize and store them myself.

Total to winterize at boat shop $170
Round trip in gas about $110
Food etc. $50

So you see it is really costing me over $300 to winterize these things.

I still hope someone can answer my question.
 
Coastiejoe said:
Nope. Because none of us want to even think about winter at this time.
Click to expand...
Winter RULES !! You guys just have to learn how to have fun in the SNOW . We have a Farm Upstate NY
290.jpg
 
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