Self Winterization (WI) Who does it themselves? Looking for tips

[Freddyk79]

Hello everyone! This winter is officially my first season with my shiny new Seadoo GTI's. Here in Wisconsin the frost will be here in jus a few weeks. I was wondering if anyone here gets thier watercraft ready for winter themselves. I'm lookin for some tips or even a checklist of what i need to do to make sure their is no damage over the lengthy cold season.

I have covers and a garage (non-heated) to store them. My main concerns are:

1: Do i need to store them with fresh engine oil? (one machine has 13 hrs and the other machine has literally 0 as i picked it up yesterday)

2: sta-bil in the gas, simple enough. should i store with a full tank? or run it down to near empty?

3: Third and most important. The jet pump+exhaust. How do i get the water/moisture out of the machine to prevent damage from the sub-freezing temperatures?

4: any important steps i forgot?

any tips would be great guys! Thanks in advance!!!

 

[devonte007]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the new machine this year. To answer your first question, I would say most of us on this forum winterize our own machines and perform our own maintenance. If you have some tools and a decent mechanical know-how these engines are really pretty simple to work on, winterization included. Since it sounds like you are new to these machines, I would go ahead and download a copy of the service/shop manual for your ski/engine. You can do this by clicking the link at the top "manuals", there are plenty of service manuals that you can save as a PDF. It's a good thing to read through the manual once to get an idea how the engine works and how to perform maintenance tasks when you're new to the game, helped me a bunch when I first started.

Next, do a search for "winterization" on this forum and you'll find countless threads on the subject. Below are a few that I found quickly, but many others out there to read:
http://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?55224-Winterizing-a-boat&highlight=winterization

http://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?54401-Pumping-antifreeze-speedster-winterization&highlight=winterization

For your specific questions:

1. Storing with fresh engine oil is kind of under debate in most arenas. As I understand it the reason to store with fresh oil is b/c used oil contains chemicals from combustion that can be corrosive. Really dirty oil sitting in an engine for long periods can deteriorate the internal parts and seals. If it were really dirty I would change it at end of season, but with only 10-15 hrs of use I usually just leave my old oil in until spring time and change it at the beginning of the season. Lots of debate on this and I'm sure some would disagree with me on this topic. It's really up to you, but make sure to also change the filter, its a very simple project to do with the right tools.

2. This is another topic of debate in most circles, I prefer to run the tank down as close to empty as possible, add stabil to the gas tank and run the boat around the lake a couple times to get the stabil into the fuel system. I then fill the tank with fresh gas at the beginning of the season. The manufactures of the gas stabilizer tell you to fill the tank, but it's probably b/c they want to sell you more of their product to treat the 25 gallons...

3. Very important to get the water out of the engine. Your engine (and mine) are supposed to be self draining, but I don't trust that. I pump rv antifreeze into the flush port (with engine running ofcourse) until it comes out the exhaust pink. Then I know the system has be treated and will not freeze. Seadoo recently came out with a new procedure to blow out then engine with compressed air which apparently does the same thing, but I feel safer with the antifreeze method.

4. Main things are to treat the gas, get water out of engine, and lubricate everything with a water repellant spray such as wd-40. There are a few more other minor things to consider, but I will point you to some of the other threads which have already gone over the full process in detail. The shop manuals also have a section about winterization that is very detailed, so have a read and post back if you have any other specific questions.

Good luck!

 

[Freddyk79]

Thanks for the post Devonte! anti freeze it is!

 

[Sudsy30]

Freddyk79...I agree with everything devotee007 said..... Ive had boats in NY for many years (we don't worry here in Florida) ....and even my ski also had to be winterized....I also used the red stuff as I flushed my twin 454 engines...I made up a 50 /50 mix and in a 5 gallon can I created a siphon into a flush connection...Up there in WI (burrrr) sorry my son lives there.....I would run it full strength....I just told my son who purchased a new RV to do the same thing throughout his entire water system.....I would take fuel tank to almost nothing....add stabil and run it through the engine...I would also maybe add just enough NON_ETHANOL fuel to the stabil before I ran the engine....... them in the spring....pump out anything left in the tank and throw it away...or mix it in your truck at no more than a gallon to the tank.....Put fresh gas into the ski then try to start it.... Or, pull fuel line after you added the stabil in winter and run til it stops....only problem here is if you have any rubber such as in carb....the rubbers all start to go bad...they like to be moist.

Suds

 

[dbdave]

The storage procedure is in your owner's manual that came with each unit. The 130s are easy to winterize. The garage may not be mouse proof so use mothballs on the foot wells and lay some on the back boarding area. Tape off the exhaust opening and don't forget to remove the tape in the spring.