Winterizing '95 SPI/GTX for Dummy?

[Normallysailing]

(Not "for dummies". Only one dummy. Me.)

We had our first big dump of snow a week ago; the warm break we've had since ends tomorrow with the second one, so I'm behind the 8-ball trying to get last-minute stuff taken care of.

I want to make sure the water is purged out of these things - not interested in cracking anything. But the owner's manual is pretty obtuse, between the "typical" diagrams that don't seem to accurately represent either of these rides and the terminology (e.g. drain tube, exhaust manifold fitting and outlet socket, tuned pipe) that I haven't yet had a chance to get up to speed on. What I do see is a red-capped fitting in each that I've been told is used for blowing out the water.

So can someone give me the short version so I don't have to spend the day poring over the repair manuals learning my ass from my elbow?

 

[Normallysailing]

Hmm. Crickets. Okay, let me ask this another way.

I cracked the service manual and I think I see what has to be done to do an antifreeze fill. But it looks like a PITA. Is there a good reason to do this rather than just disconnecting the inlet hose (and pinching off the water injector hose) and blowing the cooling system out with compressed air?

 

[mikidymac]

You will not get all the water out so you want antifreeze in it if your area freezes.

 

[Normallysailing]

Where does the remaining water accumulate?

 

[mikidymac]

Cylinders if the drain is plugged, headpipe, pipe and waterbox.

 

[Normallysailing]

If I understand correctly, clamping the engine outlet hose in addition to the injection hose should confirm that I can blow out the drain hose.

But I don't understand the headpipe, pipe, and waterbox. Can you direct me to descriptions of them? I'm completely new to the Rotax.

 

[mikidymac]

Don't worry about blowing them out.
Just get a gallon af RV antifreeze a funnel and a piece of heater hose.
Take the rubber hose off the rear of the cylinder head, put your new hose and funnel on it. Start the engine and let it idle on the trailer then pour in 1/2 of the antifreeze. After it is in rev up the engine a few times to blow out as much as possible. Now let the engine sit and cool off.

Remove the airbox cover and start the engine and spray fogging oil into the air cleaner until the engine starts to bog down then turn the engine off. Turn the fuel off, remove the spark plug wires and place them on the grounding posts, remove the spark plugs. Spray some fogging oil down each plug hole then bump the engine over a couple times to spread the oil around the cylinders. Put the plugs back in, wires on and disconnect the battery.

Now you are completely winterized and ready until spring.

 

[Mazachs]

Thanks for good resume Mikidymac, it's appreciated!

 

[Normallysailing]

Yes, much simpler a procedure than described in the owner's manual, with all the disconnecting and pinching and raising of the hoses - like they're not going to get loose over the winter and dump the antifreeze into the engine compartment.

 

[mikidymac]

Exactly.

Keep in mind the engines and exhaust drain pretty much on their own. By adding the antifreeze you are just diluting and displacing any small water that is trapped in there so that it doesn't freeze and crack anything. In reality if your low lever drains are not plugged there isn't enough water left in the engines to hurt anything. You are not filling up the cooling system like on a car.

 

[Normallysailing]

Please forgive me if this sounds a little stunned, but I'm still suffering some confusion over this - I just can't quite grasp the nuances of the plumbing, and the service manual diagrams aren't really helping much.

Can anyone direct me to a schematic diagram (or diagrams) of these Rotaxen that might clarify a few points?

 

[statikuz]

What exactly are you after? The service manual has answered any technical question I've ever had (if you can find it in there, that is). Some of the procedures are kind of wonky or not really doable, like someone wrote them without actually trying it (e.g. flushing with antifreeze). But even for that it has a flow diagram of how the cooling system works.

 

[Normallysailing]

I'm after a clear understanding of what flows where, and it's extremely difficult to get that from the various cooling system diagrams (to cite an example - there are others e.g. fuel) in the manual. What would help an awful lot is a schematic representation of these things - a flattened, symbolic, 2-D diagram like the sticker on the underside of your car hood that shows the vacuum routing.

Maybe this is just a stupid four-stroke guy talking, but these things are wonky. You've got a basically filthy two-stroke engine that they try to clean up a little with stunts like injecting water into the exhaust manifold. But there's a problem with that in that it now creates a path that really shouldn't exist - a path for engine coolant to get into the cylinder. The manual has us jumping through crazy hoops like clamping that line, then disconnecting half of the rest and stringing the hoses up to the nearest tree to get antifreeze into the cooling jacket and not the cylinders, but there's also advice that seems to suggest that it's fine to fill the cylinder up with antifreeze because we're going to follow it with fogging oil. At least, I think that's what's going on, but I could be totally out to lunch because there's no SCHEMATIC that would clarify how all this junk is actually plumbed up.

Here's kind of an example of what I'm looking for. This one is pretty half-assed, as schematics go, but at least they're trying.