First time boat owner . how do you winterize a 2007 bayliner 185 it has a 4.3 mercruiser inboard /outboard?

Question

First time boat owner . how do you winterize a 2007 bayliner 185 it has a 4.3 mercruiser inboard /outboard?

Answer 1

My family has been in the marina business for over 25 years, and I'll tell you from experience that, although you can listen to whomever you want when it comes to winterizing your own boat, it's cheap insurance to have a marina do it and do it right. Your boat is new, therefore it's still under factory MerCruiser warranty. If you make one little mistake, you will lose your warranty and if the mistake is a good one, you may lose your motor as well due to a cracked block, manifolds, etc. We are a MerCruiser dealer, and can tell you that if you make a mistake, whether it be putting the wrong oil in, winterizing it wrong, etc. your dealer will not cover any of it. I highly recommend taking it to your MerCruiser dealer and having them winterize it AND service it at the same time. When they do this, they will fog the motor and drain the water, flush it with antifreeze and stabilize the fuel. When they service it, they'll change the oil and all of the filters. They should also pull the outdrive, check the gimbal bearing and drive coupler, change the gear lube in the outdrive, grease the gimbal bearing, coupler (if they can get to it), u-joints and reinstall the outdrive. That's the basics of it, anyway. They should disconnect the battery and then you'll be able to put it away. The benefit of a fall service is that the boat is "turn-key" in the spring, with the exception of a battery charge and a good washing. Also, if the marina makes a mistake, you can blame them...but if you have a new boat, winterize it wrong and bring it to life this spring only to find a cracked block, I can only assume that anyone in that situation would feel pretty bad because they only wanted to save a buck or two. Keep the warranty alive and take it to your dealer. When the warranty is up, have the marina show you how to winterize it and service it yourself. That way, you can familiarize yourself with it while having a professional showing you the whole way. Good Luck with your boat!

Answer 2

I have a merc too, 5.7L.  Here's what I do. Buy the ear muffs that go on the pickup on the lower unit. Hook it up to a garden hose. Start the engine up and run the fresh water through the engine for about 10 minutes. (never run dry, assuming you have a raw water pickup system, not a closed fresh water coolant system). Then, drain and replace both the crankcase oil, and the lower unit gear oil, and replace with new oil. Do put a new oil filter on too. Then, drain both sides of the block by removing the petcock drain valves. Most people drain the exhaust elbows too, I don't. Then, you need a flush kit, so you can run RV/Marine antifreeze through the block. I made my own out of a 5 gallon pail, a valve at the bottom, and a garden hose, but they sell this kit at marine stores. You want to run about 4-5 gallons of antifreeze through your engine, until you see the pink color coming out the exhaust. You also want to "fog" the carb, and upper cylinders, by spraying foggin fluid into the carb while the engine in running, until it stalls out. You can do this while your flushing it with antifreeze, but again, make sure you don't run the engine dry. Last, loosen up the tension on your belts, so they don't stretch out in the cold weather. Thats about it for the engine. Make sure the drain plug is removed, the boat is pitched back enough to drain the bilge. Good luck.

Answer 3

There is some good winterizing tips on Yacht Council - http://www.yachtcouncil.com/winterize-yo...

Hope it will help you to winterize your Bayliner better.

Good luck!

Answer 4

to be honest with you... as a first time boat owner, i would take my boat to my dealer and have them winterize it. it will probably cost in the ball park of about $150.00 but you will know everything was done correctly and you would not have to worry... or follow the LONG instructions the other 2 have given you... as a rule of thumb to you and anyone who reads this... if you can afford to own a boat and are not a boat mechanic, i would make sure i could afford to have it serviced by a dealer. if anything goes wrong, you will have someone to fall back on.