[C320-list] Oil Change on the Hard

[Jeff Hare]

Tim, 

Quite honestly, unless it's like 15 degrees outside, I wouldn't bother trying to warm up the oil at all.  It'll be just be slightly slower coming out, but not really that much.  See my tip below for making slightly thicker oil not an issue here.  Since it's been sitting for a while, there's more oil and debris drained into in the pan right now anyway.

Tips:
I assume you're going to use a vacuum pump (manual or otherwise) to suck out the oil through the dipstick tube.  Feeding plastic tube in there doesn't work nearly as well as using a 1' piece of copper tubing straightened out.  The largest stuff that fits in the dipstick hole.  I attach the pump's plastic tube to this piece of copper.  I used the stuff that comes from a refrigerator Ice Maker plumbing kit.  Copper tube here will go straight to the deepest part of the oil sump and stay there.  Flexible tubing wanders and may not pick up as much oil, plus it'll be slower because the Inner diameter of the plastic tube is smaller.   I use one of those blue "Oil Boy" pump cans.  Works great with the copper pickup tube trick.

I also assume you either ran a couple gallons of non-toxic RV antifreeze through the raw water system when you hauled out and winterized the engine.  If you did that already, then you can simply open the engine thru-hull, start the engine, run it for 5-10 seconds or so, then shut it off.  No water needed (but open the thru-hull).  Your impeller *will be fine* if you already used the RV antifreeze because of how slippery this stuff is.  Running it for a few seconds will bathe the engine in clean oil for the winter.  Doesn't take but a few seconds to accomplish this.  As a side note, when we're hauling out, we motor over to the haulout dock.  They walk the boat onto the trailer and then haul it out.  While we're at the haulout dock, we hook up our engine winterizing bucket and run a gallon of RV Antifreeze through the raw water system/muffler, then run until nothing is coming out the side of the boat.  Done.  Doesn't take 3 or 4 gallons if you run the system dry and verify the muffler is drained.  

If you didn't yet winterize your raw water system with RV antifreeze, you can now just put a gallon of RV antifreeze in the bucket, close the thru-hull (hook it up to your raw water intake fitting) and run the engine until the bucket is empty *AND for 5 -10 seconds more* so that no more water is blowing out the side of the boat.  I like to rev the engine for the last 5 seconds or so to empty the raw water system.  The RV Antifreeze is really slippery, so there'll be no impeller damage.  Also, there's zero chance of overheating the engine since the whole thing takes under a minute.  Don't forget to re-open the thru-hull and empty the strainer.

My final step is to open the muffler drain fitting and use my shop vac to suck out any remaining antifreeze from the muffler.  Normally after the above procedure, I get nothing draining out anyway.  *I believe* if you don't drain out the muffler, really cold weather freeze/thaw cycles could lead to cracking or stressing the muffler, especially if you have some really small cracks around the base inside.  RV Antifreeze does actually freeze sometimes, just not as hard as water.

Also, pouring a gallon of RV antifreeze in the head over the winter and pumping most of that through seems to really lube up the pump seals and it works much easier in the spring.  I've taken to using the little shop vac to suck out any standing water in the water tanks, shower sump lines, and the fridge drain as well.

Funny, my boat's been commissioned and decommissioned more times than it's been sailed the past 2 years.

As always, my rambling $.02 and no time to edit.  :)

-Jeff Hare 
#809 Woodbine II
Newburyport, MA

-----Original Message-----
From: C320-list [mailto:c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com] On Behalf Of Timothy Osburn
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2015 12:36 PM
To: C320-List at catalina320.com
Subject: [C320-list] Oil Change on the Hard

I pulled the boat a couple of weeks ago but I would like to change the oil which means I need to start the engine to warm it up.  Fortunately, a previous owner installed a hose valve attachment to the raw water intake so I'm assuming I can attach a hose and use a bucket of water.  Has anyone done this?  Is there anything else I need to be aware of?

Thanks in advance.

Tim
Alibi
1997 #401
Isle of Kent, MD