Here is a follow up after I went down to finish the job after the boat was hauled. FWIW next year I will haul the boat and do everything on the hard to avoid this two step process.
First I opened all seacocks the let the water trapped in the ball cavity drain out.
Then following up on Peggie's comment I removed the suction hose to the toilet and dropped it in a jug of antifreeze and ran the toilet pump until pink stuff came out. Easy.
I also disconnected the discharge hose from the macerator pump and after elevating that hose, poured a quart or so to back flush the macerator with antifreeze. I realize that over time stuff in the holding tank could dilute that antifreeze, but I am hoping that fully pumping out the holding tank avoided that problem.
Next I considered someone's comment about any lift muffler getting enough antifreeze. So I started the genset and poured more antifreeze into the strainer and watched for pink stuff out the exhaust. It didn't take much, maybe a quart or so to get a good foamy pink out the exhaust.
The main engine was more difficult. I didn't want to restart the engine and do the same thing I did with the genset, so I disconnected the 1" hose to the exhaust mixer. It definitely had pink stuff in the hose so I was ok up to that point. Then I blew on the hose to get as much water out of the muffler as possible. I realize that your average boatyard guy wouldn't begin to do it this way, but I got 1-2 quarts out that way and it wasn't pink!! I ended up dumping almost another three gallons in that hose until I got a strong pink out. My thanks to the commenter for that tip. It may have saved the lift muffler.
So to answer someone's question about taking care of the batteries: I have four batteries and disconnecting them and taking them home to the garage would be a PITA. I installed a 100 watt solar panel to keep the batteries up while sitting on our mooring and so far that has worked very well. I keep the two house and starting battery connected in parallel with the 1,2,off, all switch and the genset start battery stays charged through the echo charge feature of my Freedom inverter/charger. That system will keep all four batteries topped up throughout the winter, even with the translucent shrink wrap over the panel. I will go back after the shrink wrap is done and confirm that.
So with my second round I am up to about 5 hours for the whole job. Maybe I can do it for 3 hours next year as I know more about what to do and do it once.
And Peggie, I used a hair dryer this time. It was much, much slower and would only heat the hose up to maybe 100 degrees. That isn't really enough to soften the hose to get it off easily. So I ordered another heat gun from Amazon for $22. A heat gun will heat the hose up to where it is too hot to touch and won't harm the hose if you don't go over that. I play the gun on the bronze fitting more than the hose to avoid getting the hose too hot.
David
First I opened all seacocks the let the water trapped in the ball cavity drain out.
Then following up on Peggie's comment I removed the suction hose to the toilet and dropped it in a jug of antifreeze and ran the toilet pump until pink stuff came out. Easy.
I also disconnected the discharge hose from the macerator pump and after elevating that hose, poured a quart or so to back flush the macerator with antifreeze. I realize that over time stuff in the holding tank could dilute that antifreeze, but I am hoping that fully pumping out the holding tank avoided that problem.
Next I considered someone's comment about any lift muffler getting enough antifreeze. So I started the genset and poured more antifreeze into the strainer and watched for pink stuff out the exhaust. It didn't take much, maybe a quart or so to get a good foamy pink out the exhaust.
The main engine was more difficult. I didn't want to restart the engine and do the same thing I did with the genset, so I disconnected the 1" hose to the exhaust mixer. It definitely had pink stuff in the hose so I was ok up to that point. Then I blew on the hose to get as much water out of the muffler as possible. I realize that your average boatyard guy wouldn't begin to do it this way, but I got 1-2 quarts out that way and it wasn't pink!! I ended up dumping almost another three gallons in that hose until I got a strong pink out. My thanks to the commenter for that tip. It may have saved the lift muffler.
So to answer someone's question about taking care of the batteries: I have four batteries and disconnecting them and taking them home to the garage would be a PITA. I installed a 100 watt solar panel to keep the batteries up while sitting on our mooring and so far that has worked very well. I keep the two house and starting battery connected in parallel with the 1,2,off, all switch and the genset start battery stays charged through the echo charge feature of my Freedom inverter/charger. That system will keep all four batteries topped up throughout the winter, even with the translucent shrink wrap over the panel. I will go back after the shrink wrap is done and confirm that.
So with my second round I am up to about 5 hours for the whole job. Maybe I can do it for 3 hours next year as I know more about what to do and do it once.
And Peggie, I used a hair dryer this time. It was much, much slower and would only heat the hose up to maybe 100 degrees. That isn't really enough to soften the hose to get it off easily. So I ordered another heat gun from Amazon for $22. A heat gun will heat the hose up to where it is too hot to touch and won't harm the hose if you don't go over that. I play the gun on the bronze fitting more than the hose to avoid getting the hose too hot.
David
-Chris
