Poor antifreeze flush on Yamaha 232 Limited?

[davetk05]

While I was doing a winterizing flush on my Yamaha MR1 engines, I had a poor flush with not a lot of antifreeze flowing from the bucket through the cooling lines. At idle I don't see any water from my tell tales but do get water flow while on plane. Exhaust pipework seems cool every time I check so I assume I am getting cooling. This is a freshwater boat and has never seen saltwater. I have tried weed whacker line down the tell tales to check for obstructions but I didn't find anything. Any suggestions out there? Thanks in advance and happy boating.

 

[Hot2Go]

Whatever you’re doing is far more than what I ever did in the winter for my AR230. I live in Iowa so we get below zero frequently and sometimes for a stretch. Never used antifreeze; always throttled up a little to blow excess water out after running on the hose, then changed oil, fogged intake/cylinders, and put it away! Never had issues the 5 seasons we owned it.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

If you’re not getting any water from the pilot outlets while on the water at idle seems like it could be an issue. Have you checked the inlet screens in the pumps?

As far as winterizing, the first couple of years I had my boat I flushed it with rv antifreeze, then realized that was not necessary. Like @Hot2Go I live in a place were it gets very cold, South Dakota, I do keep my boat in a heated garage which is great for the off season repairs and modifications, but, I boat in the shoulder seasons here, early spring and late fall when over night lows can drop into the single digits, so I just blow my exhausts out each time I come off the water and that is all is necessary.

In fact during those cold shoulder seasons the water that gets into the steering cable can freeze and lock the steering up, it takes several minutes after putting the boat in the water for the steering to free up.

I have a raw water wash down system that needs a bit of attention, I drop the filter bowl and drain it and leave it off until I use the boat next, and I turn on the pump to get as much water out of the system as possible… I think there is a place in the intake line that gets some ice in it and might take a couple hours on the water for it to thaw out and start pumping water.

 

[zipper]

Vermont Winters here....During our 6 years of ownership of Sweet Waters, an 2007 Orange AR 230 HO, I never used antifreeze in the cooling system. I did prep by de watering the boat. I blew out the exhaust boxes as mentioned above. It takes a few seconds. Then jacked the trailer all the way up, on a block of wood to get the bow higher. Then pulled the bilge transom drain plug. The shape of the hull traps water under the ski locker, so jack it up high to drain all water, then lower it some for storage. The 232 has a shower system aft that will need to be winterized.