What Happens When You Don’t Drain the Block on a Boat Engine Before Winter
 

My father-in-law forgot to drain the block this past winter on his 2000 SeaRay 190 and yes, it froze. He kept the boat in a boat house on shore, with a track and dolly to take it in and out of the lake in Chattanooga. We replaced the block with a 5.7 long block, and just swapped the intake manifold, exhaust manifolds and all the accessories. Today we reinstalled the outdrive and water tested the boat after tuning and setting the timing. It ran great and we’ll be keeping it on Lake Lanier in Georgia for a while.

Couple photos showing the damage to the block, the new engine after we installed it, and a time lapse video of the engine coming out. That’s my son pulling it by himself.

https://youtu.be/bs9hxucJMiE

The new engine runs like a sewing machine!

BJ

yep, that's a prime example! The manifolds didn't crack?

Nice to have the right tools for the job, makes life easy, looks like it took about an hour from the time he got started.

The new engine looks like it grew in there, bet dad gets a call next winter just to enquire. :)


Good job and enjoy,
Frank

Kinda of like when my wife picked me up at the Trooper barracks one night .... she said "That'll learn you".

WOW!......He's fast....:D

Evidently the freeze plugs did not do their job, they appear to still be intact in the block.

That's because they aren't freeze plugs, they are core plugs for evacuating sand out of the block during the casting process. They have nothing to do with freezing, despite the myth that has been perpetuated for decades.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_plug

Correct, but they are made out of thin metal, instead of heavy cast iron, so they usually go first.

That has not been my experience in over 45 years working with engines. The softer, flexible core plugs just sit there nice as can be in the block and heads and the brittle cast iron cracks all around the plugs and elsewhere, then the plugs might fall out. Only exception I have seen is if the plugs are extremely rusty already or incorrectly installed. Then they might push out if the engine is frozen. As mentioned, they exist to remove casting sand. Many newer engine castings don't have them, if foam cores are used. Just went through a similar experience with a friends Sea Ray only a 4-cylinder. Cracked the block and head. He sold the boat for $900.00. It was going to cost more than the boat was worth to fix.

I wouldn't have thought so, thanks for clearing that up!:D

The picture doesn’t show it well, but the piece that broke out is badly cracked as well. The same basic shape was cracked on the other side of the block, but it never completely separated. To answer the question that 70 Bird asked about the heads, my father-in-law did drain the exhaust manifolds. For some reason he just missed the others.

We’ve used that boom truck to swap several motors; perfect for the job!.

BJ

Same, I've seen and heard of many engine blocks and heads cracking due to freezing, but I've never once seen a core plug pop out due to freezing. Even if it did, it would be way too late.

A little bit off topic but I've seen a small freeze plug blow out under pressure in the cooling system.

My sister-in-law had a 1984 Nissan Bluebird. Appalling car - look it up. 4 cylinder 2 litre engine. She called me to say the engine had run out of power driving on the freeway. And it "smelt funny". So I go and fetch her and see the engine has been red hot and the sump is full of soupy white oil.

Towed it home and had to pull the engine. Engine had been replaced a few of years earlier but it was long out of warranty. Cheapo job done. Those engines are a cast iron block, aluminium head, overhead cam, and the entire timing chain/water pump housing is also alloy. In the front of the engine between the block and the timing cover is a 14mm freeze plug. It was OLD. Had not been replaced when whoever had gone through the engine. And it blew out, straight into the timing chain housing, dumped in the water and that was then end of the thing.

Guess who had to go and find a good second hand engine, replace ALL the freeze plugs and get the thing going again.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

You might copy and paste this post in the members helping members forum as well. ;)

They call them Freeze Plugs because when temps get below freezing they are the first thing to freeze into place and never come out.

One year, on my boat I forgot or didn't do a good job of draining the exhaust manifolds and they cracked. i usually do it religiously but something went wrong.....

George

I've seen a few engines that froze and the freeze plug popped out with no damage to the block. A rubber expansion type plug was installed with no issue. They're like Viagra, might be designed for one thing but work well on something else also.

Had several small blocks crack in the lifter valley, Never seen one like that. Its a sleeper with the 5.0 breather

I had a Camaro that came from CA in the winter time. I didn't know they had filled the radiator with only water, and once it dropped below freezing, 3 freeze plugs popped out. I didn't even realize it until I walked out to the garage a few days later, when the temp was warmer, and noticed a large water puddle under the car. lol

Yeah, we’ll rectify that! It is only at two barrel carb, but it is plenty for this motor and boat. We are still in break-in and can only go to 4,000 RPM, but it is noticeably quicker out of the hole and onto plane, and feels much faster. My son wants to do a 4BBL conversion and run through-hull headers. That boy is a fool for making motors squeal.

It all started with a LEGO set at Christmas when he was 3 or 4. It became a contest to get him the biggest most complicated LEGO set and see how long it would take for him to get it together, and then how long it would take for him to modify it and make it even better.