Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

How difficult is it to winterize a 4.3 liter? I am new to I/O motors and I live in Southwest Virginia and would like to use my I/O the same way I did my outboard. Is there a quick or simple way to keep it from freezing? My outboard was always in the water and ready to use but from what I hear pulling my pontoon out for winter is advisable. Thanks

What year is it ? If it's not real cold out, all you have to do is drain the block and manifolds. Newer Mercs have the quick drain system, just pull the blue marked t-handles and both drain into the bilge. If the temps are sustained under 32, you need to winterize. I posted a tutorial for the 3.0 liter, 4.3 is similar:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1006&p=5902&hilit=w ... rial#p5902

Hi Dave............welcome to the club.
Sorry, I can't be any help with your question, I have an outboard.
Where are you in SW Virginia? We are on Smith Mtn. Lake.
Maybe we can get together sometime.
These are a good bunch of people on this forum.
If they can't answer your questions, no one can.

We usually winterize ours sometime in November, we have the Mercury quick drain but i still winterize with anti-freeze and fog the motor. A heated storage building would solve everything!

Its a 2004 Premire and I am on South Holsten Lake. It looks like winter is coming early to the mountians with low temp tonight in the upper 30's. I will look tonight and try to find the drains. The motor sets very far down and visibility is not great. Thanks

did you buy the 04 of craigslist recently? looked like a nice boat in the ad.

Thats the one, picked it up in TN. Great boat and the sellers were great also.