Winterize 1998 272 fresh water line

Onebigirish

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Anyone have an adapter for the freshwater fill cap to connect a compresor to blow out the lines for a 272 sailfish? First season with boat and want to keep In slip until December to keep fishing. Any help greatly appreciated you are all awesome with responses.
 

seasick

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Blowing out may not get all the water. In addition, your water tank is vented, probably to a clamshell fitting. You could also blow apart a connection if too much air pressure is used..
It is best to empty the tank as much as possible by running something like a faucet or spray shower fitting and then adding RV type antifreeze to the tank and then running the pump and faucets until the antifreeze starts coming out
 
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DennisG01

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If you have a city water hookup there are adapters for that. I've never seen one for a fill cap but it would be easy enough to make one.

However, you can just pour a gallon or two of pink stuff into the tank and run faucets till pink comes out (after running the tank dry, or course).

Don't forget to bypass the hot water heater, first.
 

Andrew93

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I had a 1999 272. To winterize I would bypass the water heater and drained it, since I never used it I left it that was all year. I would run the tank empty and then made a pickup adaptor for the water pump and pumped RV antifreeze through the system, should only take 1, maybe 2 gallons tops. With the tank empty I would blow air through the water pump feed into the tank and carefully pour a little antifreeze down that line, never had an issue

On our new-to-us express I did pretty much the same but due to where the pump was I could not easily blow though the pickup line, I used our dewalt leaf blower and covered over the water tank fill and it worked good to push the little remaining water in that line out. I supposed you could use a shop vac too blowing. The air vent to the water tank comes up to the fill neck, similar to the gas tank so if you cover the whole thing the tank should pressurize.
 

DennisG01

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I had a 1999 272. To winterize I would bypass the water heater and drained it, since I never used it I left it that was all year. I would run the tank empty and then made a pickup adaptor for the water pump and pumped RV antifreeze through the system, should only take 1, maybe 2 gallons tops. With the tank empty I would blow air through the water pump feed into the tank and carefully pour a little antifreeze down that line, never had an issue

On our new-to-us express I did pretty much the same but due to where the pump was I could not easily blow though the pickup line, I used our dewalt leaf blower and covered over the water tank fill and it worked good to push the little remaining water in that line out. I supposed you could use a shop vac too blowing. The air vent to the water tank comes up to the fill neck, similar to the gas tank so if you cover the whole thing the tank should pressurize.
Andrew, where does your water fill line enter the tank? I'm not sure on the Grady's, but on all of the boats I winterize each season (many, MANY) the fill line connects to the top of the tank and the fill lines never have any kind of (substantial) dip to them. Meaning, there's zero reasons to put any AF down that line. Just an FYI to save you time!
 

Andrew93

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Andrew, where does your water fill line enter the tank? I'm not sure on the Grady's, but on all of the boats I winterize each season (many, MANY) the fill line connects to the top of the tank and the fill lines never have any kind of (substantial) dip to them. Meaning, there's zero reasons to put any AF down that line. Just an FYI to save you time!
The line I was referring to was the line from the tank to the pump. Even that line would typically have little water in it, but on my sailfish it was easy enough to put a little antifreeze down there while it was disconnected anyways.
 

DennisG01

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The line I was referring to was the line from the tank to the pump. Even that line would typically have little water in it, but on my sailfish it was easy enough to put a little antifreeze down there while it was disconnected anyways.
Ah, gotcha.

On my Sea Ray (a cruiser) I used to do a very similar thing. I would disconnect the pickup line (that runs from the tank to the pump) and put that in a 5-gallon pail where I added a few gallons of pink stuff. This 5g pail essentially became my new "tank". Then I just went around to every faucet and head till solid pink came out.
 
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vocz

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I drained the tank and disconnect all the water lines from the pump. Same with wash down and live well pump.
 

ItalianAngler

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I bypass the hot water heater, didn't use it this year, so i only hook it up if i plan on using it. Then I run the water till it's done, then pour in pink until it comes out of all the faucets, usually just a gallon or so. I have a 282 so i'm not sure about you, but if you have a windshield washer, DONT FORGET IT!
 

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I have a garden hose hookup I spliced into the waterline with a cap on it. Make a compressor to garden hose hookup for your compressor - works on your home sprinkler system too!

Bypass water heater (use garden hose fittings with quick connects to make it easy next year). Run faucets until empty. Hookup compress to garden hose on boat BUT leave it loose so it leaks air. If you put too much air pressure on internal boat hoses you can push them off their seats or possible blow a hose (not as likely). Rotate thru the faucets to get more water out with air. Put a gallon or two of pink antifreeze in tank. Try to pump thru faucets to get a little pink out of each faucet. Go back and blow them out again. This will leave very little pink antifreeze in your system over the winter.