Give me 5 minutes with your motor, I'll find where it goes, cause it doesn't fill the block the way you think.

It may not, but the hose off the t-state does not hook up to it, otherwise pouring the AF through it till it bubbled out the t-stat housing would have protected it.

Well, it's good to know I can spend the day on the water and the first hardcore "how do I winterize" thread will still be going strong.

No water, no freezing, period. You either get it ALL out, or you replace it with something else. Which one or how you do it is up to you. Lots of different ways to accomplish the same thing.

Griz, if you want to use your horse trough method, go for it.

Better yet Griz, fill the trough with high grade Tequila. What you motor leaves behind we can fill with Lime juice, rim it with salt and have a party!!!

Ya what head said!!!

Lorenbennett says he's bringing the munchies....

I plan on pulling the two block drains, and the two exhaust drains on my motor. Then filling the block up via the freshwater flush fitting on my engine, or just taking the hoses off the thermostat housing and filling it up that way.

Is the engine flushing port on our engine be the same as using the muffs? From what the manual say I would think so.

I'll be using the winterizing kit posted here Saturday.
Oh well once this is done I say let it SNOW!

It is. On the older models you couldn't run the motor with just the flush kit, on ours you can. What exactly are you going to do? Just warm it up on the flush kit and then when the tstat opens switch it over to the antifreeze?

I could and I should but for peace of mind I'll open the petcocks first to drain the water. Then switch to antifreeze and start the boat again.

You know if you want to use AF, it is really not hard to just drain the water out of the motor and manually fill the engine and manifolds from the hoses at the thermo housing. This way you know it's all drained, no worries if the thermo opened or not, and no issue if the impeller is a little weak and does not suck up the more dense than water AF mix. This can be a problem on both Volvo and Bravo drives, because of the length of hose from the water intakes on the drive all the way to the engine. If that line is not pre-filled with AF, it may be full of air and the impeller may have trouble sucking the AF up the drive. To me that method has unnecessary risks, and NO sterndrive manufacturer recommends that you winterize that way. So there is a reason why they don't. Plus there is a benefit to removing the plugs each year, they don't get frozen in place. I just drain the engine, 2 plugs on the block, one on each manifold, and then disconnect the hoses at the thermo housing (raw water intake, manifold intake, circulating pump hose). The circulating pump hose I remove completely because you need to remove the bottom end, that lets the circ pump and part of the front of the block/manifold drain. I point the raw water intake hose down in the bilge to drain it. I also remove the plug in the cooler on the back of the motor that you can hardly get to, just in case. Those coolers are expensive to replace. Then after all the drains are probed with a small screwdriver, I re-connect the circ pump hose on the bottom connection. Then pour some -100 Af in the open upper end of the circ pump hose till it comes out the block drains a little. Next coat drain plugs with OMC triple guard grease and reinstall. Continue filling the big hose until AF comes out the thermo housing outlet. Next reconnect the upper end of the hose. Then fill the manifolds the same way, until AF runs out the exhaust and replace those hoses. Finally fill the raw water intake hose till AF runs out the water intakes, and replace that hose. If AF is coming out the water intakes I leave it alone, if not I just bump the starter to move the impeller so AF can run through the impeller housing. That is the way OMC said to use AF in their manual and that's the only way I do it. Takes a little longer but no worries. And you freshwater guys can probably be fine just draining.

Thats exactly how I do it.

And like this:
http://www.boatingabc.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/437470/Winterize_the_easy_way_in_10_m.html