Winterizing 2004 SugarSand 240HP

[JSpo]

Hey guys, sorry to be a newbie poster begging for help. My younger brother just passed away last month and he has a 2004 SugarSand which hasn't been winterized and it's dropping below freezing this weekend in Colorado.

I cannot find the manuals and the manufacturer is no longer in business. I thought these pretty much drain themselves but not 100% sure. I've been reading other posts and I think I'm ok. Anything I need to do to get the water out?

Sorry everyone for the newbie post, just not sure what needs to be done before it's too late.

Thanks
Jason

 

[tdonoughue]

Hi, Jason!

First, off, welcome! Sorry to hear about your brother. But no worries on the newbie questions. Those are the ones that make us look smart, so we like those.

Hopefully someone with a Tango can chime in (we have a few--even a section of the forum devoted to them), but generally all of these jetboats are pretty simple creatures. On my Yamaha I just start it up out of the water, rev it a couple of times to blow out the water, shut it down and put it away. The real thing that can mess your boat up in the winter is water trapped in a pipe or fitting or part where it cannot expand (and then freezes and breaks the part). Most jetboats don't have anything like that--any place that there is water normally is open on either side and drains when you pull it out of the water mostly (some residual water is no issue as long as it is not enough to block an entire passage).

Optionally you may fog the engine (which involves getting fogging oil, pulling the plugs, squirting some in, replacing the plugs). But that is optional and one season without doing that won't kill you (especially in Colorado--not a high humidity environment).

Then the other thing is getting it so that it is not outside in the snow. Solutions there are either indoor storage or a good cover (or both) or to have it wrapped. If covering, make sure you have poles in so that the weight of any snow does not rip the cover...

Hope that helps some. And, again, welcome!

 

[JSpo]

Thanks for the input. Are these okay to start without water?

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Sorry for your loss.
Your boat has a mercury V6 2 stroke outboard engine power head, here is a link to a post for a similar v6 mercury in a similar jet boat the info should be similar also. https://jetboaters.net/threads/winterizing-a-merc-175xr2.15606/

 

[Bilmon]

Thanks for the input. Are these okay to start without water?

You can start it but only for a few seconds, the exhaust hoses heat up fast and can be damaged. There is a hose with a plug in it clipped to the top of your engine that you attach to a garden hose to run. Yes they are self draining. About the only place I can think of for water to freeze would be in the gear oil in pump and stator if the seals were bad. If that were the case I would expect it to show leakage though. By the book they recommend changing both seasonally though I gotta admit I don't always do it but I have heated storage.

 

[Bilmon]

Here is the manual for your 240 Boatinfo - Mercury Service Manual for 240 EFI JetDrive

 

[AmesJainchill]

You can start it but only for a few seconds, the exhaust hoses heat up fast and can be damaged. There is a hose with a plug in it clipped to the top of your engine that you attach to a garden hose to run. Yes they are self draining.

I imagine everything should be covered in the manual, but was curious if this engine is similar to the Yamahas as it relates to flushing - such that running cooling water via hose would be a "engine on - water on - water off - engine off" process to avoid sending water into the cylinders?

 

[JSpo]

Thank you everyone for the excellent advice. I know the boat has been sitting for at least a couple of years in a heated garage, but I’ll need to keep it outside for at least this winter. I will start up for a couple seconds just to make sure there’s no water trapped anywhere and I’m having a shrink wrapped tomorrow afternoon. Again, thank you all for your help, I really appreciate it.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

if it has been sitting for 2 years you should get rid of the fuel, it will have definitely gone bad and if you run it with that fuel it won't run very well and may gum up the fuel system.

 

[Bilmon]

Agree with Cobra Jet, gum up the fuel rail and injectors and you will have a real mess, two year+ gas is really pushing it