How cold before need to winterize?

[nipper]

Thanks all. Went ahead and winterized it not knowing whether I would get it out to use it this weekend or not. Always a bit of a sad day.

RKC, I do not keep antifreeze in it. My engine is a 4.3 litre raw water cooling engine, not a closed system like yours. I do, however, drain the block with the 4 plastic screw plugs (one of which broke putting it back in). After a good drain, I put the drain/freeze plugs back in and then pull each hose. I fill all the hoses with antifreeze. I used to just run antifreeze through the flush muffs but had a bad experience with that once. Also did all the usual fogging oil, lower unit lube change, etc. Not going to do an oil change because I changed it in the spring and probably only put 15-20 hours on the engine this summer.

I had not even gotten the drain plug (blue plastic wing bolt) in finger tight yet when it broke off. Not the easiest thing to back the broken plug out of the block. New plug cost %&^&$$ $4.26 at the closest boat dealer. Parts guy said they break all the time and suggested I get 4 of them but I declined.