


It was a cold November day...... burr when I arrived at Bittersweet around 2pm on Thursday it was about 25 degrees and the boat was somewhat frozen. The water tank had about 2" of ice in it and the seawater strainer was almost frozen. So the first order of business was to heat up the old girl. I had the Mr. Heater, the charcoal stove and a small electric heater. After 3 hours I was able to start the engine, flush it out with fresh waterand add three gallons of anti-freeze, maybe a little overkill but this stuff is cheap insurance. I added a new Groco water strainer this summer and it made this process very simple. I noticed that there was a coolant leak and a pretty good drip every second or so. After using the blue LED flashlight to view the coolant I think that the leak is from the reserver hose so i tightened it up about 4 tuns with a screw driver, shout stop the leak. I changed the oil with the vacuum changer and got about 5 1/2 qts out (takes 6), I am unable to remove the rear drain plug because of another bolt in the way. I also changed the fuel on the left in the photo, cleaned out the bowl witch had about 1" of yuck and changed the fuel filter on the engine that has never been changed. The batteries were almost dead so I brought them home for a good charge. Pumped the water tank out into the sink as there is no drain plug, pumped anti-freeze in the head, drained the foot pump. I found the part number for the raw water impeller F85.