Saturday, November 6, 2010

Austin Awesome!

So I remembered what the other event this weekend was that I mentioned I forgot about in my last post: Gypsy Picnic (http://www.gypsypicnic.com/)
It's the largest gathering of food trucks and trailers in Austin (which has food trucks and trailers just about everywhere anyways).
It's FREE to get in and then you can get super cheap samples of the food they make in each of the food trucks. It's in some small park just east of Zilker, right on Lady Bird Lake, which is obviously an outdoor venue so I'm bringin my dog woot!

In other news:
If you have a boat that you need to store for the winter, I hope you've already winterized it!
I just winterized mine after a near-frost last night here in Texas, but I should have done it a long time ago!
For a really complete guide to winterization, you should do some googling, but I'm going to do a quick run-down of a few of the most important steps to winterization.

1. Remove all water from the engine.
This is among the most important steps, if there is water in the coolant lines, your engine can rust from the inside out, or even worse, if the water freezes it can actually crack the engine block itself and then all sorts of horrible things will happen.

2. Fogging oil in the cylinders
As the engine sits for several months at a time unused, the oil in the piston chamber can seep out back into the sump, allowing water to potentially condense on the exposed metal and cause it to rust. Also, if the oil seeps out of the piston chamber, when you start up the engine for the first time in the spring, the piston can scrape against the inside of the engine block and do some serious damage. Read and follow all the directions on the can of fogging oil!

3. Fill the gas tank entirely
I'm no chemist but apparently if there is too much gas vapor in the tank, it can re-condense on the inside of the tank and basically turn to a gummy plastic sorta substance that can cause all sorts of harm if it gets sucked into the engine. Apparently you don't need to use one of those fuel stabilizers if you just fill up the tank all the way, but I don't see why using some of that stuff would hurt.
Anyway, if you have a metal gas tank, water vapor could condense on the inside of the tank and cause it to rust if there isn't enough gas, which is never fun for anyone.

4. Cover the boat
Again, this is a water precaution. If it rains or snows or sleets or whatever into the boat, and then liquid water freezes, it can do some serious damage. All the water drains to the bilge, and if your bilge is full of water and then it freezes, there is the possibility (however unlikely) that it could go so far as to split your boat in half. Water expands when it freezes, and any cracks or crevices it's in could turn in to gaps and holes by spring if you don't cover your boat.

So there you have it. This is some of the more important maintenance you should do before storing your boat, but don't forget to do things like change the oil, regrease bearings (steering, outdrive hinge, prop, etc), and maintain the exterior of the engine as well. WD40 seems to work well for keeping the outside of my engine clean and rust-free, but it can sometimes collect dust, and there are products designed specifically to endure the heat, vibration, and corrosive liquids that a marine engine will encounter better than WD40 can handle.

16 comments:

  1. is this the convention where all of the Roach Coaches get together and share recipes?

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  2. wow, that gives me something to think about

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  3. Good tips. I don't own a boat, nor do I want to, but I can help someone out who does own a boat :D

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  4. Gypsy Picnic lol. Like...borat Gypsies?

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  5. get your swim trunks and your flippy floppys!

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  6. Kewl story, bra! waiting for updates from you

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  7. My father always said if you want a boat, throw a kiddie pool in the river, and fill it with cash. If you still have money left over to live on, you can afford it.

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