oooh, yeah. Good point.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

I will always defer to a lifetime capn like MTU, but this doesn't happen in a closed system with a radiator, so why is the pressure needed to keep it out of a cirulating raw water system cylinder??

If you can get one crankshaft turn by hand just change the oil and filter. Then let the engine spin by the starter with no glow plug for 10 seconds. I would remove the glow plug and drop a teaspoon of oil in there first. The initial 10 second spin up should circulate the oil to any dry points before any real load is applied. Install the glow plug and start it up.
If it starts up pretty easily and clean I would just shut it down after about a minute and wait till I was in the water to check the cooling circuit.
Check your alternator to make sure it is free before doing anything. Alternator brushes do stick sitting sometimes. Then check the water pump for leakage if you have coolant supply.
You may want to drain a little fuel into a container before you start anything to make sure it is clear and clean if he left any fuel in the tank. Or drain the fuel tank and look for water, dirt or growth in the fuel. Any dirt or junk in the tank will be shook up and cause trouble at some point. Better now to make sure the tank and fuel are clean. Also since the gentleman was older and had problems he may have forgotten to change the fuel filter out for several years. Unless it looks fairly new change it and make sure you have a spare or two. With a little luck they are already in the boat.
Lay the motor up properly in the fall. If you can introduce any lubrication to the water pump bearing now it might be a good ideal as well.

coz, if for some reason the overboard water running into the manifold goes the 'wrong' way and heads for the engine, without exhaust pressure, it could wind up entering an open exhaust valve and filling a cylinder.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Hmmm, I would have thought there would be a check valve in there somewhere, but hey, that's why I made the post

Thanks alot! We don't lay up boats for the winter down heeyaa I already changed the fuel out and it was clean and no water separation, but I added some isopropyl alcohol to the new fuel just in case. I put a new Racor filter in her. Good idea on the pump bearing.

If I remember my sailboats sometimes coolant is allowed to flow down the backside of the exhaust to cool the pipe as it approaches the stern. This is separate from the closed loop system. Yet I guess you could water jacket that exhaust pipe and include it in the closed loop as well.
Even if introduced into the exhaust I would think an elevated loop would be present before the point of introduction to eliminate any exhaust coolant backwashing towards the engine. The engine is below the waterline usually. Except for the finkeel designs prevelant these days I suppose. Others will know better. Glad to hear you do not have to lay up your boat for any season. Here the season is only about four months. I just have a small albacore now plus an old small fibreglass planning scow. Great for our beach though.

Yeah what MTU said. I'd put a breaker bar on the crank and turn it over a few times by hand. Other then that just make sure its got good water flow, and the fuel is good. Crank it over, let it start and idle for a bit. Little diesels are pretty simple, most die from overheating it seems.

Where do you even get parts for a Saab diesel? Tractor suppy store?

FYI with Yanmars if you know what you are buying you can get the parts much cheaper at the tractor dealers.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Raw water exits the system via injection to the exhaust collectors (also called exhaust risers) after the turbo(s). The collectors at this point are on a down slope- because right after the turbo they rise to prevent the water from entering the engine. This rise should also be above the waterline, as when the engines are off the water should not be able to get to the turbo's. If you run water thru the system without the engine running there is a small chance the water will fill the collector and run towards the turbo. Marine gen sets have a raw water pickup (a screen rather than a scoop) that does not allow the boats forward speed to pressurise the system as the gen set may not always be running just for this reason. While is doubtful that running water thru the system with the engine not running will do damage, I did work on two boats that went thru several engines that were ruined in short order (under 50 hours) because the owner changed the engines and collectors and his mechanic did not understand the this principle.