God was watching over me

Tony D

Tony D

New Member
Mar 16, 2018
20
Monmouth County New Jersey
Boat Info
97 330 Express Cruiser
Engines
Twin 7. 4 MPI
Just purchased and drove a 97 Express Express friday from Connecticut to Brick New Jersey. Purchased from the original owner and only had 279 hours. The top end of the starboard engine wasw just rebuilt, but that's another story, so this was the first trip with the motor. Absolutely perfect ride all the way back no issues. Got on the boat yesterday to take a ride with my wife and another couple and after we put it up on the beach I smelled fuel. Opened the engine hatch to find at least 20 gallons of fuel in my bilge. Got everyone off the boat on to another on to another boat we were with and was towed back to my Marina. Managed to get the fuel out, clean the bilge and find the source of the leak. It is coming from the fuel line from the cooler to the fuel rail. Did some research and found out there is a recall on the fuel line because it's splits and cracks. Going to try to find the new fuel line and see if the other engine needs the updated line. The purpose of my thread is that I see a lot of people do not use OEM parts. Many of the electrical parts and connections are designed to prevent sparking.
I just thank God that the previous owner did everything through the dealer correctly ( except maybe act on the fuel line recall). Anyway if anyone has gone through a similar situation hopefully you made it out as I did.
 
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WOW, you certainly had a guardian angle looking out for you. That could have been VERY bad! Good lesson on always using marine rated electrical parts as well as opening the hatch underway even when all appears to be well. I'd also get a fume detector installed ASAP.
 
SCORPIO said:
WOW, you certainly had a guardian angle looking out for you. That could have been VERY bad! Good lesson on always using marine rated electrical parts as well as opening the hatch underway even when all appears to be well. I'd also get a fume detector installed ASAP.
Click to expand...

X2 on the fume detector. All gas powered inboard and IO powered boats should be required to have them.
 
How did they get the fuel out of the boat?
What did they do with the gas? I had 2 gallons of dirty gas in a gas tank. It took me a long time to find a place to dispose of it legally.
 
Thank goodness.

Reminder for all of us to open the ER hatch before starting the engine(s)!
 
Question.... Did you have the boat surveyed prior to purchase? If yes, why didn't the surveyor find the problem? If no....
Shawn
 
A surveyor is not required to check on recalls for components on the boat. Their job is to determine the overall physical condition of the boat and the value for insurance and finance purposes. as far as the sea trial is concerned it is for Operation and function of the components. In other words they work or they don't. It is a very generalized inspection. It's nearly impossible to know every recall. The two persons that I really blame is the past owner and the mechanic who rebuilt the motor. The previous owner never registered his motors with Mercury when he bought it new. Since there was no record of ownership the recall notices were never sent to him. there was an issue with one of the motors so the owner wanted it rebuilt prior to the sale. it was done at the marina by an authorized Mercury mechanic. Once your engine serial number is put into the Mercury website for ordering parts any open recalls automatically populate the screen. Whether that was ignored or not seen is the question. I spoke to the mechanic who rebuilt the motor and he was not aware of the recall. As far as getting the fuel out of the bilge I used a hand bilge pump directly into a 55 gallon plastic barrel. The remaining fuel was sopped up with rags than the entire bilge area was cleaned with Dawn. After that we started the motor and found out where it was coming from. The recall notice has many motors listed so it's not just mine. Anyone who purchased a used boat should take a look at the attached recall notice and see if yours falls into it. There's also an explanation to determine if yours was updated or not. I also included a picture of the bursted hope. It was not visible because the fuel line is covered with the fiberglass fire shield. One last thing. When the engine was rebuilt the mechanic said he's zip-tied the fuel line out of the way. There's no doubt it was compromised at that point but it being bent is probably what started the damage. I'm just surprised I made it a hundred and fifty miles before it gave out.
The boat was originally purchased in Brick New Jersey and the owner moved to Connecticut. Now the boat is now back home.
The name is Emerald Lady back in Brick New Jersey.

Have a safe boating season.
 

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In the picture you'll see that there is no fitting on the end after the crimped connection. This is the end of the line that went into the fuel rail. Since the repair won't be completed until next week I made a fuel line to get me back on the water. I cut the metal portions off both ends of the fuel line and made a temporary line with compression fittings.
 
Wow that’s crazy thanks for posting this I did check my serial number and I do not have a recall on mine I do have the braided hose update
 
Tony D said:
A surveyor is not required to check on recalls for components on the boat. Their job is to determine the overall physical condition of the boat and the value for insurance and finance purposes. as far as the sea trial is concerned it is for Operation and function of the components. In other words they work or they don't. It is a very generalized inspection. It's nearly impossible to know every recall. The two persons that I really blame is the past owner and the mechanic who rebuilt the motor. The previous owner never registered his motors with Mercury when he bought it new. Since there was no record of ownership the recall notices were never sent to him. there was an issue with one of the motors so the owner wanted it rebuilt prior to the sale. it was done at the marina by an authorized Mercury mechanic. Once your engine serial number is put into the Mercury website for ordering parts any open recalls automatically populate the screen. Whether that was ignored or not seen is the question. I spoke to the mechanic who rebuilt the motor and he was not aware of the recall. As far as getting the fuel out of the bilge I used a hand bilge pump directly into a 55 gallon plastic barrel. The remaining fuel was sopped up with rags than the entire bilge area was cleaned with Dawn. After that we started the motor and found out where it was coming from. The recall notice has many motors listed so it's not just mine. Anyone who purchased a used boat should take a look at the attached recall notice and see if yours falls into it. There's also an explanation to determine if yours was updated or not. I also included a picture of the bursted hope. It was not visible because the fuel line is covered with the fiberglass fire shield. One last thing. When the engine was rebuilt the mechanic said he's zip-tied the fuel line out of the way. There's no doubt it was compromised at that point but it being bent is probably what started the damage. I'm just surprised I made it a hundred and fifty miles before it gave out.
The boat was originally purchased in Brick New Jersey and the owner moved to Connecticut. Now the boat is now back home.
The name is Emerald Lady back in Brick New Jersey.

Have a safe boating season.
Click to expand...
Your surveys and sea trials must be different on the East Coast than they are on the West Coast. All of the surveyors I have used in the past don't just do a general inspection . They are on the boat for several hours with the boat in and out of the water. They then run the boat on the water from idle to WOT checking for everything and anything that could be a safety hazard (like leaking fuel lines), a mechanical issue and the overall condition. I then receive a detailed report, with photos, that can be 5 to 30 pages long depending on the size and complexity of the boat.

You said this fuel leak developed during your first trip with the boat. If that first trip had been with a good surveyor he would have found the leak. I'm not picking on you Tony. I'm trying to illustrate the value of a quality, professional survey when buying a boat. So many great people come on this forum and talk about the problems they are having with their, new to them, boat only to find they did not get a pre-purchase survey. Many times the issues could have been discovered if they had.

I'm glad you found the issue and are getting it resolved and everyone is safe. Fuel in the bilge is scary as hell....I've been there.
 
NorCal Boater said:
Your surveys and sea trials must be different on the East Coast than they are on the West Coast. All of the surveyors I have used in the past don't just do a general inspection . They are on the boat for several hours with the boat in and out of the water. They then run the boat on the water from idle to WOT checking for everything and anything that could be a safety hazard (like leaking fuel lines), a mechanical issue and the overall condition. I then receive a detailed report, with photos, that can be 5 to 30 pages long depending on the size and complexity of the boat.

You said this fuel leak developed during your first trip with the boat. If that first trip had been with a good surveyor he would have found the leak. I'm not picking on you Tony. I'm trying to illustrate the value of a quality, professional survey when buying a boat. So many great people come on this forum and talk about the problems they are having with their, new to them, boat only to find they did not get a pre-purchase survey. Many times the issues could have been discovered if they had.

I'm glad you found the issue and are getting it resolved and everyone is safe. Fuel in the bilge is scary as hell....I've been there.
Click to expand...

Sounds like that may be the case. My experience here in Canada is the same as Tony's. If you want the mechanical portion of the boat surveyed you need to get a separate "mechanical survey" completed.
 
Bop said:
Sounds like that may be the case. My experience here in Canada is the same as Tony's. If you want the mechanical portion of the boat surveyed you need to get a separate "mechanical survey" completed.
Click to expand...
The surveyors I used in the past were capable of doing inspections of gas engines but when I bought a diesel boat I had a certified Cat mechanic do the engine and genny survey.
 
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