An Oh S*&T Moment - Water In The Bildge

surfinjoe

surfinjoe

New Member
Feb 23, 2007
946
Michigan
Boat Info
220 Sundeck 2007
Engines
350 MAG w/Bravo III
This past weekend, while cleaning/waxing my boat I decided to take a peek at the ski locker. Come to find out that it was musty and had some pink stuff and black stuff growing down there (mildew). Anyhow. treated her to a some bildge cleaner and a little bleach (10% bleach, 90% H2O) to kill the bad stuff. The drain plug was out and the water was running onto the driveway with no issues. I kept the boat uncovered while I went to the store. As murphy's law has it, it rained quite a bit on my open boat. No worries, boats are made to get wet. As I returned to my house, it stopped raining so I continued to clean the ski locker. I started spraying the ski locker to get out any dirt that was remaining, and I noticed that the water was starting to collect at the back. Long story short, leaves and other 'organic' material from a tree above clogged the drain hole as well as the bildge pump strainer. I opened my engine hatch to find water up to the crankshaft damper. I cleared the drain plug hole and got the water to drain.

My question is, do I need to drain my oil now? I pulled the dipstick and the oil looks good. Should I pull out the drain plug hose and see if water comes out (since oil floats on water)? What pisses me off is I just changed the oil (has 0 hours on it). Are marine blocks 'water tight'?

What a PITA!
 
Your fine. Don't sweat it. I would be more worried about the starter...

Besides, you didn't have oil leaking out, so how could water leak in? Check your starter......
 
That's what I thought, but just wanted to get some other opinions. I turned the motor over so the starter should be fine. I will run her tonight for a good long while to dry things out a bit. Maybe launch her and take her for a spin.

Thanks for the quick feedback! Honestly, it pissed me off pretty bad!

Redhook98 said:
Your fine. Don't sweat it. I would be more worried about the starter...

Besides, you didn't have oil leaking out, so how could water leak in? Check your starter......
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yeah, I don't blame you. Since it was fresh water, your starter should be OK if you allow it to fully dry before using it any longer. Some electrical contact cleaner sprayed inside it may assist with drying it out.

You generally do not have to worry to much about water intrusion into an engine until it reaches the carb area. before that, your engine is expected to be air tight (and thus water tight). And if you have water up by your carb, your ignition will be shorting out soon as well.

Just make sure you dry everything out and spray the entire engine with WD-40.
 
I will hit it with WD-40. Could I use Silicon spray instead?

Well the good news is that I used a shop-vac to clean out the strainer for the bildge pump and found a bunch of crap in the bildge.

Not to blame Searay, but I found screws, a bunch of zip tie ends that were cut (huge ones used to secure the wires and such), and a cylindrical pin about 3/8" diameter and maybe 1 1/2" long (chrome). What the hell was that? Should I be worried?

Redhook98 said:
yeah, I don't blame you. Since it was fresh water, your starter should be OK if you allow it to fully dry before using it any longer. Some electrical contact cleaner sprayed inside it may assist with drying it out.

You generally do not have to worry to much about water intrusion into an engine until it reaches the carb area. before that, your engine is expected to be air tight (and thus water tight). And if you have water up by your carb, your ignition will be shorting out soon as well.

Just make sure you dry everything out and spray the entire engine with WD-40.
Click to expand...
 
surfinjoe said:
Should I be worried?
Click to expand...

Nah. When the boats are being assembled and a worker drops a part, it's a heck of a lot easier for them to go grab a new one instead of trying to fish out the dropped part. Consider those things "free replacement parts" :grin:
 
Thanks for the confidence Dennis. I guess Scott and I are on the same page here. Extra parts = something broke or came loose. One other thing I noticed while trying to reach under my engine is that where the transducer is, there is some sort of thing 'zip tied' to the the transducer wire. It feels like a plug. Does Searay include a plug in case the transducer is removed? I was kind of surprised to find that! LOL

The 'good news' here is that all the water in the bildge gave me the opportunity to clean her out real good. So much 'stuff' came out of there that I was glad this happened at the house and not on the lake.

And it really got me thinking again about putting in a high-water bildge pump somewhere....maybe a 2000 gal/hr. model. There goes another $150 bucks!
 
Good to know! Boy you should have seen me. At one time, I had my right leg all the way under the stern lounger (in the engine compartment) face all the way at the back of the boat, right arm unger the engine, left arm holding on for dear life, hugging the crap out of my 350 MAG....the only thing that could be seen of me was my left leg sticking out of the engine hatch. I looked like a HUGE X. As I was doing all this, I thought "what if I get stuck in here". I was alone at the time. Kind of makes you think....

sfergson727 said:
Yes, it's a plug for the transducer should it be removed or damaged. There is a flapper valve built in that will allow you to change it without looking like a whale spouting water through it's blow hole.
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:lol: I'm laughing because I can appreciate the position you were in. I don't want to know what some of the positions I've been in look like to someone topsides!

I don't want to put words in Scott's mouth, but I think he meant to say "don't worry about those extra parts", too?

That chrome (SS?) pin has me confused. Can you post a pic?
 
Yea Scott, I almost did panic. I am a little clostrophobic as well. The worst part is that my arms are all scratched and are itchy from the fibers.

Once I picked-up an anchor rope with my outdrive. Of course it was spring, and the water was about 45 deg. I put on my 1/2 wet suit, snorkel gear and away I went. What scared me then was being stuck under my swim platform....and of course the water was murky that day....

I have yet to be subjected to an MRI, but I feel for you there!

sfergson727 said:
I hear you. I got stuck between my engines once, and it took every ounce of self control I had to not panic. Between that and the three hour MRI I had a couple years ago, I've since become clostrophobic.
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I will Dennis. I thought about taking a pic, but I will tonight for sure. The other parts don't worry me a bit, but that one confused me more than anything. It looked chrome to me as it was quite shiny and a little rusty.

Lazy Daze said:
:lol: I'm laughing because I can appreciate the position you were in. I don't want to know what some of the positions I've been in look like to someone topsides!

I don't want to put words in Scott's mouth, but I think he meant to say "don't worry about those extra parts", too?

That chrome (SS?) pin has me confused. Can you post a pic?
Click to expand...
 
surfinjoe said:
I will hit it with WD-40. Could I use Silicon spray instead?

Well the good news is that I used a shop-vac to clean out the strainer for the bildge pump and found a bunch of crap in the bildge.

Not to blame Searay, but I found screws, a bunch of zip tie ends that were cut (huge ones used to secure the wires and such), and a cylindrical pin about 3/8" diameter and maybe 1 1/2" long (chrome). What the hell was that? Should I be worried?
Click to expand...


Not sure of the merits of silicone when it comes to displacing water.. Anyone? I would use WD-40 though. It's cheap and does the job perfectly.
 
WD-40, "Water Displacement on the 40th try". :smt001

Yesterday I was attempting to diagnose some engine trim issues and was attempting to test the down solenoid on the starboard engine trim pump. Waaaay back there, behind the vacuflush. I told my wife I had better wait until she's nearby in case I get stuck!
 
surfinjoe said:
And it really got me thinking again about putting in a high-water bildge pump somewhere....maybe a 2000 gal/hr. model. There goes another $150 bucks!
Click to expand...

Might not be a bad idea but did you figure out why the float switch never tripped the primary bilge pump in the first place? Should have come on unless the battery was completely disconnected. Maybe I missed where that was already covered though.
 
The pump was on. The strainer was clogged with little 'flowers' from a maple tree. Once I got it cleared out, the pump worked.

jason78 said:
Might not be a bad idea but did you figure out why the float switch never tripped the primary bilge pump in the first place? Should have come on unless the battery was completely disconnected. Maybe I missed where that was already covered though.
Click to expand...
 
BTW Dennis, that 'chrome pin' was actually a deep well socket. LOL

Lazy Daze said:
:lol: I'm laughing because I can appreciate the position you were in. I don't want to know what some of the positions I've been in look like to someone topsides!

I don't want to put words in Scott's mouth, but I think he meant to say "don't worry about those extra parts", too?

That chrome (SS?) pin has me confused. Can you post a pic?
Click to expand...
 
That is the 'glass half full' approach Dennis? LOL

BTW - everything seems to be fine. Starter is ok, engine runs great! I now have a squeaky clean bildge and a new tool :)

Lazy Daze said:
See that, Tim! You even came out of this whole ordeal with a free, new tool!:lol:
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