blown transmission

J

justavacation

New Member
Jan 27, 2010
31
Tampa Bay
Boat Info
1997 Express Cruiser
Engines
8.1 mpi inboards
While cruising Tampa Bay yesterday, my transmission oil cooler failed and all the fluid went out the cooler and the tranny self destructed. I have 7.4 ltrs. with straight Velvet Drives. Any body had to replace one of these and about how much $'s I'm looking at? I have a 97 370 EC which makes this about the easiest boat for this repair. Tomorrow it's off the repair yard. Thanks
 
I see your tranny (i think) at $2349 from 1800runsnew.com new with 2 yr warranty.
I would guess less than 1k to remove and replace.
While in there be sure to replace the flex plate that couples the motor to the tranny, they are inexpensive and easy to replace while the trannys out of the way.

Its really not a hard job for the professionals to do in a day or two.
I have removed one of mine in a day while the boat was in my slip...not fun, but not hard.
It was pretty heavy to lift out of the bilge but, the pros will use a fork lift and might just pull the whole motor.
If the whole motor comes out you might want to do some other work while the engine is out of the way.
Talk to your yard and let us know.

Best of luck,
Mark.
 
If you knew how easy it was to work on what's in that tranny, you'd cry when you pay someone else to do it................but I don't blame you. There's projects I don't want to touch either.
 
Justavaca
Curious - was there any warning about the cooler blowing out (before it was too late)? ie: alarm, idiot light on the dash?
 
Upon my sea trial last october we found the port hurth transmission was dry of fluid. The coolers are very fragile and can develop seam cracks in the tubes thus allowing the fluid to be pulled out into the water and out the exhaust. Unless an alarm is used about the next best thing to do is check each week prior to leaving port which really is not a bad idea anyway. I was lucky as catching the problem, the previous owner opted to replace everything with brand new. It came with a new cooler as an assembly. Also the flex plate was junk so that was replaced as well, even if was OK I would have had it replaced anyway, they take a lot of abuse. I have just ordered a new cooler for the starboard transmission and will replace it soon. From what I understand from the mechanic that did the job it was close to $4K. including labor.
 
I have an idiot light in the primitive "Systems Monitor." Apparently this was an option. I just wonder if, by the time the light comes on, it'd be too late.

100_2666.jpg
 
Most likely unless your lucky, lights typically come on after the fact. A pressure gauge is best but to get the wiring done and up to the bridge would be another blood letting adventure. My arms ar so cut up from the other day reaching around the bilge. Speaking of lights, I do have a question with these dash lights. I am the rep for Solico who made most of the lights used but I had 2 break last weekend, one was on the halon warning and the other was on the forward bilge pump. I replaced them with 2 I had in my samples but they were Led not bulbed based. They both are lit when the engine is started, not what I expected. I requested samples that would replace what was in the dash but I'm not sure why a led would not work, ideas?
 
Fred
Just noticed what you're driving. Nice boat!
Are you talking about those green dash lights? Those are 12v neon. I wouldn't have expected that result either. LED or neon they should be OFF unless triggered (although the Halon light is ALWAYS on as long as the system is charged-theoretically, anyway). I replaced the lights on my breaker panel (just the ac side) with neon's from Radio Shack - a couple of them were dead. I was thinking of changing all the green neons on the DC side of the panel as well but got lazy.
 
rondds said:
Justavaca
Curious - was there any warning about the cooler blowing out (before it was too late)? ie: alarm, idiot light on the dash?
Click to expand...

Nope, no warning. My systems monitor has no lights for the engines or transmissions. When I get the boat back, I'm going to change out all the coolers on both engines, that should be fun. My local marina says there is no way to tell when there going bad. I already replaced the oil cooler earlier this year and had a zinc put in, that should help. When I had the heat exchanger rebuilt I also had a zinc installed. All these failures where on the same motor, interesting.
 
Justa
Good source for those coolers on the cheap.
http://www.mrcool.us/

They are supposedly OEM; but they come through painted. A friend turned me on to this source. We both got our our coolers from this place, hung em from a tree and sprayed them with gloss black rustoleum and installed them. Real quality stuff - direct replacements. Just have to remove the fittings from your old ones.
 
rondds said:
Justa
Good source for those coolers on the cheap.
http://www.mrcool.us/

They are supposedly OEM; but they come through painted. A friend turned me on to this source. We both got our our coolers from this place, hung em from a tree and sprayed them with gloss black rustoleum and installed them. Real quality stuff - direct replacements. Just have to remove the fittings from your old ones.
Click to expand...

I just ordered all mine thru Mr. Cool and for $30 more each, they are installing zincs in them. It's worth the money vs a motor or tranny.
 
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