Hafduzen Rowzez
New Member
Greetings All,
Just over a year of owning a beautiful, low-hour 1989 Sea Ray 230 CC and the demons have made their presence known. Accordingly, my first post is written. In short time I will share the story of my afternoon nightmare and hopefully get some answers in the process. Luckily I am pretty resourceful when it comes to diagnosing and repairing most things mechanical so I am confident the necessary repairs, although costly and time consuming, will be somewhat less than challenging, but you never know. The twist in everything is that I am working on a project about 700 miles away from my boat, and repairs have to be scheduled and parts ordered ahead of time so when I go back every few weekends I can install the parts one at a time. This should be interesting seeing as how a lot of the parts are very similar over certain years, and all I have to go by is some pictures and memory.
The Story
In transition between the end of one project and the beginning of another, I found some time to go by my house in Phoenix and take a late-winter trip to the lake. The boat had sat for about a month, and as usual I connected the muffs for a test fire. A few cranks and she roared to life. I let it run a few minutes and checked all the gauges, ran the drive forward and reverse, and checked to make sure the water from the hose was circulating as it should be. After about ten or so minutes I shut her down and off we went.
At the lake, I idle through the no-wake and once I hit the buoys we are off, all systems go. Somewhere around a mile or so off shore I notice the throttle is somewhat sluggish and the power seems to be dwindling. I sweep the gauges and sure enough, the temp is pegged. Back down to an idle and then engine off and the boat floats to a stop in the middle of the lake. As soon as the wind stops blowing, thick white smoke billows from under the sundeck and out the bilge vents. The Halon system never went off so I was convinced there wasn't a fire, but nonetheless I opened the hatch carefully, fire extinguisher in hand. A few minutes after the smoke cleared and the sizzle of crisping rubber components stropped, and once I realized we weren't going to sink in the middle of the lake, I grabbed my paddle. That didn't work so hot, so I flagged a passing PWC and was hauled in. Once at the dock, the engine had cooled enough to test fire, and once again she roared to life, at least the engine was saved. Up on the trailer and at the top of the ramp, I pulled the drain plug and along with a little water, a thick yellow fluid came trickling out. I really didn't think much of it so I strapped it down and away I went. About 25 miles down the highway a passing motorist screamed that my drive was down so after freaking out I pulled over. Sure enough, that thick yellow fluid belonged to the hydraulics, and my drive, now minus skeg and one ear of the prop, had been dragging down the freeway. I tied up the drive and headed home. Frustrated, she has sat in the driveway for about two months, and now its time for repairs. I know what most of the parts are that I will be needing, its the ordering without seeing them on the boat and travelling back and forth to perform the repairs that will be the fun part. Wish me luck, hopefully I'll be back on the water soon.
Question
The boat has a big block chevy with a Bravo I drive. In looking up sea water pumps and rebuild kits I find that there are both 454 Mag Bravo packages and 7.4L Bravo packages with different serial number ranges that both cover the year 1989. I am curious which one I have, and accordingly what the serial number range is, so I can get the right kit. Any ideas what this boat would have in it before I get home to look? Thanks.
Just over a year of owning a beautiful, low-hour 1989 Sea Ray 230 CC and the demons have made their presence known. Accordingly, my first post is written. In short time I will share the story of my afternoon nightmare and hopefully get some answers in the process. Luckily I am pretty resourceful when it comes to diagnosing and repairing most things mechanical so I am confident the necessary repairs, although costly and time consuming, will be somewhat less than challenging, but you never know. The twist in everything is that I am working on a project about 700 miles away from my boat, and repairs have to be scheduled and parts ordered ahead of time so when I go back every few weekends I can install the parts one at a time. This should be interesting seeing as how a lot of the parts are very similar over certain years, and all I have to go by is some pictures and memory.
The Story
In transition between the end of one project and the beginning of another, I found some time to go by my house in Phoenix and take a late-winter trip to the lake. The boat had sat for about a month, and as usual I connected the muffs for a test fire. A few cranks and she roared to life. I let it run a few minutes and checked all the gauges, ran the drive forward and reverse, and checked to make sure the water from the hose was circulating as it should be. After about ten or so minutes I shut her down and off we went.
At the lake, I idle through the no-wake and once I hit the buoys we are off, all systems go. Somewhere around a mile or so off shore I notice the throttle is somewhat sluggish and the power seems to be dwindling. I sweep the gauges and sure enough, the temp is pegged. Back down to an idle and then engine off and the boat floats to a stop in the middle of the lake. As soon as the wind stops blowing, thick white smoke billows from under the sundeck and out the bilge vents. The Halon system never went off so I was convinced there wasn't a fire, but nonetheless I opened the hatch carefully, fire extinguisher in hand. A few minutes after the smoke cleared and the sizzle of crisping rubber components stropped, and once I realized we weren't going to sink in the middle of the lake, I grabbed my paddle. That didn't work so hot, so I flagged a passing PWC and was hauled in. Once at the dock, the engine had cooled enough to test fire, and once again she roared to life, at least the engine was saved. Up on the trailer and at the top of the ramp, I pulled the drain plug and along with a little water, a thick yellow fluid came trickling out. I really didn't think much of it so I strapped it down and away I went. About 25 miles down the highway a passing motorist screamed that my drive was down so after freaking out I pulled over. Sure enough, that thick yellow fluid belonged to the hydraulics, and my drive, now minus skeg and one ear of the prop, had been dragging down the freeway. I tied up the drive and headed home. Frustrated, she has sat in the driveway for about two months, and now its time for repairs. I know what most of the parts are that I will be needing, its the ordering without seeing them on the boat and travelling back and forth to perform the repairs that will be the fun part. Wish me luck, hopefully I'll be back on the water soon.
Question
The boat has a big block chevy with a Bravo I drive. In looking up sea water pumps and rebuild kits I find that there are both 454 Mag Bravo packages and 7.4L Bravo packages with different serial number ranges that both cover the year 1989. I am curious which one I have, and accordingly what the serial number range is, so I can get the right kit. Any ideas what this boat would have in it before I get home to look? Thanks.