Need Some Advice - Boat Stranded 40+ miles from home

I know everyone is trying to help you diagnose the engine issues I have another question regarding seatow for you. A couple years ago I had them and the only reason I signed up was they would tow you back to your homeport. If that's the case, they need to pony up and tow you from ptown to Boston. You paid for a service, they need to provide it.

Hoping it's only the impeller. I assuming they are FWC, if so check the coolant level too along with the radiator cap on the heat exchanger.
 
One other thing to check - the thread below explains what happened to my raw water system for my gennie after I changed an impeller. The hose had delaminated inside on the short hose from the sea cock to the strainer. Impossible to see from the outside - I still think in your case it is an impeller but just in case this is also a very low cost fix (but hard to find).
see thread
http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/74209-Generator-Sea-Water-Hose-Delamination?highlight=
 
You might have had something blocking the raw water inlet on the bottom of the boat. If you don't see water flow within 30 or so seconds, you have a problem and should shutdown because damaging the exhaust system is a very real risk.

Odds are, if you didn't have an impeller problem after running for minutes without water flow, you do have one now. Close the seacock, open the strainer and check that the basket is clear. If so, open the seacock briefly and insure that you have good water flow. Close the seacock and cover the strainer. I'd also rinse the brine from the strainer.

If you have poor water flow, you might have an obstruction under the boat, in the water hose, or in the strainer's inlet port itself.

If you have good water flow, pull the hose from the transmission oil cooler over the bell housing and check for debris. If there aren't anything there, then odds are, the rest of the system is clean. The flow on the 7.4 is from the raw water pump, to the transmission fluid cooler, engine oil cooler, coolant heat exchanger and then overboard via the exhaust system. If you want to check the raw water flow, while the hose from the raw water pump is disconnected from the trans cooler, point the hose away from the engines and transmissions to a low point in the bilge and have a helper start the engine. Don't run it for more than a few seconds. That's all you'll need to know if there's a problem. You should have a huge volume of water flow. Odds are, you won't and the problem is the impeller.

Personally, I'd just change the impeller. It's the logical first suspect and the cheapest repair but I'd first ensure that there's water flow at the strainer. You probably picked up a plastic bag against the bottom of the boat that killed the impeller. Happens. I had that happen to my generator once. After I shutdown the generator, I saw a plastic grocery store bag float away.
 
Scott and Rob,

A couple questions, how can I tell if I have cross over cooling? On my survey the surveyor noted I have "PSS

water injected shaft seals."

Also what is the best way tot lock down the shaft of the dead motor?

Tom
 
You probably don't have cross over cooling, unless you added it... Each Tides dripless seal will have two hoses vs one... I did not have cross over cooling in my OEM seals, and ran two hours at no wake, an kill my the seal on the shaft with the engine no running. BTW, my problem was a collapsing inner RW hose as was mentioned above...
 
That makes sense about how to determine if I have cross over cooling in my shaft seals.

Does that mean though if I had sea tow, tow the boat all the way home with no engines running, I would probably smoke both shaft seals?
 
Tlynch99 said:
That makes sense about how to determine if I have cross over cooling in my shaft seals.

Does that mean though if I had sea tow, tow the boat all the way home with no engines running, I would probably smoke both shaft seals?
Click to expand...

It is possible, if you don't lock your shafts... just get two big vice grips...
 
All, thanks for all of the suggestions and things to check / try.

I went down to the boat late last week to look at some of things you all suggested. I decided I would run the boat a bit, as I needed to move it to a different mooring anyway. As we were moving the boat I had the RPM of both engines around 1400-1500 and I noticed the temp did not go over the 165-170 as it had done while just idling at the dock. The sound was still louder than usual but the temp did not go above 170.

To make a long story short we took the boat back home, about 2 hours on-plane running about 3200 RPM and 24kts and then temp on the starboard engine stayed perfectly at 170.

I am going to do some more investigating this week, but it would appear that it's either something related to not enough flow at idle or something trapped somewhere.

Thanks again for all of the help.

Tom
 
I had the same problem last weekend. Check your engine belt . Mine ended up being loose. I broke the bolt in the alternator trying to get the tensioner out, but that's a different story. Also 65 miles away from home. Gotta love boats
 
Another item that would cause cooling issues would be a failing riser. Are your risers older than 5 years?
 
Anthony -
Did they ever fix you up and get the boat back home?

tonykdr said:
I had the same problem last weekend. Check your engine belt . Mine ended up being loose. I broke the bolt in the alternator trying to get the tensioner out, but that's a different story. Also 65 miles away from home. Gotta love boats
Click to expand...
 
Yea Ron, they drilled out the bolt and replaced the tension bolt. I picked it up Friday. Ran like a champ
 
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