Opinion on water now draining out of hull when plug removed?

dburne

dburne

New Member
Jun 8, 2012
590
Nashville TN
Boat Info
2013 Sea Ray 190 Sport
Engines
4.3 MPI Mercruiser Alpha One
Hey gang, I am perplexed and really could use some advice. Back in June of 2012, we bought this 1990 180BR. The boat has been really solid, and it has a 4.3 Mercruiser Alpha One that was a Jasper rebuild about 4 years ago. Since we bought the boat, the hull has remained dry for the most part. At the end of a day on the lake, when I would pull the drain plug, no water would come out. If we swam a lot or had the grandkids tubing, we would get a little out when pulling the plug at the end of the day... Recently , had gotten a lot of vibration and different sound out of the engine, took it in shop and ended up having the u-joints and gimbal bearing replaced. Back out on the water, the engine runs great. Now however, at the end of the day when pulling the plug, lot of water comes out. Took back into shop and asked them to check all the seals, etc, from the work they did. They had couple of weeks, said they pulled the drive, checked bellows, seals , everything, could not find any leak. They stated they filled the rear with water all the way up to starter, could not identify any leaks around the rear area, the drain plug, or transom. Picked up boat, went to lake yesterday, on water about 6 hours, pulled drain plug on ramp and seems even more water poured out. Probably a steady stream for about a minute to minute and a half... Should I just not worry about this? I have to think this is somehow related to the work that was just done as prior to that it did not do this, after it now does. They stated on work order, if problem with leak still persists, will need extended lake test for evaluation...
 
Definitely worry. Something isn't right if you're getting that much water. It sounds like your service center is standing behind there work? That's good. In the meantime, without any kiddos on the boat, remove the engine cover and observe... Looking for water coming in either when you're sitting still with the engine off, or when the engine is running. Try at idle, elevated idle (about 2,000RPM) and also while underway. Give it a good 5-10 minutes at each setting. Bring a flashlight and a mirror-on-a-stick with you.

One other area you could check easily is the hose that brings water from the transom (outside) to the t-stat housing. At the housing (where all the big hoses come together)... You'll see a bunch of hoses. Most of them will be duplicated on both sides of the housing. However, two of them will not have a duplicate. One will be larger than the rest, not that one. Look for the oddball-sized one of the port side - that's the one you want. Check connections as you follow it back to where it connects at the transom. Along the way, it will connect with a black, metal tube... FYI, this is your power steering cooler.

Edit: I agree 95% with what Scott said. Filling the bilge with water can be a good way to find a problem... But it is in NO WAY conclusive. You could also take a look at the bellows hoses while the boat is on the trailer with the drive all the way up. There are three - two large and one small. See if you can tell if they're properly attached. Also poke and feel them, looking for tears and holes. Don't worry about the lower, big hose - that has nothing to do with this problem.
 
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They stated they filled the rear with water all the way up to starter, could not identify any leaks around the rear area, the drain plug, or transom

A dumb idea to begin with . Run it on land , any water dripping? Without unhooking it from the trailer ,lower it in slowly looking for leakage,Once it does mark the outside of the hull with tape.
Thats your starting point to look for the leaking part.
 
If there is that much water in the bilge then why isn't it being removed by the bilge pump?
 
hottoddie said:
If there is that much water in the bilge then why isn't it being removed by the bilge pump?
Click to expand...
There is not a lot of water in bilge I guess , it is in the hull so when I have the boat on the ramp and pull drain plug, it all drains out? My bilge pump is manual, however I turn it on occasionally just to check and it does not pump any water out.
 
dburne said:
There is not a lot of water in bilge I guess , it is in the hull so when I have the boat on the ramp and pull drain plug, it all drains out? My bilge pump is manual, however I turn it on occasionally just to check and it does not pump any water out.
Click to expand...

This is all a secondary issue, but are you positive there is also not a float switch? It's 24 years old, so who knows. But, I agree with Doddie that with the amount of water you're talking about, the pump should be pumping some out. Just do a double check and verify that the pump is working properly.
 
Lazy Daze said:
This is all a secondary issue, but are you positive there is also not a float switch? It's 24 years old, so who knows. But, I agree with Doddie that with the amount of water you're talking about, the pump should be pumping some out. Just do a double check and verify that the pump is working properly.
Click to expand...
Yes I am positive, according to the owner's manual it does not have a switch, just a manual pump. I can hear the pump running dry when I turn the switch on. I am stumped gang, something has had to happen when the repair was done. Don't know if this means anything, I do notice a difference when idling in neutral in the water, there is a lot more water gurgling up now above the motor than there was before - almost like it is churning the water straight up when idling in neutral - don't know if that makes sense, just a change I have noticed since the repair.
 
"In the hull" just doesn't sound right. The drain plug is at the bottom of the bilge, so any water that comes out comes from/through the bilge.

Filling to "just below the starter" doesn't really help, since the starter sits lower in the boat than the water line. The fact that it's not flooding in means it's not a huge leak, so it can be harder to spot. Get it in the water with a flashlight and a mirror on a stick and really look.
 
Something is probably leaking. :)

But, if you have water pouring out for 2 mins when you pull the plug...that's a lot of water. You should get a float switch for your bilge pump. And yes....your bilge IS where all that water was. Where do you think the drain plug hole goes to?

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4
 
mwph said:
Why are we not asking the "mechanic" to....
Click to expand...

IMO, because the "mechanic" thought filling the bilge to below the starter was a decent leak test.
 
Thanks gang. I am still fairly new to boating so may not be communicating everything as good as I can, I am definitely going to be talking to the repair guy again about this issue. I may not know much about things such as this, but I do know prior to the repair he did, I never had water coming out - after the repair, I have had a lot of water coming out. Sure sounds to me like, something did not seal properly...
 
Let's not bash the mechanic too much... yet. Filling the boat with water is a viable detection process, it's just not the ONLY thing that can be done. Maybe the mechanic actually did more than Dburne is aware of -- therefore we're only getting part of the story? Or, maybe not - but let's wait it out a bit before we condemn a guy that we don't much about. There's been a bunch of good suggestions above - let's see where that leads.
 
I would sit the boat in the water for a few hours and see if any water appears. If not, take it out and run for a few hours and check again. If water appears only when running, dry land it and attach the ears and run with the garden hose. I recall several years ago one of my blue plastic plugs had broken and water was pouring from the drain.
 
Hey gang, I have emailed my repair guy with the events of this past Saturday and will see what he thinks. Right now it is looking like this coming Saturday may be pretty decent, I am thinking we should just take the boat out again, open up the engine compartment and start looking everywhere I can get my eyes on and see if I can find where the water is coming in. I know it has to be somewhere in that drive unit area - I mean he did fill the back and leak tested and did not see any leaks in the transom area - I just have a suspicion it is mainly when that engine is running and pumping water... wish I had of done this last Saturday, this time I will just devote the day to being on the water a while and observing. Thanks to all for the feedback, sure hope I can get this resolved before have to winterize...
 
Update: I got the shop owner to agree to send his mechanic out with me to the lake yesterday afternoon. I ended up finding the leak, while he was driving the boat slowly, I was on floor looking back into the bilge area. Finally some water dripping caught my eye, and sure enough water was dripping down about every 2 seconds. It was dripping down from the bottom left area of the housing. He stuck a video camera back there and took some video footage from different angles. We went back to the shop and viewed the video, there were about 4 lines of dripping water down in that area. However could not really tell where exactly it was coming in. He showed the video to the shop owner, and he said well it is leaking around the transom, my boat is old and the transom has stress cracks. All he can do for it, is keep it overnight and let it dry out, then seal around the transom with sealant and put an automatic bilge pump in it. Said he is 95% sure this will take care of the problem at least for the short term. I was not thrilled with that answer, but guess it is what it is. My gut still tells me , this is somehow related to the repair that had gotten done as it was not taking any water on before the repair. He told me that when they inspected it in the shop, they took the drive off and there was no sign of water in the boot , no sign of water coming in around that area at all. He is sure this is a transom leak... I feel like now my boat is not going to be good for too much longer, not sure what I should do now. Hopefully I will be picking it up this evening, tomorrow is looking to be very nice, so we will go out to the lake tomorrow and see what happens. Probably be the last day of the year for us as will need to get it winterized now here soon - next weekend looking to be crappy and lot colder. What do you guys think, should I try to sell this thing over the winter? I am really bummed... boat has done very well for us since we acquired in June of last year...
 
The proper way to repair a transom leak like you describe is to remove the motor, outdrive, and the transom plate. The transom can then be inspected for any issues such as warping, gel coat cracks, etc. Once the transom is determined to be OK (and repaired if necessary) then the transom plate can be re-installed with a new gasket and you should not have any leaks (if in fact this is a problem). If you have wood coring in your transom it's also possible that some of the wood may be rotten if it has absorbed water.

I guess if I was in your shoes, I would ask a lot of questions on how they intend to "seal around the transom".
 
From what I gather, they are just going to put sealant around the housing on the outside of the transom - guess I will find out when I pick it up...
 
Well, that fix is a band-aid, at best. But, if you stay on top of checking the sealant from time to time, it's "ok". But the best way is removing and resealing properly (although I have never personally done one so I can't give you any specifics). Just depends on how much money you want to put into it.

Why did it happen after the boat came back to the shop? A realistic possibility is that it was barely hanging on and the process of removing and reinstalling the drive was enough to put it over the edge. The "straw that broke the camel's back", so to say. If it truly is a transom plate leak, there's really nothing that could have been done during the drive removal and reinstall process that would actually "break" it. Probably just a coincidence and it just happened a little sooner than later. On the plus side, it happened at the end of the season as opposed to the beginning or the middle.
 
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