Sea Ray 370AC water ingestion

[charlesemerson]

I was told by mechanic that my 97 370AC with twin Mercruiser 7.4mpi's has water ingestion on the startboard engine due to a design problem with the exhaust and risers - any suggestions or experience as to recourse from Sea Ray or what the options are??

 

[Kevin Smith]

Water In Engines

I have seen boats with this problem and Sea Ray has put new motors in one under warranty. I have also heard about this on a couple of other larger Sea Rays with the 7.4s, but yours seems to be kind of old for this to be the first time. Has this happened before and is your mechanic sure it's not the results of failures in the manifolds or risers?

If you are confident in your mechanics diagnosis, try searching the various boat review web sites for this problem and post your request for help there too! Have you tried contacting some of the larger Sea Ray dealers and talked to there service department about this. (Sometimes you can find one that will help you get older problems resolved.)

If you want to get some more ammunition, consider getting an independent review of the system by a highly qualified surveyor, engineer or investigator to see if there is design issues and then go back to Sea Ray with the problem and maybe a lawyer.

This link will get you a site that seems to have good information.

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/boatreviews/indexboatreview.htm

Here is a link on the same site to marine investigator information

http://www.davidpascoe.com/marine_investigations_chapt9.htm

Kevin Smith
Richmond VA
1991 250/270 Weekender 7.4, 330HP, Bravo II

 

[Kevin Smith]

7.4 Water Ingestion

Until you reminded me about the water ingestion problem on other 7.4 applications in larger Sea Rays, I had forgotten about that problem as you can see by my response to the attached link. You may want to contact this person to see if he has looked into this and has anything to share about his experience.

You may also want to look into the above website on my previous response about coming off plane rapidly and how that may cause water ingestion and why.

Regards,
Kevin Smith, Richmond VA
1991 250/270 Weekender, 7.4, 330HP, Bravo II

PS One boat I saw with this problem a few years ago, supposedly belonged to Sonny Haynes, owner of Haynes Jeep/Chrysler in Richmond VA. He might be willing to share his experience and how he may have got the 7.4s replaced under warranty. His boat was a really large 1990 something Amberjack model that was about 35' LOA with a very wide beam. It was up for sale when I looked at it and they were putting in new exhaust and motors. The information about the warranty replacement of the motors was second hand from the shop working on the boat.