Seacock Leak

320Bob said:
I can see why you would want to be on the boat when it first touches the water at launch but what are you looking for when it is taken out of the water when you on board? I have never gone through this process which is why I am asking.
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I'm not looking for anything when they haul the boat out of the water... they just start lifting before I can get off. Plus it's just easier to get off the boat because the walls are so high and I can step off the boat vs. trying to climb up on the concrete wall.
 
mistercomputerman said:
Old boy, I believe you're right. I think I read somewhere on CSR that bacteria on your seacock caused the seacock to leak some sort of slimy fluids.
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Maybe you need to get some good bacteria to counter the bad bacteria.

good_bad_bacteria.jpg
 
Four Suns said:
There is no mistake. The instructions say you can mount it either way.

http://www.groco.net/SVC-MAN-07/Sec4/PDF/IBV-FBV-TB.pdf

The thing is held in place because the part on the outside of the hull is threaded and fits into the flanged part. The screws appear to be there to stabilize it and can be thru-hulled or not.. I'm not sure how mine is installed... we'll see.
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That's amazing. I had a hard time believing it until I read the PDF.

Screw pressure is tremendous and squeezing out the 5200 sealant around the fitting should make it damn near impossible to leak. No way would I drill additional holes (and possibly counter-sink them ) in my hull to mount a through-hull fitting. I think it just adds additional points for potential failure.
 
osd9 said:
Dumb ass observation but......If the manufacturer of the seacock, in this case Groco, requires a backing plate, AKA 'spreader flange' or 'BigAss washer' , to 'spread the load', why wouldn't they simply make the mounting flange of the seacock larger?

Making it resemble a triangle, would surely allow it to fit in tighter spaces, and closer to bulkheading, but then that too would seem to negate the necessity to add the spreader flange.....just saying!!!!!
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What's being discussed isn't a typical seacock installation with a mushroom thru-hull. The head discharge is something different- a two-piece "sandwich"...never seen that before.

In the "typical" installation you MUST have a backing block, as the seacock needs to be lagged or through-bolted to something...certainly not the bottom of the hull. Countersinking a bolt into the bottom of the hull is, well... I'd never do it. I don't think it's as much to "spread the load" (although that helps) as it is to provide a substrate for the bolts/screws that hold it in place.

The best install I've seen was a thick wood backing block with edges chamfered 45 degrees on the top side, and holes for through-bolting the seacock and for the thru-hull pre-drilled and countersunk into the bottom. Once the bolts were placed, the assembly was placed in the desired location in a bed of thickened epoxy. Once it set up, the thru-hull hole was re-drilled through the hull bottom, and the inside of the hole sealed with epoxy. Then the top of the block was glassed to the hull. The seacock was then placed down over the bolts into a bed of 5200.

"Technically", you're not supposed to do the final tightening on a fitting where sealant's been applied until it's cured. That's what prevents squeezing it all out of the joint when you torque it down. Rarely does anyone (including me) follow that advice...

For the other poster that asked, 5200 cures anaerobically- meaning underwater is fine, done it many times. You don't want to run above idle speed though because the hydraulic pressure can "wash" the sealant out of the joint- then you've got a leak.
 
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So... I went down this morning and met with the mechanic that did the work on the boat. A new seacock was put in... He showed me the old one and it had a hairline crack in it.

He said the thing was previously bedded in with some black stuff and he rattled off the name but I don't remember what it was. The bedding was fine and was not leaking or loose. It was all stripped out and replaced with 5200 for the new install.

A couple other notes. The area where the seacock is consists of solid glass and is about 1.5" thick. Also, the original install used pan head sheet metal screws on the flange and they just went into the fiberglass a little ways. He didn't think that they provided much support and said one of them was stripped so it was just "decoration." He fixed that as well. He also said getting the fitting out was not easy and they had to use a pipe in the thru-hull to loosen it. I asked about the other ones and he said not to touch them unless there is a problem.

I thought they would be able to put the boat back in the water today but they have to prime and paint the area on the outside as they sanded it down to the gelcoat when they rebedded it with 5200. Seeing as we are expecting 1-3" of snow tonight and tomorrow, it will be next week until it is warm enough to paint. Maybe I'll get the boat in by July 4th. Hopefully it will be above 50 degrees by then (with all this global warming going on).
 
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Just out of curiosity, could you tell if it was an old crack or a new one?

Not that it really matters, but... the black stuff... does Life Calk (or Life Seal) sound right?
 
He didn't say Life Caulk (or seal).

The crack had green in and around it so it was there for awhile...
 
Never seen a bronze seacock crack before; that's a tiny bit disconcerting. You said it's out of the way where no one would step on it, anyone have an idea as to why it failed?
If it was towards the top where the NPT hose nipple screws in, it may have been overtightened originally at the factory?
 
Gary, try changing all you seacocks to these. They don't crack...

albion_3466p1.jpg
 
I'm back in the water finally... no leaks.

Off today to get back to the maintenance and cool mods for the year.
 
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