ZERO "0" water coming out of exhaust

searay495

searay495

Active Member
May 26, 2008
604
Long Island Sound
Boat Info
2004 420 Sedan Bridge
Engines
Twin Cummins CTA 8.3m
480 HP
Hello all- this is the second year that this has happened, and last year it cost me a water pump. I have a 2003 340 with Mercruiser 8.1s. The boat was winterized out of the water. Splashed this week. Cranked right up. Patiently waited to hear water pumping out of the side exhausts.....Nothing!! Opened strainers and they have water. Filled exhausts with a hose to prime and fill the system....Nothing. As a matter of fact their is still pink antifreeze in the strainers, so nothing seems to be moving. Seacocks are open. Gauges, for the short time the engine was running showed 50 psi. Of course the engines became screaming hot. Hopefully I shut them down before any damage. Thermostats only rose to about 110 degrees. Presumably nothing is clogging the intakes at the bottom of the boat. No rags stuffed in to intakes etc. I forget what the mechanic did last year to rectify this, but would like to be able to do it myself..

Thanks in advance,
Mark
 
I don't have closed cooling, so this is just what I've seen mentioned here but other owners have reported needing to "burp" the exchangers as they become vapor locked. There was a thread last week or so with someone who had the same problem.
 
For starters... Make sure the seacocks are open. Make sure the hoses on the pumps are connected and the inlet (from the strainer) goes to the inlet on the pump.

Who did your winterization? Maybe you should get them to de-winterize.
 
Inspect and or change impellers, check all coolers for blockage (main, oil, fuel and transmission coolers)
 
Mark
Firstly, filling the exhausts with water is probably a really bad idea! This system does not need priming, and though it would take a fair amount of water and pressure, you do NOT want to push water back up through the exhaust and into the dry passages of the engine.

Regarding the issue with flow, all you can do is pull hoses in the pathway upstream from the strainer to see if there's flow. Open the seacock and pull the hose that inserts into the pump to see if there's water there - you don't have to run the engine to do this. If there's flow there (just from natural pressure of the boat being in the water), put it back on, loosen the hose OUTLET from the pump, start the motor, pull the hose off and see if there's flow. If there is, go to the next "thing" in the line (tranny cooler??) and repeat the process.

I feel for you b/c this is NOT easy to do in your boat. It's just not that easy to get to the "plumbing" on a 340.

Could it be that your seacock handle is broken and you are not actually opening anything when you flip the lever?

Good luck!!
 
I have called the mechanic, and it will be a couple of days before he can do anything, which is why I'm troubleshooting it in the meantime. Both seacocks are open. As a matter of fact when I take the tops off of them water does not pour out. They are actually higher than the intake hose, which is a problem in itself, but heck the boat runs fine once the water starts flowing. The mechanic will move the strainers to be more in line with the intake hose. But again, same problem last year and he rectified it without moving hardware around. I think he may have stuck the hose in the intake to see if bubbles came out from underneath. Of course I'm on a mooring right now, so that is not an easy fix. Remember, both motors are doing this. If anyone knows of the thread Strecker 25 spoke of, I would be interested in reading it.
Thanks
 
So I found the thread from last week. The owner had to open the blue drain valves and burp his engine. Maybe we did that last year. I guess I will give that a try.
 
Not sure how water wouldn't be coming when you pull the caps off with the seacock open. Are you saying your strainers are higher than the water line. Theoretically, the only reason water would not be coming out is if they top of the strainer is higher than the water line.

Odd...
 
If your speaking of the thread about burping the system the easiest way would to take off the highest hose(make sure it's raw water side) on the heat exchanger and start the motor till water poors out then connect the hose. I don't think it's that tho. Forest thong I would do as ron stated is to close seacocks remove the hose that goes to the seacock and open it. If water flows as it should very rapidly move upstream to the next connection. You may also have a hose collapse. U can only c it when the motors running. My first bet is you have a bag or something sucks in. When they painted your bottom they didn't paint over them did they?
 
By the way of you had your engine running long enough to get your motors up to operating temperature. I would start by changing your impellers because they're probably fried
 
I want to thank everyone for there replies and suggestions. Went to the boat today and tried "burping" the cooling system.......wala!!!! It worked. So special thanks for the suggestion about the thread from last week. Hopefully the rest of the season will be smooth.
Enjoy the summer,
Mark
 
searay495 said:
I want to thank everyone for there replies and suggestions. Went to the boat today and tried "burping" the cooling system.......wala!!!! It worked. So special thanks for the suggestion about the thread from last week. Hopefully the rest of the season will be smooth.
Enjoy the summer,
Mark
Click to expand...

great news! love when they're easy fixes. Do the impellers seem to be ok then? As long as a healthy dose of water is coming out the pipes it they should be
 
Very interesting.......I've never heard of this problem before. I owned a 340 in the past and never experienced that problem. I'm glad it's cured......musta felt great to see the exhaust water flow after that burping!
 
I'm glad it was an easy fix for you. However, I'm puzzled about the cause. I've never heard of a scenario where you have properly functioning cooling system not discharging water via exhaust.


Do you have a link to the thread on this? Does anyone know the real cause? I just can't imagine 300-400HP engine not being able to clear an "air bobble". We're not talking about tiny A/C pumps here.
 
Take the hose off of the sea cock. If no water is coming through, blow air down through the sea cock with your shop vac. This happened to me last year and it cleared what ever was obstructing the intake.
 
Alex F said:
I'm glad it was an easy fix for you. However, I'm puzzled about the cause. I've never heard of a scenario where you have properly functioning cooling system not discharging water via exhaust.


Do you have a link to the thread on this? Does anyone know the real cause? I just can't imagine 300-400HP engine not being able to clear an "air bobble". We're not talking about tiny A/C pumps here.
Click to expand...

I've seen situations where the raw water hose was sucking air, and could not pull prime at idle. With a quick rev, it was enough suction to overcome the air leak and regain wate flow. Not saying that is what is happening here, but in agreement that something does not quite add up.
 
PMC said:
I've seen situations where the raw water hose was sucking air, and could not pull prime at idle. With a quick rev, it was enough suction to overcome the air leak and regain wate flow. Not saying that is what is happening here, but in agreement that something does not quite add up.
Click to expand...

My point exactly!



If you have air instead of water coming from strainer into engine's intake water hose, you have some kind of blockage. If you have water coming into the intake hose and not coming out of exhause, you have an issue at the water pump side (e.g. impeller is due for replacement).
 
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