mercruiser/ searay is a bitch ?

thanks for your words el capitan and others !

yes i will have to think about best strategy what to do . sunday of course nothing will happen and we are in the middle of a small harbour at the fehmarn island without a slip or a crane

you are correct , life is too short to get ruined by this b***ch boat , but it ruins our holiday for the third time , problems began after we stopped to trailer her but making continious trips on the water .

at least the beer is cold and we sit here , having a drink and laughing about searay and mercruiser quality ... nice .

 
I used to work on gas turbines. If things were not flat within spec we had problems. Your engine may not be flat between ports. Your mechanic should have a flat edge he can place across all the ports and measure the gap if there is one at each port. I have no idea what the tolerance is; but a Mercruiser mechanic should be able to obtain it. The crack seems to be on the outside so perhaps the low spot is at one end.
 
i have the boat since new and never had an overheat with it , never blew a headgasket . further at least the stbd head was checked to flat surface last year .

a shot in the dark : can it be bith risers have a partial blockage and the manifolds get too hot under load ? can they crack then ?

but remember : impeller is new and at least the engine does not get hot , i can be on plane for hours and the temp stays at 160deg .

can it be ?
 
Just calm down. Yes we know it sucks to have issues but we have all been there. And yes you can cruise for more than 2hrs without it blowing up. I cruised my Sea ray for 12hr in a day before. Twin 5L mpi's. So let's stay calm and get to the bottom of this. I do find it very strange that you had this failure with 1 year old parts. They should last 4 to 5 years. Still thinking about this and if I come up with something I'll post asap.
 
Thinking slight crack with poor winterization and you finished it off with the high speed run. Just a thought.
 
Whenever you hear someone died, the first thought that often comes to mind is "but I just talked to him!". Cruising for two hours or two days is not relevant. It was time for it to fail. The Mercruiser is a chevy engine (one of over 100 million built). I'm pretty sure they've worked out most of the obvious kinks by now.

While the manufacturer is a quick and convenient scapegoat, it's time to move beyond your rant and get at the root cause. My money, as others have said, is over-tourqeing of the bolts.
 
kevin27 said:
Yes we know it sucks to have issues but we have all been there.
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yes ... since we sea ray owners all have been there my current plan is to sell this trash asap and get a grateful boat instead one which in spite of best care and maintenance always wrecks when you have limited options .

@ scowflaw : not to exclude but i drained the system way before any freezing last spring . its the singlepoint drain - i do not have manual drain ports on the manifolds. i expect it to work .

ah whatever , it really needs to cool down because a cool head is needed for a good financial solution and this piece of crap is not worth being heated up . tomorrow is monday and i will organize a solution.

its the third and last time a searay will ruin our holidays .
 
scoflaw said:
Thinking slight crack with poor winterization and you finished it off with the high speed run. Just a thought.
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I would think that this is most likely your answer. Back to back failures in the same place would indicate something isn't right with the winterization process in that portion of the manifold. As to what....from your photos it is in the "low" area of the manifold which would indicate that water or weak antifreeze stayed in that area, froze and created the cracks. As the manifold got hot.....the crack continued to form until the area failed.

I know it is frustrating but with 14 years of owning it.....I would think that solving this issue will give you many more years of use. I don't believe it is a head surface issue on the exhaust ports or the exhaust manifold face. It is easy to check but my money is on a freeze crack.

I have seen too many freeze cracks on blocks, exhaust manifolds and seacocks. In almost all cases they were winterized but for some reason the process was not sufficient to remove the water from the area that cracked.

I don't know the process you go through to winterize the engines but if you shared it....perhaps it can be improved to prevent at least this possibility from occurring.
 
When you use the single point drain do you measure the volume of water that is discharged?

I ask because the single point drain, over time, especially in saltwater will become obstructed and not drain completely.

My 4.3mpi did this. I noticed I was almost two gallons short when draining the motor. I took it to my dealer and they back flushed the cooling system. This mostly fixed it but it still drained slow, especially the port side manifold. It also filled slower when I added antifreeze to the port side.

I removed the hoses and blue plugs one at a time and reamed out the openings with a stiff wire. There was sand and other debris in there which was partially obstructing the openings.

never trust the single point drain to get the job done for winterization. It is designed to allow boating in cooler temperatures but not for winterization and hard freeze.
 
i winterize to specs . there are 4 drain ports on the engine . first is the main manifold low left - this is the main and called "singlepoint drain" . second is the venting drain on the t-stat . 3rd and 4th are the drains on the supply and return of the raw water pump .

i open the lower left manifold drain and let the water flow . second i open the tstat vent to equalize the pressure for complete drain . finally i open the raw waterpump drains to drain any residentual water from the waterpump . i let it all open for at least an hour to any water leave .

this is exactly what mercruiser calls for and if this indeed fails its not me but a crap and run away design from mercruiser .
 
IDK, I'm missing something. Had boat for 14 years. Now starting to have manifold issues after replacement. But it's somehow searay/mercruiser's fault? How do you know you mechanic is competent?
 
Did you measure how much water drained from the engine? This is a sure way to know if it’s all out. This habit saved my motor when I observed a significant reduction In volume from the normal amount of water.

your problem is horrible and it would turn a Saint red. I hope you can work it out.
 
aerobat77 said:
i winterize to specs . there are 4 drain ports on the engine . first is the main manifold low left - this is the main and called "singlepoint drain" . second is the venting drain on the t-stat . 3rd and 4th are the drains on the supply and return of the raw water pump .

i open the lower left manifold drain and let the water flow . second i open the tstat vent to equalize the pressure for complete drain . finally i open the raw waterpump drains to drain any residentual water from the waterpump . i let it all open for at least an hour to any water leave .

this is exactly what mercruiser calls for and if this indeed fails its not me but a crap and run away design from mercruiser .
Click to expand...
Just to point something out for the future... This does not ensure that all of the water gets drained out. The block and manifold will drain, via small hoses, to the water manifold on the bottom, front of the engine - where that "single point" drain is. HOWEVER, if one of those small drain hoses get clogged with sand/silt, you may not get full drainage. It all still needs to be double checked. And, for extra pre-caution, backfill the system with non-tox AF - which also helps to prevent internal rusting.

And... after opening the raw water pump drains... bump the engine a few times to clear the pump housing.
 
blaster said:
When you use the single point drain do you measure the volume of water that is discharged?
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i do not kneel and beg my engine to drain during winterization . please quote mercruiser calls the singlepoint is a not a trustworthy but shitty design althought winterized to specs ...

i,m not talking a tired grandpa but a 5.0 mpi bravo 3 and i can only recommend to run away from this trash .
 
Lazy Daze said:
Just to point something out for the future... This does not ensure that all of the water gets drained out. The block and manifold will drain, via small hoses, to the water manifold on the bottom, front of the engine - where that "single point" drain is. HOWEVER, if one of those small drain hoses get clogged with sand/silt, you may not get full drainage. It all still needs to be double checked.
Click to expand...

please give me the link mercruiser calls owners their official winterization procedures may result in freeze damage and failure next season . are you kidding me ?
 
So doesn’t the bravo single point drain have some kind of air actuator pump?

on the alpha the cooling system has the pump in the drive, not on the engine.

I’d like to see the exact procedure for this particular unit, which I am assuming is CE standard.

Please post the printed procedure which outlines the post you made of your winterization process.
 
aerobat77 said:
please give me the link mercruiser calls owners their official winterization procedures may result in freeze damage and failure next season . are you kidding me ?
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Honestly, I don't have a link, or even care about a link for this. I know this from working in the industry and experience. Not everything can be learned from books! :)

I understand you're frustrated with the situation and I would be, too. I get it. But keep in mind that (as mentioned) this is not the norm. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of boats out there that don't continually have these issues. All of the Sea Ray things you originally pointed out can all be chalked up to maintenance items... Except the "small" cabin - which you knew going into things ---- and the "tippiness", well, it's a small, narrow beam cruiser (high center of gravity) - physics is a real thing. I know none of this makes you feel any better about your current situation, but it really isn't a "Sea Ray" or Mercruiser" thing - it's by no means the norm. It's just a "thing".

Plus... if it turns out to be installation error on the manifolds (either over tightening or not checking for a flat deck, for example)... wouldn't that be a German problem, and not an American thing?
 
It’s only common sense to find the root cause then if warranted blame the manufacturer and the company that uses them.... never blame the company first... you end up looking like a fool in most cases.
I am surprised you have as much help as you do with some of the experts on this forum..... especially after calling sea ray and mercury a bitch out of the gate
 
Bro, right now the damn boat should be last on your priority list. You can figure that crap out later.

You and your wife are on holiday. Focus on enjoying each other and your health and chalk this up to Murphy.

This will all get figured out later.
Enjoy what’s around you. We all have horror stories and learn from them. Right now you’re too pissed off to waste emotional energy on how to fix machinery.

Wish I was near your port, I’d buy you a cocktail and commiserate till you figured out how to solve.

It’ll come to you. Promise.
 
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