Water in my enigne room.

[kerslaks]

My 280 is drizzling water into the bilge after I shut down my engines. About a gallon and a half each time.

This only seems to happen after I shut down the engines, it take a little while, and it is not draining from anyplace obvious.

If the boat is just sitting in the water, no water accumulates.

If the engines run for half an hour or for three hours we still get a gallon and a half of water in the bilge.

Any ideas?

 

[rcknecht]

When you drive your boat the bow goes up and water will drain from the bow back the engine compartment... If you boat in salt water, and the water is fresh, it is probably rain water from the bow, if it salt water, then I would check hoses... I bet its rain water...

 

[kerslaks]

Nope, that can't be it for a couple of reasons. First the forward bilge is as dry as a bone. (the boat is kept in covered storage on a trailer)

Second, it would stop accumulating after the first couple of times I ran the boat.

We launched the boat with a dry bilge. We ran the boat for about an hour and shut her down for the night to anchor. In the morning, I saw the water for thetfirst time. I bailed it out and checked the quantity.

Then we ran again for about two hours. Shut her down and within a few hours we had over a gallon of water in the bilge again.

We stayed at the marina for two days for the FL/GA game. During that time I did not run the engines, and no water went into the bilge.

We were out on the boat for a full week and this pattern continued evey time we ran the boat. Admittedly, I could have bought some bilge pads and figured it out, but I was on vacation and refused to think that hard.

This will be my first project for the new year though! (besides dropping enough weight to actually fit in the engine room ::grin:

 

[rcknecht]

If it not a hose leak or rain... I have had a pin hole leak in the the shifting cable rubber that was so small that it would leak when the boat was running. The mechanic found it with a mirror while the engine was running. I don't understand how you get the same amount of water no matter how long you run the boat. Seems strange to me...

 

[kerslaks]

My thinking is that it is on the exhaust side of the water jacket. The water is pushed out by the exhaust when the boat is running and then pools at the low points when the boat is shut down. One the manifold is empty, there is no more water to drain.

(That's my theory, I'll know more once I crawl in there.)

 

[rcknecht]

My thinking is that it is on the exhaust side of the water jacket. The water is pushed out by the exhaust when the boat is running and then pools at the low points when the boat is shut down. One the manifold is empty, there is no more water to drain.

(That's my theory, I'll know more once I crawl in there.)

Seems like a lot of water, you should be able to see it coming out of the manifold... Has anyone had this problem???