First off, please excuse my long post, but want to get all the facts across so I hopefully get good feedback. Ok, please read on...
Just bought a used boat in August and only took it out once before the birth of my third child and some other stuff going on this year so had to winterize it after just one day on the water (oh, it hurts!!). Boat is an ’03 Four Winns bowrider with less than 200 hours on the hour meter (freshwater only) and appears to have the original VP 4.3GL/SX I/O as far as I can tell.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago (baby is doing well, btw), I drained the outdrive oil and for the first few seconds after pulling the drain plug the draining outdrive oil looked very clean and good – good sign, I thought. About 3-5 seconds after pulling the drain plug, the clean outdrive oil started to change and I noticed faint white streaking in the oil, then heavier white streaking and some black streaking as well for a little bit, then the white streaking would flow heavier and ebb lighter as the rest of the oil drained out of the drive – I would guess the white streaks varied from 0%-50% of the volume of the draining oil flow, with most of the time the streaks being 10%-20% of the flow, according to my eye.
I checked the drain plug for metal shavings or filings on the magnet while everything was draining and there was just a little bit of very fine filings that looked like a metallic shimmery slurry, which I would expect to see as normal wear over time in a high-load gear assembly such as an outdrive or automotive differential, but I don’t know how long it has been since somebody wiped off the plug magnet and if that was very recently then maybe it is not as normal as it would appear. Regardless, there wasn’t much of it so I felt good anyway at the time.
So, I have to get the outdrive water leaks fixed. The bellows look original and the prop has taken some hits along the way so the input shaft and prop shaft seals are my prime targets to check for leaking seals at this point but obviously I won’t know until I do a vacuum test and explore further.
The real issue I am concerned about for now, however, is that I don’t know what damage, if any, may have been caused by the water in the oil since I don’t know the history of the boat (prior owner did not provide maintenance records and was not overly talkative about maintenance details). I don’t have any idea how old the outdrive oil was (may have been changed last season or at the time of sale and so the metallic filings are normal/excessive?), how often the outdrive oil was changed in the past (how long was water sitting in the drive between changes in the past?), or how long the drive had been leaking water internally and causing corrosion issues. The boat obviously did not get used a lot and the prior owner confirmed this when he talked about his experiences while owning the boat, so who knows how long the water has been seeping into the outdrive and sitting in there corroding parts.
At this point, I do not feel like I have enough data points to make an accurate assessment of the drive condition and I am tentative about replacing some seals to fix the leak and ignoring a potentially larger problem waiting to happen inside the outdrive if there is damage (corrosion) already done. That said, I need to be wise with my money and throwing more than a couple hundred bucks at it for potentially unnecessary work “just in case” would be considered a very bad scenario in my opinion and not really an option to be considered yet (hopefully it is obvious that I wouldn’t be posting here if I had lots of money to throw at the situation). What I do need is to get as much data as possible to make the right decision about the drive condition but do not know where or how to go about this. Everywhere I read on the internet about water in the oil nothing is ever stated about assessing problems from water damage before they cause catastrophic problems – rather the only advice offered is to fix the leak and carry on, and maybe carrying on and monitoring the drive closely for a while is all that can be done, but would like to hear some feedback before I go forward with a wait and see approach.
Is there anything I can do without tearing the drive apart to get some comfort that the drive is in good shape internally before I fix the leaking seal(s) and carry on? Anything at all? I have no problem removing the top plate to look for corrosion in there but beyond this not sure what to look for or how/where. I am fairly mechanically inclined, longtime DIY'er with automotive and small engine stuff at home, and methodical so not afraid of basic stuff but don't have the tools or money to get deep into the outdrive on a witch hunt unless there is more evidence such a project is warranted.
Just bought a used boat in August and only took it out once before the birth of my third child and some other stuff going on this year so had to winterize it after just one day on the water (oh, it hurts!!). Boat is an ’03 Four Winns bowrider with less than 200 hours on the hour meter (freshwater only) and appears to have the original VP 4.3GL/SX I/O as far as I can tell.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago (baby is doing well, btw), I drained the outdrive oil and for the first few seconds after pulling the drain plug the draining outdrive oil looked very clean and good – good sign, I thought. About 3-5 seconds after pulling the drain plug, the clean outdrive oil started to change and I noticed faint white streaking in the oil, then heavier white streaking and some black streaking as well for a little bit, then the white streaking would flow heavier and ebb lighter as the rest of the oil drained out of the drive – I would guess the white streaks varied from 0%-50% of the volume of the draining oil flow, with most of the time the streaks being 10%-20% of the flow, according to my eye.
I checked the drain plug for metal shavings or filings on the magnet while everything was draining and there was just a little bit of very fine filings that looked like a metallic shimmery slurry, which I would expect to see as normal wear over time in a high-load gear assembly such as an outdrive or automotive differential, but I don’t know how long it has been since somebody wiped off the plug magnet and if that was very recently then maybe it is not as normal as it would appear. Regardless, there wasn’t much of it so I felt good anyway at the time.
So, I have to get the outdrive water leaks fixed. The bellows look original and the prop has taken some hits along the way so the input shaft and prop shaft seals are my prime targets to check for leaking seals at this point but obviously I won’t know until I do a vacuum test and explore further.
The real issue I am concerned about for now, however, is that I don’t know what damage, if any, may have been caused by the water in the oil since I don’t know the history of the boat (prior owner did not provide maintenance records and was not overly talkative about maintenance details). I don’t have any idea how old the outdrive oil was (may have been changed last season or at the time of sale and so the metallic filings are normal/excessive?), how often the outdrive oil was changed in the past (how long was water sitting in the drive between changes in the past?), or how long the drive had been leaking water internally and causing corrosion issues. The boat obviously did not get used a lot and the prior owner confirmed this when he talked about his experiences while owning the boat, so who knows how long the water has been seeping into the outdrive and sitting in there corroding parts.
At this point, I do not feel like I have enough data points to make an accurate assessment of the drive condition and I am tentative about replacing some seals to fix the leak and ignoring a potentially larger problem waiting to happen inside the outdrive if there is damage (corrosion) already done. That said, I need to be wise with my money and throwing more than a couple hundred bucks at it for potentially unnecessary work “just in case” would be considered a very bad scenario in my opinion and not really an option to be considered yet (hopefully it is obvious that I wouldn’t be posting here if I had lots of money to throw at the situation). What I do need is to get as much data as possible to make the right decision about the drive condition but do not know where or how to go about this. Everywhere I read on the internet about water in the oil nothing is ever stated about assessing problems from water damage before they cause catastrophic problems – rather the only advice offered is to fix the leak and carry on, and maybe carrying on and monitoring the drive closely for a while is all that can be done, but would like to hear some feedback before I go forward with a wait and see approach.
Is there anything I can do without tearing the drive apart to get some comfort that the drive is in good shape internally before I fix the leaking seal(s) and carry on? Anything at all? I have no problem removing the top plate to look for corrosion in there but beyond this not sure what to look for or how/where. I am fairly mechanically inclined, longtime DIY'er with automotive and small engine stuff at home, and methodical so not afraid of basic stuff but don't have the tools or money to get deep into the outdrive on a witch hunt unless there is more evidence such a project is warranted.