Water coming in.

Took the boat out for the first official outing today. so i need to give a little back history.. (sorry for the wall of text.)

The day i bought the boat (99 sea ray 180. mercuiser 3.0l with alpha one outdrive.), i went to pick it up, and while i was there, the guy kept telling me "go ahead and take it to the water! the ramp is only 3 blocks away! it has jackets in there, and a half a tank of gas! its a beautiful day!" so we did. We launched and were idling out across the no wake area when i look back and see water bubbling up out of the ski locker. :facepalm: no plug...

I nail the throttle, and we head back to the ramp, get the boat on the trailer, and let it drain. We caught it early, and the water in the bilge was only up to the bottom of the oil pan, no damage, hosed it down well when i got home.

Flash forward to today. Im paranoid as heck when we go out. we putt around and do a couple of runs in the river a bit to let the engine warm up, and make sure everything is running correctly. i hit the bilge pump and see water come out so i high tail it back to the dock. I open up the engine compartment and see only about an inch of water. we sit there for about 10 minutes (slow ramp day) and the water level doesn't rise, so we go ahead and head out. I just assumed it was residual water from the previous "outing".

after we make it to our swim spot, i check again, and there is water in the bilge again. not much, but at least 5 seconds of bilge pumping. I dont like this, and i can only assume it will get worse.

Now, on to the question. I have water coming in, but where. I dont know where to start looking. Did i knock a bellow loose the first go around with all the water in there? I can see what looks like a hose leading to the transom just above the drain plug, and water was dripping from that, but i dont know what that is, or if that even helps. It seemed like a slow leak for the amount of water coming it. the bilge would pump a solid second or two every 5-10 min.

I do know that it is not a cooling system leak. I checked it thoroughly while on the muffs and it stayed bone dry back there. I am new to this, but dont mind learning and listening to the wisdom here. Where do i start? do i remove and check all the bellows? fill the bilge with water and see where it leaks?

Im not very close to the water, and trial and error will be tough.

Thanks in advance for any info, and again, sorry for the wall of text.

Re: Water coming in.

One thing you can try with your boat parked in the driveway is to put the plug in, then start putting water into the bilge with the hose. Watch if it starts leaking out anywhere. Where water comes in, it will probably come out. I had a small leak in the hull of a boat I used to have, used this method and found it within a couple of minutes. Good luck! Nothing more unnerving than finding water in the bilge!

Re: Water coming in.

I have a sea ray as well... i found mine leaking from 2 different areas. #1 stern hook (eye) ,on both sides. Had to remove and reseal with sealant. #2 the seam where the cap and the hull mate together on rear of boat next to ski ladder. Where it was leaking is crazy! The cap is mated to the hull with rivets, the rivets have very small holes in the centers which they seal up with sealant from the factory. I removed the black plastic from the center of the rub rail and find two of the rivets that the sealant fallen out some how. I resealed the rivets and no more leaks... TIP! Both of these area ONLY leak when there is someone on the back of the boat and these areas are under the water level or when you are slowing down and the wake comes and hits the back of the transom. Took me forever to find mine leaking because I would always check while sitting still in the water and it wouldnt leak a drop until I had my wife step out onto ski platform . Good luck take a flashlight and check it out

Re: Water coming in.

Another SeaRay 180 owner here
Order up a tube of 3M 4200 from here on iboats.
When you get it, look underneath the rub rail and you should see a few gaps.
If you do...remove as much of the old stuff as you can (PITA) and seal er up good.

I would also unscrew anything attached to the hull (Transducer, Bow Eye, Swim Ladder, etc..) and reseal those
as well.

Enjoy

Re: Water coming in.

The water your seeing can be coming in from so many places you may spend all your boating time running back and forth to the ramp

I don't want to sink any more than the next guy, but a few seconds of the bilge pump running especially on the switch and not the float which indicates rising water shouldn't be too much of a concern unless it continues and or gets worse. I know some will debate that any water in the bilge is a sign of some sort of problem (which it is many times BTW) but the severity of those problems vary greatly and yours did just have a bunch of water in it that could still be finding it's way out.

If it has been parked a couple days on the trailer take a look and see what water you find, and if you can determine where it is coming from. SeaRay like many other production makers of smaller boats does allow there to be areas that water can collect (both from how yours got wet as well as just rain water too) but not get out very easily and it can take a while if even ever for it to find its way out.

If this is not from your drain plug snafu and there is not any remaining water from that it could also be from an earlier event before you owned it, and since the boat is nearly 13 yrs old it could be that water is leaking from several other places as well.

A few places just to get you started if it does persist are the out drive, u-joint bellows, transom seal, entire cooling and exhaust system, anything attached to or through the hull and transom, and any place that rain water could get in.

I have to think there are threads on water in the bilge to search out and get ideas from, but before you get yourself too worried I would wait and see if this is even a problem a week from now, and also be aware that as much as you want the water on the outside of the boat most times a little water is not from a big problem, and a great many boats have some water in the bilge.

A bigger concern I have right now is that your bilge pump did not come on automatically when you left out the plug, and even though it sounds like you trailer your boat you want to be sure that the pump does work auto, and will keep you from having to deal with the potential problems from a real sinking.

When I went to help a neighbor diagnose his 4.3l that had to be towed in recently we were both a bit surprised to find the bilge, and most of the cockpit filled with water almost high enough to reach the cabin. It was really odd because we had just been talking about why he went with a fully auto rule pump a couple years back as it cycles on every minute. Low and behold it was till cycling when it was flooded but did not find enough water to run. You really want to avoid that if you can.

Re: Water coming in.

I just left the bilge pump on the remainder of the trip to be safe, but i would like to figure this one out. How do i verify the bilge pump is an auto? I would assume, i put the plug in and start filling the bilge to see if it turns on...

I will check and tighten the clamps on the bellows, and see if anything leaks out when i fill the bilge. The seal for the cap/hull was well out of the water when i saw the drips, but may still be part of the problem from takeoff and slowing down.

The boat sits well up out of the water at rest, so i dont think there is a significant amount of water left in there.

thanks for the tips, and please keep them coming!

Re: Water coming in.

When I first got my boat the bilge was dry unless went went to the dock then mysteriously the was water in the bilge. I stayed with the boat to check it and the bellows was leaking but only when the outdrive was up. Didn't leak a drop when it was down.

Re: Water coming in.

how hard is it to change the bellows? i have a decent amount of mechanical skill, and have replaced alternators, starters, did brake jobs, etc. but never anything on a boat. do i have to remove the lower or can i just remove them and replace them?

The engine is also fairly loud when running, but i dont have anything to compare it to. im thinking it may be time to replace the gimbal. i may just wait till the off season and have it put in the shop.

Re: Water coming in.

Bellows are not hard to change, just a PIA, as the clamps need to be in exactly the right spot in order to tighten them. I recommend a Mercruiser service manual. You will need to pull the outdrive, and the side tilt bolts on the transom plate to get to the bellows. You might inspect them first to make sure that is the issue.

Re: Water coming in.

k so sunday evening i did a little more checking. I jacked the trailer up so that the bow was WAY up in the air to keep the water at the bilge. I then filled the bilge with the water hose. I filled it far enough to where the oil pan was almost touching. I found out a few things from this

1 my bilge is NOT automatic. It was totally submerged and never kicked on.
2 my plug leaks but its just enough to keep it moist around the plug. it didnt even drip.
3 my ski locker was NASTY
4 i still dont know where my leak is.

I looked at the bellows as best i could and could not see any holes, or anything loose.

I took a few pics to help.

OK so the pics are crap.. in the first two you can kind of see the water. I put even more in there than what is in the pics.

The bellows pics are to dark, but i used a flashlight and looked myself and everything seemed correct. I tugged on them a little and they seemed firm.

In the next to last picture, you can see what looks like 2 hoses directly under the rear motor mount. When i was on the lake, there was water dripping off these. It was about a drop every second, so it wasnt a bad drip, but still a drip. This was at rest, with the hull seam and transom tie downs well above the water line.

Im wondering if the plug is the culprit. I would assume the water pressure would be stronger when the boat is in the water, then when i had water in the bilge. I snugged it, but i didnt crank on it to tight. The threads were a little gritty, and i have another plug. Maybe ill clean and change it and see what happens.