5.7L MerCruiser Bravo III under water...repairable?

[MarsRover]

Hello all,

I am considering taking on a boat from my elderly neighbor. The boat is sunk on his dock. Leak looks to be (at least) in the transom where the outdrive meets the transom. It is hard to tell exactly until i get the boat up on the hard.

I am a mechanical engineer, but most of my experience is with spaceflight and cars. Not marine motors.

Curious if anyone has ever successfully run a fully swamped 5.7L MerCruiser® Bravo® III. Or if all hope is lost and I should just anticipate pulling it. In that event, is it best to rebuild or just replace and give the old motor for core refund?

thanks all

 

[alldodge]

That's a Bravo 2 and since the motor has been under water, its junk.

 

[Scott Danforth]

First, welcome aboard

Motor is junk, wiring is junk, blowers junk, steering cable is junk, control cables are junk, drive would need to be pulled apart.

Water has now gotten into areas that it will never get out of

Leak being transom, assume transom/stringers/deck are rotten

Estimate $5000 hull restoration, $7500 for motor and drive, $2500 for wiring/cables/batteries/etc

Do you actually wrench and fabricate on cars/aircraft? Or just theoretical? The hands-on skills are transferable, the theoretical not-so-much

 

[Bt Doctur]

you have 24 hours from sinking to running or else its lost

 

[Lou C]

That boat has not been used in years obvious by the barnacles on the outdrive & all over the transom.
If you want a project that will require you to learn nearly every aspect of boat restoration then that’s one thing. If you want a boat to use within the next year or so forget it!

 

[MarsRover]

That's a Bravo 2 and since the motor has been under water, its junk.

Thank you!

First, welcome aboard

Motor is junk, wiring is junk, blowers junk, steering cable is junk, control cables are junk, drive would need to be pulled apart.

Water has now gotten into areas that it will never get out of

Leak being transom, assume transom/stringers/deck are rotten

Estimate $5000 hull restoration, $7500 for motor and drive, $2500 for wiring/cables/batteries/etc

Do you actually wrench and fabricate on cars/aircraft? Or just theoretical? The hands-on skills are transferable, the theoretical not-so-much

Thank you! "Knowledge comes from turning the wrench." That is what I always tell young engineers I'm mentoring. Happy to see others saying the same! I have pulled, broken down, cleaned, rebuilt and replaced motors, transmissions, and differentials, and done my fair share of wiring in cars and homes. As for spacecraft, I'm on both sides of the engineering line: design and build. But point being, it doesn't sound like this is a project worth getting into. "Water has now gotten into areas it will never get out of" is a nightmare to me as that means mold forever.

Regarding the transom leak, I actually have a video and photos of it. I imagine it could be as simple as a gasket or hose broken. Not sure that changes the is-it-worth-it story.

you have 24 hours from sinking to running or else its lost

Yeah it's been sinking and being pumped out repeatedly since mid last winter. So almost a year. Sounds like the boat needs to be gutted.

That boat has not been used in years obvious by the barnacles on the outdrive & all over the transom.
If you want a project that will require you to learn nearly every aspect of boat restoration then that’s one thing. If you want a boat to use within the next year or so forget it!

noted.

You all have nearly convinced me that this isn't worth putting my money and time into. I'm probably going to go convince myself neighbor he should call it in to DNR as abandoned.

 

[tpenfield]

In terms of learning, this boat might be the Special Education section of the School of Hard Knocks.

As the others have stated it looks like it had been sitting in the water in a neglected state for quite some time (months). Not sure if it was sunken the whole time (or not), but probably not worth your trouble.

 

[Scott Danforth]

It's almost NEVER the transom gasket

It is almost ALWAYS a rotten transom

 

[Scott Danforth]

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[Lou C]

That's really a shame all the owner would have had to do is pay someone to pull the boat for him when they could no longer use it, winterize it and pull out the plug, cover it appropriately for the elements.

 

[MarsRover]

Yeah it's been sunk for over a year. Neglected sitting unused for over 5 years.

I did my neighbor a favor months ago by dragging it up into shore during high tide. Super high tides (2' above normal) lately are what swamped it this time.


He's an elderly man with a lot on his plate and this boat was his old friends (who has since died and left my neighbor the boat, new reg and title was never sought and signed over title is lost).

Neighbor authorized me, and I'm thinking of claiming it as "abandoned" (DNR recommended that path given the situation). But now I'm wondering if it's more of a financial liability for me if I put it in my name. Maybe I should just call DNR and report the abandoned boat and let them haul it away...

 

[Lou C]

It certainly could be if it leaked oil and gasoline into the water. Was the boat insured? If not that's a situation you want to stay away from. Once you become the owner you could be reponsible.
remember no good deed goes unpunished lol.
I would not get involved. Oil and gas leaking from an old boat is a potential expensive nightmare. One reason why everyone should have insurance, which covers that.

 

[merc850]

I don't know what goes on in your area but around here you can't take a boat to the dump you have to pay to have it ground up and disposed of. This costs you money; so if that's the case I'd walk away!

 

[flashback]

Don't ya just love engineers, they are slaves to the marketing department.

 

[MarsRover]

It certainly could be if it leaked oil and gasoline into the water. Was the boat insured? If not that's a situation you want to stay away from. Once you become the owner you could be reponsible.
remember no good deed goes unpunished lol.
I would not get involved. Oil and gas leaking from an old boat is a potential expensive nightmare. One reason why everyone should have insurance, which covers that.

Maryland DNR officer came out to see if he could do anything by labeling it as an "abandoned vessel in state waters". Sadly, for my neighbor, since it is tied up to his dock, he is on the hook if any oil or gas leaks. Basically what you said Lou! I think you and the others are right, this is a much bigger liability than anything else and i don't want to get tied into a financial mess that wasn't never mine to begin with. Thanks for your input lou

I don't know what goes on in your area but around here you can't take a boat to the dump you have to pay to have it ground up and disposed of. This costs you money; so if that's the case I'd walk away!

yeah it is the same here. I was hoping i could give the thing away. the hull is actually in pretty decent shape considering. but i think the mess far outweighs any worth it has. thank you Merc, this is a valid point. I was discussing with my SO that its not worth sinking hundreds (or more...) into getting this boat out of the water just to have to pay to trash it. You all have convinced me, i'm out!

Don't ya just love engineers, they are slaves to the marketing department.

no idea what this means...or what marketing department you believe I am beholden to....

 

[flashback]

Maryland DNR officer came out to see if he could do anything by labeling it as an "abandoned vessel in state waters". Sadly, for my neighbor, since it is tied up to his dock, he is on the hook if any oil or gas leaks. Basically what you said Lou! I think you and the others are right, this is a much bigger liability than anything else and i don't want to get tied into a financial mess that wasn't never mine to begin with. Thanks for your input lou

yeah it is the same here. I was hoping i could give the thing away. the hull is actually in pretty decent shape considering. but i think the mess far outweighs any worth it has. thank you Merc, this is a valid point. I was discussing with my SO that its not worth sinking hundreds (or more...) into getting this boat out of the water just to have to pay to trash it. You all have convinced me, i'm out!


no idea what this means...or what marketing department you believe I am beholden to....

No harm meant, it's just a pet peeve of mine, design and sales get in bed with each other and the next thing you know the parts of a machine that need to be worked on are jambed into an impossible place.. no consideration for the mechanic.
I'm sure you don't have to deal with that.

 

[Lou C]

I learned about this via a neighbor, we keep our boats in a harbor that our neighborhood backs up to. Up here in Long Island everyone pulls their boat for winter if they are not in a marina with bubblers to keep the water from freezing. Well this guy had a wooden cruiser and one winter he didn't pull it. Very cold, harbor was iced over for the whole month of Jan and part of Feb. The ice crushed the hull and it sank. Next thing I see is once the water is clear there is a recovery team with air bladders and oil and gas clean up. What a mess and if wasn't covered by insurance, it would be a financial nightmare. He never did THAT again!

 

[merc850]

You could probably find an abandoned boat on dry land at a marina and fix it up; some people walk away from them and you might get it for just paying the storage bill.

 

[Tassie 1]

Back in June our 30 ft flybridge cruiser sank in a gale force storm at night,
It was on a mooring,
Anywho...it had twin 5.7 towsport mercruisers,
It was insured so l just contacted the insurance company and put it in their hands,

7 weeks and two days later it was finally re-floated.
Took about 90 mins...mostly to pump out enough water to make it safe to raft back to the marina ( about 3 k's )

The 2013 donks were considered paper weights after just 2 days under water...as were the rest of the boat and various electronics/ wiring/ fridges/ etc etc.

I was paid out in full 3 days after it was refloated...after it hadn't resunk, ruling out any shonky shenigans on our part.

I would not take on a sunken boat as a project...it will cost an absolute fortune in time and money to repair/ replace stuff to the same level of comfort/ level of fitout.

By some wierd bizarre thingy OUR boat has ended up literally across the road from our house...we look at it out the lounge window EVERY DAY....

( our neighbor was part of the salvage crew and took it on...had semitrailer, huge crane out the front )
A little freaky...anyway

 

[Scott Danforth]

No harm meant, it's just a pet peeve of mine, design and sales get in bed with each other and the next thing you know the parts of a machine that need to be worked on are jambed into an impossible place.. no consideration for the mechanic.
I'm sure you don't have to deal with that.

that is marketing , sales, and sites like consumer reports and boating life. not engineering. with sales and marketing trying to appease the marketing and rating poles you get negative points for things like grease fittings, etc.

so you get todays designs such as "lubed for life" and other BS

true designers/engineers do not condone not being able to access anything or maintain it. me personally would like to see a central lube system