OK, the boat is a 98 Starcraft Aurora with a Mercruiser 250HP and an Alpha outdrive. We were running along fine but heavily loaded with people when the exhaust got loud and steam poured from under the engine cover. I killed the engine and let the steam clear to find that the starboard lower exhaust bellow had ruptured. We got it back to the dock and pulled the bellow, it was completely burned up, looks like it had been for a long time. To get it back to the boat trailer (were at a friends lake house) I replaced the bellow with a 3" plumbing coupler and ran it back to the ramp. The coupler was a couple of inches shorter than the stock piece and did not do a very good job keeping the water in the exhaust, I took on quite a bit in the short trip and the bilge pump failed on me. I know I will have to flush and replace the fluids that were affected by taking on the water (engine oil, trim hydraulic fluid, etc) but I'm not real sure what the process is to find why the bellows burned up in the first place. The temp gauge has shown 200 deg. operating temp since I got the boat, and as a car guy that didn't seem bad, is that too high for a boat?
Here is my current plan of action, please feel free to add steps or make corrections as you see fit!
Inspect and replace impeller
remove, inspect and clean /repair / replace risers and manifolds
inspect t-stat housing, replace t-stat if needed
visually inspect all accessible water passages for debris
replace all 4 upper bellows (assuming damages to all 4, I know both starboard are damaged)
Am I missing anything?
Here is my current plan of action, please feel free to add steps or make corrections as you see fit!
Inspect and replace impeller
remove, inspect and clean /repair / replace risers and manifolds
inspect t-stat housing, replace t-stat if needed
visually inspect all accessible water passages for debris
replace all 4 upper bellows (assuming damages to all 4, I know both starboard are damaged)
Am I missing anything?