Swamped 97 Glastron w/ Mercruiser 3.0LX Alpha One (Gen 2?)

[mstevens]

I swamped my boat last Saturday. Forgot the pesky plug. Water got to 1 inch below the top of the crank case. Oil in motor is ok and not milky. Oil in Power Trim is milky. I have tried to bleed the oil and water by cycling the sterndrive up and down completely numerous times, but I have now gone through over 5 qts of oil. I apparently don't know what i am doing because i have made a huge mess trying to change this oil. By the way, the trim system works fine in all positions. (I am a newbie do it yourself'er)

I now notice a little surface rust on block and a few electrical connections on alternator. Boat turned over perfectly after I got the water out.

1. Can someone provide advice on what I need to do to remain worry free?
2. How do you properly change the oil in the power trim?
3. Should I worry about the starter going bad in the future (I swamped this boat 5 yrs ago during a thunderstorm and I'm pretty sure water got above the starter. Have had no issues since).
4. Marine Mechanic told me that I'd get anode problems now all over any electrical connection. How's that? The water is gone. I pulled a few plug wires and everything looks perfect.
5. Anything else that I am leaving out?

Thanks for your help.

 

[chiefalen]

Re: Swamped 97 Glastron w/ Mercruiser 3.0LX Alpha One (Gen 2?)

Saltwater or freshwater?

 

[mstevens]

Re: Swamped 97 Glastron w/ Mercruiser 3.0LX Alpha One (Gen 2?)

Freshwater and only for about 2 hours.

 

[mstevens]

Re: Swamped 97 Glastron w/ Mercruiser 3.0LX Alpha One (Gen 2?)

Almost forgot. I cleaned the electrical connections on the Power Trim.

Should I use liquid electrical tape to cover those connections?

How do you drain all of the fluid out of the power trim system without making a huge mess?

Thanks.

 

[Don S]

Re: Swamped 97 Glastron w/ Mercruiser 3.0LX Alpha One (Gen 2?)

You need to be worrying about the engine and drive more than the trim. Get the engine drained of oil/water out of the crankcase before you start it. Put in new oil and filter, then pull the spark plugs and turn the engine over to get the water out of the cylinders. You will probably have to empty the carb of water also. Hook up an outboard gas tank (your boats fuel tank may have water in it from water going in thru the vent if it was under water. Pull the distributor cap and blow it out with compressed air and spray it down with WD 40 (WD stands for water dispersant).
Once you get it running, you will need to warm it up and change the oil again.
You also need to pull the outdrive and get the water out of the bellows, and lube the ujoints and gimbal bearing before they go bad.

 

[mstevens]

Re: Swamped 97 Glastron w/ Mercruiser 3.0LX Alpha One (Gen 2?)

Don S. Thanks for your help. I checked the oil in the engine and it is not milky at all. I didn't think about the gas, but the vent is at the top of filler port and I don't believe that it was covered. Fortunately, the sterndrive helped keep the boat up since it was beached. I felt confident enough to run the boat since the incident and have had no problems at all. I feel very lucky! I am planning on changing the crank case oil, but without any evidence of water, I didn't bother initially. The only evidence i have of my stupidity is water in the trim and i did notice green corrosion on the red terminal on the starter plus surface rust on some of the connections on the alternator. Do you have any other thoughts.

 

[45Auto]

Re: Swamped 97 Glastron w/ Mercruiser 3.0LX Alpha One (Gen 2?)

As Don said, you NEED to pull the outdrive and get the water out of the bellows. Lube the gimbal bearing and u-joints. Gasket set is $6, takes 5 minutes to remove the 6 bolts in the back and pull the thing. Another 15 minutes to clean and lube everything and 5 more minutes to put it back together. If you don't, you'll be spending several hundred dollars minimum to replace the driveline components, and if the outdrive input shaft surface rusts and takes out the upper seal you're liable to be buying a whole new outdrive. If you let the input shaft rust to the gimbal bearing then a month from now you will be posting how the outdrive is impossible to remove to replace the bad gimbal bearing. If the bottom of the engine block (top of the oilpan) was underwater then it's 99% that you will have water in the bellows.

 

[mstevens]

Re: Swamped 97 Glastron w/ Mercruiser 3.0LX Alpha One (Gen 2?)

Thanks 45Auto! Is the out drive very heavy? Should this be a 2 person job? Does everything go back together easily? Or is this a job I might want to leave to the professional?

 

[45Auto]

Re: Swamped 97 Glastron w/ Mercruiser 3.0LX Alpha One (Gen 2?)

Very easy to do. The Alpha weighs 70 or 80 lbs I think. I've pulled 2 by myself in the last couple of weeks and I'm a puny little guy.

Download Merc Service Manual #14 from here:

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=251571

and follow the directions.

It really is very easy. There's usually lots of people from the forum willing to help you out if you're close by.