VIP Merc 454 Bravo I - WATER LEAK?

Wills.WindowsAndWheels

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Aug 14, 2011
Messages
30
Hey everyone,

I have a VIP Vindicator, 454 Mercruiser engine with a Bravo I out drive.
I recently did the impeller and the impeller housing as well as the circulating water pump (replaced them). Also changed the outdrive and the main motor oil. Everything was reconnected and looked good.

Went out on the lake a few days later, boat fired right up (this was our first time on the lake in about 8-10 months).
Took it slow at first and everything seemed to be good, so we kicked it up and leveled off at around 35...Thermostat read at about 1/2 so it seemed good.
Only ran it about 5 minutes at that speed, then coasted into a cove and was doing a little fishing.

All the sudden about 15 or 20 minutes later, the bilge pump kicked on and spit out some water. This had NEVER happened before. Lifted up the seat to look into the engine compartment and could hear water trickling down. Couldn't pin point where it was coming from...so we just went real slow back to unload the boat.
Took it out and pulled the plug and a ton of water came flowing out where before we would NEVER have water come out, maybe a few drips but never any type of stream, let alone all the water we saw this time.

So we got it home today, hooked it up to the hose w/the muffs and started it up....looked closely to see if any leaking was going on and saw nothing..let the motor run a good 7-10 minutes too, but nothing could be seen dripping, and no water ever came out of the drain plug. Our mechanic friend came over to look and said the seals on the pump looked good and dry and could see nothing leaking from the hoses!

SOOO, now what? Any ideas on why this happened or what it could be? We are thinking about putting in a new drain plug. Also, could of we put the prop back on incorrectly when changing the out drive oil? The boat RAN fine but just wondering if maybe the nut isn't tight enough (i dont even know if any water comes in thru the prop...?)

Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all for your help.
 

Pete104

Lieutenant
Joined
Apr 30, 2011
Messages
1,439
Re: VIP Merc 454 Bravo I - WATER LEAK?

Sounds like rain water let loose! Unless your in Texas.
 

HT32BSX115

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Dec 8, 2005
Messages
10,083
Re: VIP Merc 454 Bravo I - WATER LEAK?

Howdy,


Your water leak could be coming from several places.

But if it only does it when the boat is in the water with the engine off, you possibly have a leak in the exhaust Y-pipe,(raw water) hose coming from the transom, power steering and/or oil cooler (if lower than the water line when resting in the water), .......AND possibly a crack in the block........but it would probably be worse with the engine running.....as would leaks in the oil coolers or raw water hoses etc.....

You also might have a transom problem (rotten wood depending on how old the boat it) If that's the case, your coupler won't be lasting very long before it fails and you're pulling the drive and engine.....

You need to put the boat back in the water AND LOOK.

Use mirrors, flashlights etc, whatever , to allow you to see where it's coming from.


Regards,


Rick
 

Wills.WindowsAndWheels

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Aug 14, 2011
Messages
30
Re: VIP Merc 454 Bravo I - WATER LEAK?

Howdy,


Your water leak could be coming from several places.

But if it only does it when the boat is in the water with the engine off, you possibly have a leak in the exhaust Y-pipe,(raw water) hose coming from the transom, power steering and/or oil cooler (if lower than the water line when resting in the water), .......AND possibly a crack in the block........but it would probably be worse with the engine running.....as would leaks in the oil coolers or raw water hoses etc.....

You also might have a transom problem (rotten wood depending on how old the boat it) If that's the case, your coupler won't be lasting very long before it fails and you're pulling the drive and engine.....

You need to put the boat back in the water AND LOOK.

Use mirrors, flashlights etc, whatever , to allow you to see where it's coming from.


Regards,


Rick

Hey Rick,

the boat is a 99' so no wood on it....all fiberglass. Thats pretty much what we had decided to do was go back to the lake and have things that would help us locate it since running it out of the water turned up nothing today...but figured i'd post on here to see if i could get any further suggestions before we took it back out.
 

Dzrtcj7

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Feb 15, 2010
Messages
88
Re: VIP Merc 454 Bravo I - WATER LEAK?

My '89 Vindicator leaks around the rub strip. When I have several people in the boat, the rub strip across the transom is in the water and leaks quite a bit.

One thing I would suggest is to fill the hull with water while its on the trailer and see what leaks out. I wouldn't fill past your starter though.
 

Wills.WindowsAndWheels

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Aug 14, 2011
Messages
30
Re: VIP Merc 454 Bravo I - WATER LEAK?

Well as an update...the impeller was installed with the hoses going to it backwards...lesson...just because your mechanic friend SAYS he's worked on boats, doesn't mean he has!

So luckily no major damage from what we could tell, other than we had to drop another $100 on a new impeller and housing. Replaced it...then played the fun game of taking apart all the water hoses...a couple of which (the ones running to the oil cooler) had slightly melted! Ever try to remove a slightly melted hose? Took about 2 hours on the TOP hose to the oil cooler and another hour+ to get the bottom one. Also the hard line hose running from the outdrive to the impeller was kinda rough to remove BUT here is what we found...

All the fins had burned off the old impeller and ended upppp...in the bottom of the oil cooler! so with a wire hanger and some mr. good wrench fingers...i managed to pry out all the pieces...then flushed it with water. Totoally removed the hardline and soft line hoses running to the impeller and flushed them too...nothing BIG in them but plenty of little pieces washed out. The reconnected everything and plan to take her for a test run tomorrow to see how things go.

Hopefully all is good so...cross your fingers. I'll tell you though, i bet that no one had ever pulled those hoses and flushed them before...yes the melting made it hard, but the amount of rust etc on the inside was surprising...the marine shop owner we've been dealing with told us that out of all the shops he knows of in the valley, other than his, only about 2 others will actually pull the hoses and flush them when replacing an impeller...crazy.

So time to test our work!
 
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