Engine Exhaust PLate

[WBII]

Hey All,

Haven't posted much in the last couple months, been real busy. Hope everyone is doing well.
Anyways I launched Wed. night.  About 2 hours of WBII sitting in the water the auto bilge came on. I checked and I had a large amount of water in the bilge. The sailors words started coming out left and right.
  Anyways I narrowed it down to the exhaust plate or the wire harness for the elec. anode grommet were leaking. The latter one is a quick easy fix, the first one is a bit more. My mech. said he has to pull the engine to get at the bolts to tighten them.    
My question is has anyone heard of this happening and how frequent?   Does Rinker/Mercury know about this?

A few other details I have the 496 engine with 200 hours. Never been over heated, always the best of care.

I'll keep everyone up to date on my progress.  This really puts me in a funk when I thought I would be sitting on the boat this weekend.

[DaleM]

No clue, I've never heard of an exhaust plate.  Where would that be located?

[WBII]

The exhaust plate is where the exhaust tubes from your engine are bolted too, it then goes thru your transom thru your outdrive.

[WBII]

Well we now narrowed it to the exhaust plate. Now I have to step back and weigh my options because to have my marina do it  is going to cost quite a bit. Maybe I'll tackle it my self. Just have to find a place with a hoist.

[DaleM]

Rent one from your local tool rental joint.  Surely they must have something that will work.  OR build one from 4x4's.  How did you find the leak and how much water were you getting into your boat?  I also have some seepage and am going to look for the culprit next week.  I took on about 10 gallons over a 10 - 11 hour period.  Of course I was only sitting or running at idle about 6 of those hours.

[wet]

I think you might be talking about the y pipe.Where it bolts there is a oring that is square shaped.I had to replace that on a older 350 merc with a alpha drive.You do have to pull to get to it.Not shure if the newer setups are the same.

[WBII]

I was able to take the boat to a friends shop with a hoist. We pulled the engine Sunday afternoon. It was not that hard, easier than a car engine. The exhaust tube was tight. The leak was around the transom plate. My mech. talked with Rinker and they will not cover under warranty because it was an assembled part. Not the hull itself.  Now I have to pull the transom plate and reseal it.

My question to the other 270 owners, is there water in your bilge on a regular basis?  I've always had some amount of water but I attributided it to the AC unit condensation.  Since I've never owner a bigger boat I assumed this was normal.

[DaleM]

I haven't owned this one long enough to know yet Wayne.  I only had water in it this time out though, not last season when I was only in for about an hour or so.  I am attributing what I took on to something that didn't do to well over the winter.  I'll know more after it gets warm enough to get it in the water again.

[wet]

If its not a rinker proplem you might want to try the engine manafacture.Even if its out of warranty by a little if they have had repeaded issues they might help.As far as water in bildge.Mine leaked all over.Hand rails,rader arch,rub rail,engine cover hinges,ect.Ive slowed them down but still get water after a heavy rain.Never let it sit there, always wet vac it dry.Good luck.

[WBII]

Ok, Just got done removing the transom mount. Its been leaking from day one. The top 4 bolts are clean and the bottom four are corroded. The wood around the area is solid, so I'm going to have a fan blow on it a couple days and then I 'm going to install a new gasket and silicone the sh*t out of it.
I'm going to contact Rinker directly and see if they will stand behind their craftsmanship......

[BoatTech78]

I'd use something more permanent then silicon, probably 3M's 4000 or 5000 series sealant.  The later of the two is permanent.  Both are made for underwater thru hull use.  Silicon is great for sealing up top but I wouldn't rely on it for a major seal job below the water line.  Good luck.

[WBII]

Well we got the engine in last night. We should be resplashing on Saturday.

[WBII]

Well, I got WBII back in the water today,  No Leaks.........at least thats what I thought.  I got the boat to my slip and docked it with the help of some of my slip neighbors. I waited around for about an hour to make sure it didn't leak. It all seemed fine. I had to leave for a little while and when I returned there was about a dozen of our dock neighbors around my boat drinking beers and having a good ol time. My wife was one of them. Well I had to still do a couple things in the engine compartment, so when I opened the hatch, I saw a large amount of water in the bilge.  My heart sank, I was completely demoralized. All that work for nothing. I called my buddy Troy over (he helped me removed/install the motor) and told him to look in the bilge. All he said was "oh no, wheres it coming from". I said I didn't know, the water looked really clear, I thought maybe I had a loose water hose fitting, so I started checking every hose clamp. I was down there crawling around for like 5 minutes. I finally poked my head up and said to Troy, I don't know where its coming from, we must have screwed up the seal. Thats when he said "I think I know where the water came from", I said "where"? He said we stuck a garden hose in your bilge,   :)

[DaleM]

Wayne, glad to hear you got her watertight again.  Happy boating this season.  That prank is too funny tho!!  

[PartsMan]

Great story! You do have to get them back, but that's going to be hard to beat.