2000 SAN significant leak - rudder packing?

[msquito]

hey all, put the boat in Tuesday evening, showed up for the first surf of the season after work today. Boat looked low in the water (moored wet), got the cover off and opened the locker to find 8" of water in the bilge!!! This boat has never been 100% dry, but this is absurd. One bilge pump working (pretty easy to diagnose the mid-hull pump not working with that much water in the bilge), decoupled the locker bag and used the ballast pump to help the working bilge pump. Not to be dissuaded, we filled bags and surfed (had to try my new Soulcraft : ))). Got back to the dock, bilge dry enough that the pump wasn't active. I crawled back under the hatch to try and take a peek, looked like some steady drips from the rudder assy. I took a video (youtube - pardon the ick back there, need to do some cleanup), my search-fu suggests that if I'm lucky, it might simply be a case of tightening the rudder packing nut. Does this video support my optimism? Would that rate of drip result in 8" of bilge in 48hrs, or should I be looking elsewhere??? If elsewhere, any suggestions?
thx all - appreciate any insight

[msquito]

Okay, crawled back there after work to tighten the packing nut on the rudder to discover a steady stream of water coming off of what I think is the transmission cooler inline with some 1.5" (ish) hoses under the engine (apex 5.7). Guessing that given age of boat, this is likely a buy new one and replace it kind of situation. Any wisdom on this would be much appreciated.
Cheers

[NautiqueJeff]

Yep. It may not have been winterized properly, and cracked over the winter. Or it may have just failed for no reason. Either way, just replace it. NautiqueParts has them. Use discount code PND for 10% off.

[msquito]

Circling back on this for anyone else who may run into similar situation. It was indeed the trans oil cooler inline with the 1.25" hose below the engine. Somewhere along the line, ours had shaken loose from the engine block mount and the whole assembly was actually resting on the floor of the bilge. I ordered a replacement from Nautique Parts (GM 5.7 compatible for my Apex engine), it arrived super pronto (solid marks on rush-order from NP), and our mechanic got out there and installed it for us the next day. Our neighbors hadn't put in for the season yet, so they were kind enough to offer up their lift to get us out of the water while we waited for the part and swapout. Any rate, we're all sorted now, the cooler is mounted up on the engine block where it should be, and little by little things are starting to feel better put together.

The aftermarket actuator on the engine hatch finally gave up the ghost while I was back there cleaning things up a bit, so I pulled that and have ordered a pair of gas-struts to swap-in for a manual hatch - figured I'd give that a go before dropping the money on another actuator. Time will tell on that one. Hatch is pretty heavy, I'm not too worried about it staying put - though I may need to resort to a latch with full bags in the rear...

ciao for now

[bturner]

I'm not quite picturing what actually happened here, pictures would certainly help. I understand what part you're talking about as this is a step in the winterization process for every inboard/vDrive I've done over the years. The stories I've heard and issues I've resolved around this have typically been related to people not draining the cooler either with the brass drain plug or by removing the hose on the hull fitting side which in my case resulted in the cooler splitting. More common is the tech/owner doing the winterization not remembering to reconnect/tightening the hose resulting in a leak in the best case or nearly sinking the boat if the hose is disconnected.

On yours it sounds like someone actually disconnected the mounting bracket to get to the brass plug maybe? There's little movement or vibration from that hose so unless the mounting bolt was barely installed I'm having a hard time believing engine vibration backed bolt out of the block. All the ones I've worked with are a variation of the picture below and have used a band clamp with a bolt. In the picture you can see the water cooling inlet/outlet ports running horizontally, the trans line ports on the top and the band clamp which would wrap around the center of the cooler with the bolt. That's a rather large/long bolt to back out of the block especially if it was tightened at all at one time. The second picture is actually from Nautique parts of what is most likely your cooler. In both pictures you can see the brass plug some people will use, I much prefer to pull the line so I can also check for any obstructions like seaweed that may have gotten picked up during the season.

At any rate, glad to hear you're back on track.

[SilentSeven]

I self winterize and pulling the brass trans cooler drain plug is on the std checklist. On my direct drive, the cooler is tucked under the engine oil pan and it's easy to access from the port side of the boat. I suspect cooler access is more difficult on a v-drive?

I've never pulled the hoses as mentioned by bturner. I do like the idea of inspecting the device for blockages but I trust that my raw water screen catches any bad stuff. It's also been my experience that pulling hose ends off can be difficult.

[bturner]

Either way is fine and like SilentSeven states IF you have a strainer there should be no need to pull the hose. Believe it or not the Malibu's and MasterCrafts that I worked on up until about 2011 didn't have strainers so it was not unusual to find junk in the hull side of the trans cooler as this is the first device inline on the way to the raw water pump. The trans cooler itself has always run parallel to the engine on the driver's side of the engine. Getting the hose off the first time can be challenging, after pulling it the first time I'll hit the end with a little white grease, after that they typically come off with a twist and a pull.

I too like Seven, do my winterizations pretty much because of the price being charged and the quality of the winterization process can, let's say, be suspect. By the time you've done a whole wake boat you can easily be north of $600 for the type of winterization that I do. All in with an impeller and full synthetic oil/filter, antifreeze for the ballast tanks and the engine I have probably have ~ $150 - $175 in materials. The local shops around here start at $400 without the impeller or the oil change and that may not even include the ballast tanks. One of my friends that I help out with his boat got a quote last fall for just south of $700 as I couldn't get to his boat the weekend he wanted it done. After getting the estimate, he decided that he could wait a week.

Don't get me wrong, these guys are running a business and have overhead and employees they have to pay. It's quite the shock to see the price when you've been paying you're buddy beer and burgers.....

[msquito]

Yep. That's the one I ordered. Looking back at some video (can post tonight if you're interested), the assembly was more suspended mid-air, than resting on the floor due to the rigidity of the hose, the strap was there, just not fastened to the block like it is now. Appears our mechanic also cut about 6" of hose out of the assembly, so it's entirely possible the hose was the issue and not the cooler. He didn't mention anything about it afterwards, on my to do to follow up with him on that. At any rate, new cooler has been mounted, and leak has stopped. So I'm happy. He typically does our wintde-wint services too, and they have always been well done to my layman's eye anyways. The boat is 25 years old, and while I'm putting love into it as I can, it has not always had the same level of care, so I kinda expect to be replacing parts here and there...
Thx y'all