2008 Nautique 206 Water Strainer/Intake Grate leaking

[KWSMAN]

2008 Nautique 206 with a leaking intake grate. Any protips on how to reseal? Can I just loosen the nut and reseal or don’t have to take fully apart.

IMG_4493.mov

[bturner]

Can't get to your movie but from my experience fixing a leaking fitting without pulling it apart is like fixing a leaking valve cover with RTV from the outside. It looks like it should work but it never does or if it does it's not for long.

The principle cause used to to be (aside from the fitting hitting something like a submerged object or resting on a trailer/lift bunk) was from the sealant shrinking. Most of those issues went away with the use of adhesive sealants like 3M 5200 which I would think a boat your age would be using. The only way I know to fix this correctly would be to remove the fitting, thoroughly inspect for damage/cracks, properly remove the old sealant and reinstall. You can certainly try removing the nut in the inside and gooping in sealant but you will probably be back again later only now with a bigger mess to clean up than you had before.

As I've been told many times.... "it's always easier to do something right the first time than to do it wrong twice" or “there is never enough time to do it right, but there is always enough time to do it over” or "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" Wish I could say I always abide by these sayings but seems I tend to be a victim of my own advice. So I guess I have one last one..... Do as I recommend, not as I do.

[KWSMAN]

That is solid advice. I will pull the boat and address. It sits on a lift but boating season is coming to an end here in NH. Hopefully, the video works now. [ATTACH]n687334[/ATTACH] If not here is a photo.

[Rednucleus]

Did you get this boat new? Pic is a bit suspicious repair has been previously attempted. Movie not working for me.

[KWSMAN]

No. I am the 2nd owner. The first owner did have a run in when trying to load the boat onto the trailer. This could be from that. Here is a 2nd photo.

[angrygiraffe]

You’ll want to fully drop the intake grate to do it right. Just loosening the nut and adding sealant usually won’t hold under pressure. Clean off all the old sealant, inspect the surface, and reseal with a marine-grade polyurethane (like 3M 4200/5200). Re-torque the hardware evenly and let it cure before running the boat.

[bturner]

Movie still isn't working for me but the picture is a bit concerning to me on the repair. Is the leak coming from the fitting or this area that's circled? I'm not there to look at it but it looks to me from the picture that someone may have tried to repair a crack by laying some fiberglass/resin over the area and it's lifting. It may just be the picture but, looking at the mid to lower left it looks like a crack developing from the larger area. If this is indeed what I'm seeing, this type a lift typically appears when the repair doesn't properly bond to the fiberglass in the repair area and that area is being stressed.

What does the outside look like? Are you seeing any spider cracks, cracks or anything that looks like it's delaminating?

If this is indeed the case, I've seen and repaired similar failed repairs which kind of remind me of the RTV on the outside of the valve cover example I mentioned in my previous note. Again, not there to see what were working with and don't want to make any bold statements but if it is indeed leaking from there and there is a crack, it would need to be addressed from both the inside and out. That would bring us to the next questions as to how you want to address it. If again, it's leaking from that area and you have good access you could carefully grind the area back using die grinder with a rotary bit to see if you can see and follow the crack. The idea here is to find the source of the water intrusion.

If it's not leaking from the area(s) circled and is coming from the nut, I would pull the fitting and see exactly what's going on there and try to determine why the fitting is leaking as obviously, something isn't right. Then there is always option B as well that states if it's not leaking bad you could leave it alone, which would drive me nuts but it is always an option.