Yeah, I’m not sure if Jacob sealed his tray, or added the Jet Boat Pilot riser, but I did both. In fact I think I way over did my tray itself, using 3M 4200, along with a bead of regular silicone around the edge after sealing down the tray itself, LOL! I’m guessing it’s going to be a royal PIA to get that tray out if I need to. (Oooh, speaking of I want to replace my Scupper this season, hopefully I can get to everything thru the hatch access)
But even with all that I’ve done, I still get water in the bilge when going over about 40mph, and when I immediately open the hatch, both tubes a full to the brim, as well as some water in the tray itself.
Not exactly sure how the water is getting in the bilge, maybe thru the lid of the riser (not sure how water tight that is), or maybe thru the clean out tubes themselves, but they seems unlikely.
Maybe it’s getting in a totally different way? And just a coincidence that the clean out ports leak?
I open the engine compartment after going over 40, and it’s bone dry…. Plus I slip the boat for days, and no water in the bilge after sitting in the slip.
To tell you the truth, I’m confused!….
It will be a PITA with the 4200, but not nearly as bad as if you'd used 5200, so at least you got that going for you.
No need to be confused, you've done a lot so far, and you can walk yourself right through the possible areas, and by process of elimination, you can either locate more areas that need attention, or rule OUT the cleanout tray area, and track down the other areas.
These things should be simple, and while sometimes there can be exceptions, that's how the phrase "the exception to the rule" came to be. First, you're getting water into the bilge. The answer is to locate the areas in the cleanout tray area, and test them. You may have fixed your water from the cleanout tray area, and have issues elsewhere, so you need to walk through the process of how it might get in. First, in the cleanout tray area, it can only get in via 2 ways, but there's more than just 2 ways to GET to those 2 ways - does that make sense?
1 - through the cleanout tray area, somehow Seems simple, but steps are often assumed to be before this item by many who are having these problems
2 - through the cleanout plug tubes - either past or through the rubber sleeves, or through cracks in the metal fittings. Neither of these has shown to be typical on the forums here, so those would be the thing to check after verifying the cleanout tray.
It SEEMS like "it's the plugs" or "it's coming from the stern/drain/deck cover" would be the solution, but checking these things are the secondary issue - the water gets in somewhere around the cleanout tray that covers the big hole. It doesn't matter if your plugs are leaking, IF the tray is sealed up completely, because the water would drain out. Following so far?
Plug up the drain itself, if you've got one. A cork, rubber plug, duct tape, something. That needs to be done to slow the water from flowing out. For guys with newer boats that have the gutters molded into that area, you'll have a bit harder time to check this, but those gutters are an AWESOME design improvement to get water out of that area.
After plugging the one hole that PURPOSEFULLY allows water into the boat, you can start to fill the cleanout tray area with a hose. It should fill up the tubes, and keep running the water until the entire cleanout tray is covered and under water. Open the inspection hatch. If - IF IF IF - you've done a good job sealing the cleanout tray, you shouldn't notice any water coming in at any place around the tray or associated connections. If you want to test, the baby powder test should be instant and noticeable for even the smallest leaks. Take note, and track down those areas and fix/address them.
The possible reasons for water to be entering are numerous at this point.
- Around the cleanout port tubes (they should be siliconed to the tray when they're reinstalled, otherwise they leak into the bilge
- Around EVERY screw hole. Should be somewhere between 9-Infinity screws. Any and all can leak to varying degrees
- Around the drain fitting. There should be a washer to help with this, but sealant and a METAL fitting are better solutions
- Around the edge of the cleanout tray that you thought may be completely sealed. This test will show any missed spots
- Around the base edge of the cleanout inspection hatch. That may just be screwed on there, with no sealant or gasket
I can't think of any others for this initial testing, BUT, if you don't have a riser for the inspection hatch if your boat has one, the base of that inspection hatch is often just screwed down with no sealant or gasket. To make it more difficult, that hatch that's so easy to remove is ALSO not the best at stopping water, since it has to be loose enough for removal. This is why the riser seems to solve the issue - it raises that inspection hatch just enough to allow the drain to work as intended, and remove all water that enters the area.
These are just SIX of the ways that water can enter the bilge, and if you've followed the process, this doesn't even include the plugs, AT ALL. If water is getting past them, it's NOT coming in fast enough for the drain to be overcome - UNLESS it's building up to flow over the inspection hatch. The plugs allowing blow-by DOES contribute, but it's not your cause for water in the bilge, it's an addition to the problem, but not the main problem....yet.
I'll shoot up some pics in a bit to show how you can see this playing out, and how to rule these things out.
Keep in mind, you actually MAY have everything watertight back there. That water in your bilge could be coming from any number of other areas. There's a Leak Thread here in the FAQ's. The cleanout tray and the anchor locker drain seem to be the top 2 on the list of water ingress areas, but for the purpose of this thread, we're focused on the cleanout tray.
Is there any real issue with water spilling into the clean out plug deck under the hatch whether it be from spill back from the transom or coming up through the plug? If it comes up through the plug does it bleed power off from not being sealed and water being redirected upward through the plug instead of directing out of the nozzle? Just curious I’m a new jet boat owner. I was told that area is self bailing and is designed to get wet either way ?? Thoughts
If you followed all of that above, you should see that water getting into the cleanout plug deck is no problem, in fact, it's one of the most commonly asked questions on here. As long as you're not getting any of that water into the bilge, it's not going to be siphoning off noticeable speed, or at least no one's reported that as an issue, as far as I can recall. That area is SUPPOSED to be self-bailing, but reality is often the enemy of the engineer and their solutions.
@drewkaree and
@DaveShip55....when I rode with tray off I had removed the entire tray so I could see and look all around. I tried the bees wax on the clean out plug, and drewaree, yeah it's just bees wax. Makes the plug smooth putting in and taking out but did zip to stop the water. I did seal the tray back on using silicone (I had re-siliconed around and under the inspection covers in the past as I had seen water dripping in through the screw holes....i have two on sx190) and took it back out today. I give my work a solid A to A+ as even after long rides at higher rpm and about 1-1.5 hours of pulling kids on tub (teens so little bigger and of course want faster all the time, glad Dad can set speed limits to keep safe but have fun) no water into bilge area. It wasn't until I started coming off plane and stoping fast that I got water in there. I think that comes from the water going over the inspection covers and through that. Thank you for the idea of putting in risers. I have not heard of that before. I think I will run it a few more times and see if it happens again. I also may just plug the drain hole with my thumb and fill that area and see if it leaks anywhere. If it only goes in through the inspection ports, then the riser may be the final "fix all" for this mystery.
Thanks for all the advise and ideas. I will update in few weeks when have had time to try all this.
Now real quick funny part....seems I have the leak controlled and poss identified but the transducer seems to be going out on depth finder. So I may end up having to cut it all open to replace that. Good news is, I will know how to put it back right. Hahaha
@DaveShip55 here's some verification for you -
@Jacob L had water coming in around the screw holes. Again, that may not be the ONLY location, but if Jacob's seals aren't keeping water out, any water that gets in should be exiting via the drain or the gutters. Instead, there's enough built up to show him symptoms of the area he needed to tackle - the screw holes - and likely the tray was also problematic.
I'm not familiar with which boats have the circular inspection ports, or if there are risers that can even be used on those, but if a riser CAN be installed, and you cannot find one, I'm certain that a riser could be 3D printed for those, or you could easily DIY a riser out of any number of materials. If you can't add a riser, then you'll need to have some way to check for leakage around those after they're closed up - GoPro in the bilge area to record this, is all I can think of. This would also apply to someone who doesn't want to buy/DIY a riser for the inspection hatches that are oval in shape, so look at it this way - if you don't have a GoPro, you could buy it, find out the inspection hatch is leaking, AND have to buy a riser, or you could skip a step, buy/DIY a riser, and test that out via the drain plug after a day on the water.
I'll post up some pics, and try to add some commentary to show you guys the areas you need to check out, but each boat can/may be different, and this should be looked at as definite suggestions with possible solutions, and some input or work on your part is going to be needed.
Without fail, dealerships have shown a spotty track record according to comments on here, in regards to actually fixing these water leaks. It seems to my eye that they more often get lucky with their guesses as to where things are leaking, and they're just trying to quickly address it, bill you for the repair, and move on to the next job. While this isn't 100%, I'm sure, it shows up in comments here often enough that I would tackle this myself with all the available knowledge of this forum FIRST, and when all currently known ideas are exhausted, then, and ONLY then, take it to the dealership, making sure they note on the work order all of the things you will tell them that you tried/did, so you're not paying for wasted time and effort, only to get a boat back that still leaks, because they simply redid what you already tried, that failed to stop the water from getting into the bilge.
