Engine Smoking During Flushing

[EdAR230]

Hey everyone. I have a 2008 AR230. Took the boat out yesterday. Ran great. No issues. Upon return, after getting it on the trailer, on the drive home the skies opened up for one hell of a thunderstorm. Ran through some deep puddles. After it stopped raining, I flushed the engines. Starboard engine flushed normally. But the port engine (which is still a new SBT rebuild) smoked while flushing. I could smell fuel or oil a bit. The smoke was white, almost like steam. No overheat lights on the dash. After a minute or so it dissipated. Again, no overheat lights, nothing weird going on in the engine compartment (no leaking oil etc). So I finished the flushing procedure.

Is this normal? I've never seen it do that over the last year I've had it. Is it possible to have some water on the exhaust or something and that was steam? But then why did it smell? Curious if any of you fine folks have experienced anything similar. Thoughts?

Thank you for reading.

 

[Ilmmct]

@EdAR230 I have had this occur on my SX230 and 242LS. I am not one of the astute mechanical jetboaters, but water can get into the clean out hatch and then seep on to the hot exhaust. If you are sure there are no coolant hose clamps loose/disconnected it might be that the sealant on the clean out hatch bottom tray is not 100% water tight and the water in the hatch area is seeping/dripping on the hot exhaust/muffler as you are doing the flush procedure. This is what has occurred to me on a couple of occasions ... a plume of steam that freaks you out and causes repair dollar signs to dance in your head.

 

[Scottintexas]

where was it smoking?
in the engine compartment
out the pee hole
out the exhaust (near the jet nozzle)

We had a member bronze10 get caught in a big storm that dumped water from an overhang directly into his boat at the walk-thru and water made it's way into his ECU box,
I'd be cautiously concerned and would probably check yours, was there water in your engine bay when you were flushing?

 

[EdAR230]

Oh that's definitely a possibility. It was perfectly clear when I left the launch. Had my bimini top tied down so when it hit hard with the rain, that definitely could have happened. I mean this rain was crazy. There wasn't any water in the engine bay. But I had the drain plug out while trailering home. But if water did get in the ECU box, wouldn't the right engine be smoking too or could it affect just one engine?

where was it smoking?
in the engine compartment
out the pee hole
out the exhaust (near the jet nozzle)

We had a member bronze10 get caught in a big storm that dumped water from an overhang directly into his boat at the walk-thru and water made it's way into his ECU box,
I'd be cautiously concerned and would probably check yours, was there water in your engine bay when you were flushing?

 

[EdAR230]

@EdAR230 I have had this occur on my SX230 and 242LS. I am not one of the astute mechanical jetboaters, but water can get into the clean out hatch and then seep on to the hot exhaust. If you are sure there are no coolant hose clamps loose/disconnected it might be that the sealant on the clean out hatch bottom tray is not 100% water tight and the water in the hatch area is seeping/dripping on the hot exhaust/muffler as you are doing the flush procedure. This is what has occurred to me on a couple of occasions ... a plume of steam that freaks you out and causes repair dollar signs to dance in your head.

Thanks so much for replying. I'm definitely not mechanical either. But I think you make a lot of sense here. In this case, the smoke (or steam) was coming directly from under the clean out hatch. I don't think there are coolant clamps loose. I'll double check them (if I can find them - HA). Those repair dollar signs were floating all around me.