Water in my bilge

[haknslash]

Took the day off and worked on finding where my leak was coming from.
I took the boat and put about 6 to 8 inches of water in my builge and It only took a couple minutes to see a steady stream of water coming out from my plug. I dropped the boat at the dealer and the service rep said that I'm the only boat owner that they seen with this problem which I find hard to believe!!!
I also checked everything in my bilge and behond and found every hose clamp was there and everything was seal!!!
Hopefully is a quick fix!!! Will see what the dealer does and will keep you all updated!!!
View attachment 51389

Is it just me or is there a crack or something at the very bottom of your keel? Images I've seen show that surface to be a smooth contour but yours looks like it has a lip protruding at the bottom edge. Image below is smooth and looks different than yours. Maybe it's just an effect of the water drops?

 

[Jaime]

Is it just me or is there a crack or something at the very bottom of your keel? Images I've seen show that surface to be a smooth contour but yours looks like it has a lip protruding at the bottom edge. Image below is smooth and looks different than yours. Maybe it's just an effect of the water drops?

No crack, water is coming in from the main drain plug housing that has a bad tread!!

 

[MrMoose]

Wow it seems to me that these boats may leek from a lot different places which is crazy!! I'm beginning to think buying a jetboat was a mistake.

Buying a jet boat that leaks when it is brand new is a feature that other boats don't have, because you don't need a garden hose to test whether the bilge pump works.

 

[CAM212SS]

No crack, water is coming in from the main drain plug housing that has a bad tread!!

i had this on my 212. bilge cycled water out about every 8-10 minutes. New plug fixed my issue. I also bought a spare

 

[dirksgoat]

My money is on the drive shaft hull fittings. It's my belief that, based on my observations, they do not properly clean the hull surface after cutting the hole, which causes the silicone seal to fail. If anybody thinks that I'm full of it, then check to see how well your little rectangular storage cup (to the right of the captain's chair, directly behind the throttle levers) is sealed to the boat shell. Remove the 4 screws and lift. You'll likely find that the silicone did not seal to the shell because of cut-out debris.

@MrMoose, having water issues obviously, scupper has been fixed, rub rail has been resealed(leaking alot from there), and i have sealed the cleanout cover pretty damn good. I am still getting a unreasonable amout of water.

When you say shaft hull fittings... are you talking about under the clean out tray where there is a rubber hose with hose clamps that the drive shafts run through?? u have pics?

 

[MrMoose]

@dirksgoat, sorry, no pics. I see that you have an '07, maybe some members who have the same vintage hull as you might pitch in. Good luck.
Regarding your specific question, yes, my dealer replaced the hull fitting and the rubber hose, and of course applied fresh silicone. It is visible from the access port that is located between the cleanout tubes on my 2015.

 

[Scottintexas]

@MrMoose, having water issues obviously, scupper has been fixed, rub rail has been resealed(leaking alot from there), and i have sealed the cleanout cover pretty damn good. I am still getting a unreasonable amout of water.

When you say shaft hull fittings... are you talking about under the clean out tray where there is a rubber hose with hose clamps that the drive shafts run through?? u have pics?

Do you surf or ballast? If so your rear cleat will let water in

 

[mikestak]

@Jaime, welcome to the forum and congrats on your new boat. If your bilge pump is spitting water out while on the water, you're probably able to see a bit of water in the bottom of your engine compartment and you probably have a good couple of gallons in the bilge.
There are many spots that the water can be coming in from and most have been discussed on this forum, but I'm a little lazy and don't usually search for these things and just ask like you did.
Here's a list of the easy ones to check/seal:
1. Deck drain hull fitting on the transom under the swim deck, often referred to as the scupper. Run a bead of silicone or 3M 4200 around the edge of the flange to seal it to the hull.
2. Open your clean-out hatch, then open the access hatch located between the two clean-out ports. Make sure that the rubber tube that connects the apron to the clean-out port has a clamp on the bottom, and silicone on the top. I've seen some with missing clamps.
3. While you have the access hatch open, shine a flash light down there to see if you can see water anywhere other than in the bottom. Specifically, check that the clean-out apron drain (located on the starboard side of the apron) is not leaking into the bilge.
4. Seal the access hatch flange to the apron, located between the two clean-out ports.
5. Clean-out apron. When you open the clean-out hatch, you'll find that the apron is not sealed to the boat deck (upper hull shell). For a quick fix, you can put a bead of silicone in the interface.
6. Swim deck cup holders. Check to make sure that they're draining out onto the swim deck and not into the bilge.
7. Anchor locker drain. The thru-hull fitting is too short and you might be getting water between the inner and outer hull. Easy fix. Remove the drain fixture. Add silicone to the outer hull/fixture interface and reinsert it. Then, seal up the interface between the fixture and the inner hull from the inside of the anchor locker. Here's a post on it:
https://jetboaters.net/threads/anchor-locker-leaks-in-models-with-current-hull.12266/#post-212021
8. Engine hatch drain. There's a drain at the back edge of the engine hatch, located on the upper hull shell. It's not sealed to the shell and will leak into your engine compartment when it rains.

Here's the hard one that I had my dealer fix. The hull fitting where the drive shaft enters the transom is not sealed to the transom.

That should be enough to get you started.

Hi MrMoose,

Seems I have the same issue that you had. I have a 2016 242 Limited S purchased new in Oct. 2015. If the bilge pump is working I get about 2 gallons in the bilge, if it isn't working (I am going through bilge pumps faster than gallons of gas!) I get over 5 gallons after about 1 hour run. The dealership had the boat for about 4 months and did almost everything you mentioned in your post; the anchor locker drain has been updated and sealed, the rub rail was removed and 5200 applied to all gaps, the swim platform was removed and checked. Still I have the same leak after all that. If I just leave the boat at the dock for over an hour the bilge is dry. If I take the boat and go on plain without going 5-10MPH, again no water. If I go 5-10MPH for an extended period of time which I have to do to get out of my harbor, I get the 2-5 galloons in the bilge. I have filled the boat with fresh water on the trailor and it does not leak a drop from any fittings.

Any suggetions?

 

[MrMoose]

@mikestak, sorry to hear about your problems. Interesting set of leak scenarios. Have you tried puffing some baby powder into the rear transom cavity (and any other spaces that you think might be letting water in) to see if you can find water tracks and locate where the water is coming in? Also, reach into the access hatch in the clean-out apron and feel if your sound foam is wet in the area. Initially, mine leaked all the time, floating, reverse, no-wake, and on plane. Eventually, I found all of the leaks and corrected them. Interestingly though, the first thing that I did to see where the leak(s) were was to fill up my bilge with water while the boat was on the trailer... not a drop of water came out, but my boat still leaked like crazy.

 

[mikestak]

@mikestak, sorry to hear about your problems. Interesting set of leak scenarios. Have you tried puffing some baby powder into the rear transom cavity (and any other spaces that you think might be letting water in) to see if you can find water tracks and locate where the water is coming in? Also, reach into the access hatch in the clean-out apron and feel if your sound foam is wet in the area. Initially, mine leaked all the time, floating, reverse, no-wake, and on plane. Eventually, I found all of the leaks and corrected them. Interestingly though, the first thing that I did to see where the leak(s) were was to fill up my bilge with water while the boat was on the trailer... not a drop of water came out, but my boat still leaked like crazy.

I have not tried the baby powder but will do this weekend. I will also check inside the access hatch for loose hose clamps, missing caulk, and soggy sound foam, but from what I have seen so far looks pretty solid. The worse of it is when the dealership was trying to find the leak for the 4 months they did, they put deep scratches in the hull from driving it right onto the trailor after testing! So needless to say I want to do my best to find the issue myself to avoid bringing the boat back there.

Until now I thought I was the only one that had this issue since everybody I know that owns a newer model like mine does not have a drop in the bilge. Seeing your post was awfully encouraging, so hopefully with your suggestions I can get to the bottom of my issue.

 

[Noko]

My boat sat for 2yrs in my garage and had bilge water. Not much. So that must have been condensation from being in the garage. I just had it on the lake for a week and no water in the bilge. I did add a second bilge pump that is hot wired to the battery. I'd check that stern drain plug and make sure the seal is good. I need to spray mine with silicone again to keep that seal up. But overall, no large amounts of water getting into the boat even after it got rained on. All upper deck water should go out the scupper drain.

 

[Arcadyus]

Is there an easy way to seal the stern cleats? With the new custom swim deck ballast and with the cleat being under water for hours I water in the bilge because I see it come out the side. I don't really care that much since the bilge pumps it out. If we don't surf I have little to no water in the bilge. If we surf I prob have a gallon or so.

 

[mikestak]

Hi MrMoose,

So far I found 2 leaks, both coming from the shifting cables exit through the rear hull. The caulk was soggy and detached from the hull with a salt water puddle underneath each. My plan is to remove both of these through hull fittings, caulk the outside of each, and the hole, then reattach. Also, I removed the hatch that attaches to the 2 clean out ports so I could have better access. In doing that I noticed that the caulking around this hatch is incomplete and too little applied; so that is definately another source of leaking. Also, the right clean out port upper hose clamp was not on very tight and has rust stains, so probably another leak. What caulking should be used for the shifting cable through the hull, and also to seal the hatch?

 

[Weeb]

Hi MrMoose,

So far I found 2 leaks, both coming from the shifting cables exit through the rear hull. The caulk was soggy and detached from the hull with a salt water puddle underneath each. My plan is to remove both of these through hull fittings, caulk the outside of each, and the hole, then reattach. Also, I removed the hatch that attaches to the 2 clean out ports so I could have better access. In doing that I noticed that the caulking around this hatch is incomplete and too little applied; so that is definately another source of leaking. Also, the right clean out port upper hose clamp was not on very tight and has rust stains, so probably another leak. What caulking should be used for the shifting cable through the hull, and also to seal the hatch?

I would use 3m 4200 it isn’t permanent

 

[dirksgoat]

What about the caps on the engine flush ports? I have noticed while under way that mine are leaking. Has anyone experienced this, and if so how do you correct.

check out this link. I have the same problem. still have not fixed mine. heres some sources.

https://jetboaters.net/threads/surprising-water-leak.13295/

https://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-8929-hfc22812-in-line-hose-barb-coupling-insert-12-id-barb.aspx

https://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-8968-hfcd16835-valved-panel-mount-hose-barb-coupling-body-12-id-barb.aspx

 

[MrMoose]

What about the caps on the engine flush ports? I have noticed while under way that mine are leaking. Has anyone experienced this, and if so how do you correct.

@MattFX4, did you fix your leaky caps?

 

[MattFX4]

@MattFX4, did you fix your leaky caps?

No, I haven't got to use my boat nearly as much this year. When I have I noticed they weren't leaking nearly as bad. I used them in the spring to run the boat for oil changes so maybe putting caps back on and making sure they were tight stopped the leaking.

 

[Cgeetter]

So glad yet sad that I’m not the only one with water issues. Purchased a brand new 242 limited s this past summer. After use found clean out ports full of water and about 1-2 gallons of water in boat after a day on the lake. Dealership found a leaking shift cable and said water in the clean out port was normal. No improvement after they re sealed shift cable. . At the time I didn’t realize that the tray back there by the clean out ports was not sealed at all, meaning LONG before any water get to the drain, it goes thru the cracks in the tray into the bilge. I siliconed the entire thing including the access hatch so any water coming up thru the clean out ports actually went out the drain. This helped but not as much as I hoped. Haven’t looked at anchor locker but am anxious to. Filled bilge with water but no luck, just a slight dribble from transducer. It’s absolutely ridiculous and it drives me fucking crazy that my new boat has water in it but sounds like there are others worse off. Please keep Us all posted and I’ll do the same.

 

[tdonoughue]

Check under the rub rail at the aft of the boat. Very common spot for a lot of leaks in these boats...

 

[Cgeetter]

Iv read that before, but how do I do that?