Dripping engine block fitting

[viper1216]

Found a drip in my bilge today. It's coming from a drain on block. Looks like it is leaking at where the fitting connects to the block itself. Would like to take fitting out and replace if I can or at least put some sealant around the threads or something. My concern is...if I take this fitting out is the bilge going to fill up with a ton of water? The boat is in the water.

 

[nola mike]

Found a drip in my bilge today. It's coming from a drain on block. Looks like it is leaking at where the fitting connects to the block itself. Would like to take fitting out and replace if I can or at least put some sealant around the threads or something. My concern is...if I take this fitting out is the bilge going to fill up with a ton of water? The boat is in the water.

It'll drain a couple of gallons. Of course we have no idea what engine you have...
Also, what's the rest of that rust from?

 

[Paintman1960]

No, that is an engine block drain, you will get some water but not alot

 

[viper1216]

Crap..sorry, thought it was in my signature. It's a 2001 5.0 Mercruiser. Just bought the boat so don't know about the rest of rust. I did find that the plastic blue plug doesn't have an o-ring, so wonder if that's it. Gonna try and hunt down an o-ring and try that.

 

[nola mike]

Crap..sorry, thought it was in my signature. It's a 2001 5.0 Mercruiser. Just bought the boat so don't know about the rest of rust. I did find that the plastic blue plug doesn't have an o-ring, so wonder if that's it. Gonna try and hunt down an o-ring and try that.

It's just a standard npt pipe fitting, but I don't remember the size. ¼?

 

[viper1216]

Cool. I'm gonna try popping an o-ring on the plastic fitting and see if that helps. As long as I know 80 gallons of sea water is not gonna fly in, I'll just take whole fitting to the hardware store if I gotta replace the whole thing..

 

[viper1216]

O-ring solved the issue. All good now. Thanks for the help everyone!!

 

[Scott06]

O-ring solved the issue. All good now. Thanks for the help everyone!!

You may want to replace the plastic plugs at some point they tend to get brittle from the heat And a bag of 5 cost like $10

 

[viper1216]

You may want to replace the plastic plugs at some point they tend to get brittle from the heat And a bag of 5 cost like $10

Already have a new set coming. Ordering them is actually what tipped me off that it was missing an o-ring when i saw the pic of them. I'll just toss em in my tool box for now and change them out in the fall/spring.