help-water in the bilge after prop hits ground!!

[s2gots]

Hey guys...I took my boat out sunday to the lake for some fishing for the first time in at least 6 months...yes, I know I know, its been too long. Anyway, Ive never had problems with water getting in the bilge before. After I put her in the water, she fired up fine, tied up at the dock for about 10 minutes and let her idle a bit as I waited for someone else to arrive( it wasent busy,and no one was there launching or retrieving, so I wasent holding up anybody!!) Checked her out before we un-tied, and bilge was dry as a bone. BTW, The speed limit at the lake is 10 mph. Just as a precaution, I checked the bilge every so often to make sure there were no problems/leaks, and for the first 4 hours, all is good-well, except we havent caught any fish, well keepers...
I stopped at a shallow area to fish for a bit, shut her down and started fishing....I didnt anchor up because we didnt stay in one spot for too long... so I was getting a bit too close for comfort to shore, so I fired her up, and started backing up and turning to one side, I was barely out of idle and moving slowly....my buddy yells, "Hey be careful its super shall...." before he could finish the word shallow, the prop hits ground and engine cuts out. I raise the outdrive a bit, fire up again, and proceed to move out of the shallows with no ill effects. About an hour later, I hear the bilge pump pumping out water. I keep it running and open the bilge up, and see about 2 inches of water..its barelly enough to turn on the float at the bilge pump as the water moves back and forth...no water is coming out of the engine block, and I cant see any wet areas except down at the bottom of the bilge area.
Id doesent seem like a bad leak. After the mishap, I stayed on the lake for another 2 hours, and the pump came on once for a couple seconds. Once I got the boat out of the water, there was minimal damage to the prop, the plug was in, the boat didnt bottom out, only the prob touched bottom.....I didnt see anything out of place on the outdrive.. Any suggestins on where the water might be coming in from?

88 four winns horizon 200 Cobra outdrive GM 350 small block

TIA
S2gots

 

[Fleetwin]

Re: help-water in the bilge after prop hits ground!!

Man..... that was hard to read. All jumbled together.

You may have "popped" a seal or two. Especially the transom seal between the outdrive and the engine. That seal is sensitive toi a back hit.

DO NOT ignore this! Your ignoring will result in a rotten transom an engine problems.

I suggest a full service on your outdrive. Pay special attention to the bellows and transom to outdrive sealing.

 

[Don S]

Re: help-water in the bilge after prop hits ground!!

If the water is coming in around the transom shield, the chances are very high that the transom is rotten. (wood rot) when you hit bottom, the drive pulls on the transom shield, the nuts and washers holding the transom shield to the transom pull into the soft rotten transom and you no longer have a tight seal.

 

[maproy99]

Re: help-water in the bilge after prop hits ground!!

Good luck

 

[s2gots]

Re: help-water in the bilge after prop hits ground!!

Thanks guys..., my apologies if it was rambling.... Lol....
I'm pretty confident it's not dry rot... I have the boat checked out once a year at a shop, and it's not neglected... But, there's always that chance it is rot and they missed it.
How do I go about checking for that?

 

[cr2k]

Re: help-water in the bilge after prop hits ground!!

Could also be a going bad bellows, you mentioned you raised the drive a bit before the bilge pump came on, I am betting you had the drive down the rest of the time.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: help-water in the bilge after prop hits ground!!

backing into something at low speed, while not desirable, should not do any lasting damage, to a boat in good shape. Either the water came in from elsewhere, or you damaged a seal or something at the transom.

for elsewhere: perhaps the water pressure against the transom in reverse pushed water in somewhere.

for damage: your transom flexed (which it shouldn't) either temporarily or permanently opening a gap, or the bellows cracked.

Typically "the shop" doesn't check transom integrity unless there is something obvious or specifically asked to test, including core samples. don't count on that.

The only thing you can do: completely dry out the bilge, and launch it. You can lay paper towels or sprinkle powder (such as soap) around to better see where it's coming from. sit still and see if anything comes in with the motor up. then down. then reverse (don't drive off the trailer). Reverse turned left then right. Still no water? go for a good hard run; then check it. Then go through the reverse testing, raising/lowering, etc.

If nothing, it healed itself. boats do that.

 

[s2gots]

Re: help-water in the bilge after prop hits ground!!

Could also be a going bad bellows, you mentioned you raised the drive a bit before the bilge pump came on, I am betting you had the drive down the rest of the time.

I raised the drive to get going again in the shallow area, I'm pretty sure I dropped it all the way down after I was in deeper water...

I'm hoping its just a seal, it'll be a good reason to go through everything!!
Ill also try backing down into the water and see if I can spot the water intrusion....
Is replacing seals a major project to do on my own, or should I let a shop handle it?
Tia

 

[MarkSee]

Re: help-water in the bilge after prop hits ground!!

Is replacing seals a major project to do on my own, or should I let a shop handle it?Tia

If you're asking about replacing the transom seal then you'll be pulling parts and the motor out. Might want to search the OMC section of the IBOATS site for what others went through.

Mark