So we took the boat (just a small 17' 92 Reinell I/O) to a shop to have it winterized last fall. They did that fine, and told us to bring it back to them for de-winterizing. Fine, we did that. When I pick up the boat, I inquire about the plug - the guy says he doesn't know, so I climb in and look for it. I don't see the plug but I do see this star shaped impeller looking thingie. I pick it up - show it to the guy and say "I haven't the foggiest idea what this is - do you?" He just shrugs "No." And then the plug is found in the side bay - so we're all good. And I pull the boat home.
So the day after we pick the boat back up (yesterday), we took the boat out the Owyhee Res and put it in the water.
It started up perfectly. Backed up. Waited for my dad to go park the truck (maybe 5 minutes). I'm warming up the boat, have it tied to the dock, checking out these chicks over yonder, yadda yadda. I see my dad coming back and look back at the boat - not pretty.
White smoke BILLOWING from the exhaust and up from the engine compartment. I look for a fire - no fire. It took me a second to realize it has to be a coolant issue - I look at the temperature - needle is pegged above 240F. We shut the engine off - it probably did run pegged for 2 minutes or so.
So we load the boat back up and take it up top. While we're putting the straps back on, I happen to notice the coolant hose in the transom is NOT hooked up. So with our handy boat screwdriver, we spent about 90 minutes hooking this hose up and decide that we should put in the water and test it.
We put it back in the water - it was a little difficult to start, but not excessively bad - took about 20-30 seconds of cranking (it may have been flooded at that time). Next - we were looking for smoke and instead we see the green signs of a discharge of anti-freeze. Temperature dropped down to about 150F. We make the assumption that the discharge of anti-freeze is a by-product of an incomplete flush after dewinterizing. We take the boat out for a test run - take it up to about 4500 RPM - I notice the temp is increasing a touch faster than normal. But we lower it back down to about 3500 and temp is constant at about 160-170F.
We go fishing - anchoring up in a few places. After each successive move, it seemed to be just a touch more difficult to start. Like rough. And it did not idle well, and it seemed to die easily once put into gear. We had the throttle cable replaced the year before last when it broke and we had zero reverse. All last year, it ran perfectly (with the exception of a hydraulic issue that was mentioned in the only other thread I've ever wrote here
).
I understand a lot of things can be wrong now - heat exchanger issue, warped heads, valves, plugs fried, and maybe a couple of other things I'm forgetting at the moment. I know I need to have this guy check it out and explain to him about the hose, the smoke, the antifreeze discharge, etc.
I guess my question - should I be liable for any of the possible damage? Or should he? That's not an easy hose to see and I wouldn't expect most casual boat owners (like ones who take their boats to boat shops to have them winterized, etc) to notice that it wasn't hooked up. I'm not a happy camper right now.
So the day after we pick the boat back up (yesterday), we took the boat out the Owyhee Res and put it in the water.
It started up perfectly. Backed up. Waited for my dad to go park the truck (maybe 5 minutes). I'm warming up the boat, have it tied to the dock, checking out these chicks over yonder, yadda yadda. I see my dad coming back and look back at the boat - not pretty.
White smoke BILLOWING from the exhaust and up from the engine compartment. I look for a fire - no fire. It took me a second to realize it has to be a coolant issue - I look at the temperature - needle is pegged above 240F. We shut the engine off - it probably did run pegged for 2 minutes or so.
So we load the boat back up and take it up top. While we're putting the straps back on, I happen to notice the coolant hose in the transom is NOT hooked up. So with our handy boat screwdriver, we spent about 90 minutes hooking this hose up and decide that we should put in the water and test it.
We put it back in the water - it was a little difficult to start, but not excessively bad - took about 20-30 seconds of cranking (it may have been flooded at that time). Next - we were looking for smoke and instead we see the green signs of a discharge of anti-freeze. Temperature dropped down to about 150F. We make the assumption that the discharge of anti-freeze is a by-product of an incomplete flush after dewinterizing. We take the boat out for a test run - take it up to about 4500 RPM - I notice the temp is increasing a touch faster than normal. But we lower it back down to about 3500 and temp is constant at about 160-170F.
We go fishing - anchoring up in a few places. After each successive move, it seemed to be just a touch more difficult to start. Like rough. And it did not idle well, and it seemed to die easily once put into gear. We had the throttle cable replaced the year before last when it broke and we had zero reverse. All last year, it ran perfectly (with the exception of a hydraulic issue that was mentioned in the only other thread I've ever wrote here
). I understand a lot of things can be wrong now - heat exchanger issue, warped heads, valves, plugs fried, and maybe a couple of other things I'm forgetting at the moment. I know I need to have this guy check it out and explain to him about the hose, the smoke, the antifreeze discharge, etc.
I guess my question - should I be liable for any of the possible damage? Or should he? That's not an easy hose to see and I wouldn't expect most casual boat owners (like ones who take their boats to boat shops to have them winterized, etc) to notice that it wasn't hooked up. I'm not a happy camper right now.
