Water dripping for weeks afterwards with brown?

Joined
Mar 11, 2010
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51
I last boated about two weeks ago. Some water was doing out of the stern drive but no biggies. I had bent the bottom of the drive but able to straighten it and put a stainless protector on it. All looks fine.

Then I go out in the garage today to get ready to take the boat out, and this is what I see. Two weeks later and there's a LOT of water and I can still see it dripping, and some of it had brown in it.

Any ideas? Or is it just some rust or something and u should get on with my boating?
 

Bt Doctur

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Aug 29, 2004
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19,344
Brown colored water just dripping from the transom could indicate a wet, waterlogged rotted transom if the strike disturbed the transom gasket
 

Rick Stephens

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Aug 13, 2013
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Is it rust or oil?

If rust, then your engine is probably slowly draining through the impeller or a bad o-ring on the water tube out of the pump.

Sure hope it isn't off the transom. That would be a rough day.
 
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
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It looks more like rust than oil... and it doesn't feel like oil.. I'm supposed to do a two week boating trip next weekend. It's 825 miles away. Should I take it to a shop when I get home? Or see if someone at a repair shop can squeeze us in next week? Or is there something I can do to diagnose it definitively?
 

ziggy

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Jun 30, 2004
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7,473
where ya put the plug in. is there a rust stain coming down from that? if so, it could be rot juice stain.
have ya got anything screwed to the transom. sonar, speedo, trim tabs? anything. if so, take a screw out and probe with a pick of some sort in the hole. if mush comes out the transom wood isn't so healthy. be prepared to fill the hole with sealer if the wood is good so ya don't start wood rot. anything screwed to the transom have any stains coming from the fasteners? that'd be the screw to take out. if ya take a fastener out like that and it's rotten, you won't be able to reinstall the fastener tight too cause there'd be nothing for the screw to fasten too. just mush, if it's rotten wood.
worse comes to worse. drill a hole in the transom (on the inside and not all the way through) to find out for sure. the bit draws out wet wood, yer hosed, dry wood and yer good to go. just seal any holes ya drill or remove screws from.
hope ya don't have a rotten transom.

then there's the stringers too. they are wood too most likely. so they could rot too over time.
 

ziggy

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Jun 30, 2004
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It's coming from the holes above the propeller.
ya mean the water intake. could be gear lub. but ya said it didn't feel like oil. gear lub feels like oil. if dino gear oil, it could come out not mixed with water too, like yer pic. dino gear oil and water will seperate. if synthetic gear lub. water and that will mix together and make milk shake looking stuff. also would feel like oil, slippery.
 
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
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Looks and feels like water. Slight tinge. If I puta white trash in it most is clear.

I don't think I have wood? I think it's all fiberglass unless there's wood sandwiched in there? All else looks good.

I can't figure out how to make the picture upload because it's too big and I don't know how to shrink it... but there's some light tiger stripes. Engine oil is clear, I thought the out drive oil was blue. There is some brown oil in a reservoir, but I'll not sure what is for.

Yeah I've only had this boat 14 years.
 
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
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Yeah, it's a wood sandwich. Put your pics on photobucket and link to them that way.

That would really stink if thats what it is, but since its coming clearly from the inlets, I'm hoping thats unlikely.

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Rick Stephens

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I still think you are leaking out water from the motor. I would just run the boat and then pull the drains on the motor leaving it empty before parking it next time. If it is just leaking out water from the motor it will stop leaking on your floor since the motor will be dry.
 
Joined
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I still think you are leaking out water from the motor. I would just run the boat and then pull the drains on the motor leaving it empty before parking it next time. If it is just leaking out water from the motor it will stop leaking on your floor since the motor will be dry.

I think you are probably right. I never noticed it before, but this year is different- for 22 years we had a cottage and left the boat docked (we had a smaller boat before buying this one). We sold the cottage last year and this is the first year I've been trailering it and taking it in and out, so I think I'm worrying about nothing.

Once we moved the boat and it dried up, its clearly not oil...

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