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Havin 2 problems I can't figure out!


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Hey guys, I've been havin a bit of a problem lately (well 2 of them) and I can't figure it out. First one is the oil leak, I have searched and searched and I can not find the leak that would be causing this. I did find one small leak coming out of what I am guessing is the oil pressure sending unit? It's on the port side of the engine about 2/3 the way back kind of low and thee is an electrical wire connected to the end of it. It looks like screw or both going through a small cylinder that's the only way I know how to explain it. (this a 2003 RLX with the monsoon engine by the way). There is a small leak towards the back of it. When I say small, I mean like when the engine has been run and still running, I may get I tiny drip every 5-10 mins. This can't be the leak that I'm looking for bc my bilge is COVERED in oil! Like I can't hit my bilge pump when we r out bc oil goes everywhere in the river. Just taking out the drain plug I get my hands oily bc the plug is even covered in oil! I can't seem to find any noticable leak, is there any where in particular that I should be looking?

Next question has got my head spinnig. We weight the boat down alot more than what is normal for that boat I'm sure. For the past two years we put a 680# seat bottom sac in place of the back seat, a 580 # fatboy on both sides of the engine and about 600# in the bow. Never had any problems what so ever. Well here in the past few 2 months I've been noticing the bow getting gradually high and higher. Even with zero weight in the boat when on a plane goin 35 the bow sits alot higher than it should and slot higher than it ever has. Lately we've had to stop putting ANY weight in the back and keep everything else the same just to be able to ride bc the bow sits so high. It feels like there is a crap ton of weight back there but there isn't a thing back there. Not only that but when stopped or at idle the platform is completely out of the water (the way we normally weight it it'd be slightly submerged. My boat is on a lift at my house, I tried pulling both pugs and drained everything, I've cleaned the bottom of the boat to where it's spotless, none of the underwater gear is damaged. We do use the wedge but this happens even with out the wedge going 35 so it's not that, has ANYBODY ever experienced this before? Anything I can check? I'm lost and it's really getting on my nerves.

Thanks in advance!

Edited by Sippi
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The drip at the sending unit, seeing this at idle? You'd be suprised what warmed up oil at 80 psi (guessing this is your oil pressure as half or better throttle) will force its way through. Clean the bilge below the engine, put some shop towels or oil absorbent pads down, warm engine at idle, go short distance at 3/4 throttle, stop and look where oil has showed up on pads or towels and trace upwards to find leak.

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I appreciate the response! That drip at 5-10 mins is actually while idling after being drive for about 10 mins. I've also drivin it with the cover off to find it and that drip does speed up but not nearly bad enough to cause the amount of oil in the bilge that I have. But I can't find any other leak. I'll try your idea of the shop towels and see if I can't find it. My oil pressure gauge has gone out too so I'm guessing I need another sending unit anyway, any idea about how much that'll run me and where I can get one?

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I appreciate the response! That drip at 5-10 mins is actually while idling after being drive for about 10 mins. I've also drivin it with the cover off to find it and that drip does speed up but not nearly bad enough to cause the amount of oil in the bilge that I have. But I can't find any other leak. I'll try your idea of the shop towels and see if I can't find it. My oil pressure gauge has gone out too so I'm guessing I need another sending unit anyway, any idea about how much that'll run me and where I can get one?

I just replaced the sending pressure sending unit in mine, it was about $50 with shipping. Really easy to replace, took about 5 min.

As for the oil drip, it may not seem like much coming from the sending unit, but mix oil and water together and it will seem like alot more than what it really is, so it may only be the small drip you have found. Are you having to add alot of oil to the engine? Id still check for other leaks, but it doesnt take much oil with water for it to seem like alot of oil down there.

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I appreciate the response! That drip at 5-10 mins is actually while idling after being drive for about 10 mins. I've also drivin it with the cover off to find it and that drip does speed up but not nearly bad enough to cause the amount of oil in the bilge that I have. But I can't find any other leak. I'll try your idea of the shop towels and see if I can't find it. My oil pressure gauge has gone out too so I'm guessing I need another sending unit anyway, any idea about how much that'll run me and where I can get one?

Is the large amount of oil your are seeing in thebilge actually a mixture of oil and bilge water making it seem like more oil than it is?

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No, the bottom of my bilge was COVERED in oil from the front all the way to the back under the trunk. Oil was added and at the right level last Wednesday...put 10 hours on the boat since then. Tonight I used went through 2 gallons of bildge cleaner to clean everything out one good time and check the oil, had to add two full quarts! It's so hard to believe I can just see it shooting out some where. Tomorrow I'm getting a buddy of mine to drive and we are going to ride around with engine cover left in the boathouse and the rear floor panel and try to find out what's goin on.

Kenny...where did you get your sending unit from? Is it something that napa has do you think? I'd love to be able to run by there and get one, yall wouldn't happen to have the part # for the sending unit for the monsoon would you?

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No, the bottom of my bilge was COVERED in oil from the front all the way to the back under the trunk. Oil was added and at the right level last Wednesday...put 10 hours on the boat since then. Tonight I used went through 2 gallons of bildge cleaner to clean everything out one good time and check the oil, had to add two full quarts! It's so hard to believe I can just see it shooting out some where. Tomorrow I'm getting a buddy of mine to drive and we are going to ride around with engine cover left in the boathouse and the rear floor panel and try to find out what's goin on.

Kenny...where did you get your sending unit from? Is it something that napa has do you think? I'd love to be able to run by there and get one, yall wouldn't happen to have the part # for the sending unit for the monsoon would you?

This is the part #551371(thanks Peter) I got it from my dealer. Dont know if you have pulled it out or not, but this is what it looks like

oilsensor007.jpg

Of course the bottom one is the broken one from my BU, and the top one is the wrong one that I got from an online place. I had to finally order it from my dealer. I tried auto parts stores, but they couldnt match it up, even with the part in their hand. You might have better luck than I did, but the dealers should have it.

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Hey guys, I've been havin a bit of a problem lately (well 2 of them) and I can't figure it out. First one is the oil leak, I have searched and searched and I can not find the leak that would be causing this. I did find one small leak coming out of what I am guessing is the oil pressure sending unit? It's on the port side of the engine about 2/3 the way back kind of low and thee is an electrical wire connected to the end of it. It looks like screw or both going through a small cylinder that's the only way I know how to explain it. (this a 2003 RLX with the monsoon engine by the way). There is a small leak towards the back of it. When I say small, I mean like when the engine has been run and still running, I may get I tiny drip every 5-10 mins. This can't be the leak that I'm looking for bc my bilge is COVERED in oil! Like I can't hit my bilge pump when we r out bc oil goes everywhere in the river. Just taking out the drain plug I get my hands oily bc the plug is even covered in oil! I can't seem to find any noticable leak, is there any where in particular that I should be looking?

Next question has got my head spinnig. We weight the boat down alot more than what is normal for that boat I'm sure. For the past two years we put a 680# seat bottom sac in place of the back seat, a 580 # fatboy on both sides of the engine and about 600# in the bow. Never had any problems what so ever. Well here in the past few 2 months I've been noticing the bow getting gradually high and higher. Even with zero weight in the boat when on a plane goin 35 the bow sits alot higher than it should and slot higher than it ever has. Lately we've had to stop putting ANY weight in the back and keep everything else the same just to be able to ride bc the bow sits so high. It feels like there is a crap ton of weight back there but there isn't a thing back there. Not only that but when stopped or at idle the platform is completely out of the water (the way we normally weight it it'd be slightly submerged. My boat is on a lift at my house, I tried pulling both pugs and drained everything, I've cleaned the bottom of the boat to where it's spotless, none of the underwater gear is damaged. We do use the wedge but this happens even with out the wedge going 35 so it's not that, has ANYBODY ever experienced this before? Anything I can check? I'm lost and it's really getting on my nerves.

Thanks in advance!

I can think of one place (and only one) where your engine would leak oil and you'd never see it. I hope this is not your problem but a leaking camshaft core plug in the rear of the engine would do exactly what you are describing. Oil would drain down the back of the engine block bewteen the engine and the flywheel and fill the void area between the engine block and transmission. It would leak at the bottom of the transmission bellhousing very close to the bilge and would be very hard to ever see. To repair the transmission would have to come out. Again I hope this is not your problem but it's happened before.

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  • 1 month later...

Wow, this is the exact same thing that is happening on my '02 wakesetter. Same thing, anytime you touch anything in the bilge i.e. plug etc my hand is covered in oil residue. It's also low on oil after i just put a quart in last time we took it out.

Sippi, have you had any luck figuring out what it is coming from? I need to try and clean the bilge and try the shop towel idea.

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I just went through the same thing. I was going through quarts of oil every time we were out. It turned out that the oil filter that I had on was recalled. I only found this out when I was at the marina getting my prop swapped ( I didn't have a puller yet, and they swapped them for me ). The mechanic that swapped it saw the oil in the bilge and asked when the oil filter was replaced on it. He said that a lot was recalled last year and I should see if that fixed it. I can't remember the exact model it was, but it was a sierra marine oil filter. I have a 2003 monsoon as well.

Hope this may help.

--Robert

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Yea, I figured it out. It ended up being from the sending unit. My bilge was COVERED in oil and it wasn't dripping much but that's what it was. Since then it's been fine. Just replaced the sending unit. I ran it to warm the oil up, then put it in idle, took off engine cover and the back floor panel and checked everywhere and that's all that was coming out. One reason that it was all over everything in the engine compartment was that when my brother added the two quarts in one day, he didn't replace the oil cap. Had to figure that out when I went to add more. Pretty dumb mistake but I'm just glad it wasn't something major. Oh and a cheap way to clean your bilge area without spending an arm and a leg on actual bilge cleaner...get a big bottle of dawn dishwashing liquid and squirt it all in the bilge, then get the hose after it. I left the plug in while I did this. Then drained it. Then sprayed it again, adding more dawn and let it sit for a few hours and drained it again. Then I squirted dawn all around the bottom of my bilge pump and sprayed it with the hose, and basically filled my bilge up with water one last time and used the pump to bilge it out so the pump would get clean. Oil can ruin your pump. It did an awesome job! Then I used orange degreaser and wiped down everything in the engine compartment. My engine looks better than ever!

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