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How much is normal?


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I have noticed that at the end of a day there is 3-4 inches of water around the drain plug next to the driver. Is this normal? I very rarely notice the light on the bilge switch lighting for 1-2 seconds and when I manually hit the bilge switch I never see any water come out of the drain holes.

How much water is normal in the bottom of the boat or bilge? Is it normal to collect in the area mid-ship, or next to the driver? How can I safely test my bilge pump to see if it is working?

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my boat never gets any water in it, only if it rains. you might want to check the drain plugs and see if there all in tight.

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Our boat's bilge is usually a couple inches deep in water - I think thats a sign that you're out there having fun on the water.

From dripping wet people to chili dips and general mayhem, we get water in from everywhere.

I don't worry about it unless its splashing on the floor - cuz then there's a leak somewhere.

But even that is easily removed with the bilge pump.

Just be sure the bilge pump is working

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Step 1. Make sure your ballast system isn't leaking.

Step 2. Check your packing. Should see about 1 drip every 6-10 seconds coming up through the prop shaft.

3-4 inches is quite a bit of water. I would think your bilge pump would keep it drier than that... A little bit is normal though.

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I am sure someone will slam me if I am wrong on this but, mine does the same exact thing and the amount of water is about the same every time. Here is what I have come to realize, that part of the bilge and the part of the bilge in the back are not connected (at least on mine) my engine compartment stays nice and dry. The other reason that it looks like a lot of water is that in that area you have the mid ballast tank and the fuel take not much room for water so it looks like more water than it actually is. Just my $.02 worth.

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We used to collect an entire locker full everyday. We chalked it up to the "Malibu Leak System" and paid no mind. When we sold the bold we learned we had a loose skag for the last year and we were taking in water. We were super shocked by this and asked if we would have noticed performance issues or anything. Our service manager was as surprised as we were that we didn't know. Probably not your issue, but it's worth having it looked at as we had no underwater damage that we knew of, nothing we hit - no clue that it happened. The point was we assumed the water was "normal" and it really wasn't.

Or 06 is always bone dry there now, with the exception of allowing Brad's crew to sac the boat and conduct total mahem on board. Even then we don't know if the water is spilled beer, sac filling/draining, wet bodies or what!

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Hmm...I usually have water up to the bottom of the "T" on the plug almost every time we come in from Wakeboarding/Surfing etc. In the absence of a bow plow, this isn't normal? My engine compartment stays pretty dry. Perhaps I need to have it looked at..... :blush:

On a potentially related matter, every time I fill my front ballast I get a pretty wet spot/streak at the base of the walkthrough. It's been doing this ever since I got my boat last year. My dealer looked at and tested and found no leak in the ballast. Me thinks they missed something. Anyone else have this?

Edited by jshap
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Hmm...I usually have water up to the bottom of the "T" on the plug almost every time we come in from Wakeboarding/Surfing etc. In the absence of a bow plow, this isn't normal? My engine compartment stays pretty dry. Perhaps I need to have it looked at..... :blush:

On a potentially related matter, every time I fill my front ballast I get a pretty wet spot/streak at the base of the walkthrough. It's been doing this ever since I got my boat last year. My dealer looked at and tested and found no leak in the ballast. Me thinks they missed something. Anyone else have this?

Well - your front ballast is leaking. Most likely a loose fitting. The amount of water you describe in the bilge seems excessive. I did not get my speed paddlewheel assembly tight and was taking on water. The auto bilge would kick on before the water level got up to the t in the drain plug.

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I'm thinking my boat might be like Ken's though. The rear engine compartment/bilge looks dry, it's only at the mid hatch where I see a lot of water. I usually remove the plug to let it drain every time I raise the boat.

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We have a removable plug in a wall that seperates the ski locker from the rear area (engine bilge and fuel tank).

I remove it so the water moves to the back when underway and gets removed by the pump.

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It isn't necessarily the ballast leaking.. I typically have some water in my bildge.. it gets pumped out if it gets too deep -

Start with a dry bildge and see where it comes from next time you put it in the water.

I know where mine comes from, and it isn't worth the effort - it is just a little water

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I am sure someone will slam me if I am wrong on this but, mine does the same exact thing and the amount of water is about the same every time. Here is what I have come to realize, that part of the bilge and the part of the bilge in the back are not connected (at least on mine) my engine compartment stays nice and dry. The other reason that it looks like a lot of water is that in that area you have the mid ballast tank and the fuel take not much room for water so it looks like more water than it actually is. Just my $.02 worth.

I agree with Riverrunner, mine does the same thing, the engine will be dry and have 2-3 inches next to me between the ballast tank and the fuel tank. It has never risen higher than that 2-3 inches so I don't worry about it.

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I think the engine compartment in mine stays dry, I only notice the water in the compartment next to the driver. I did not fill the ballast last time out to make sure it was unrelated to a ballast leak. I still had the same amount of water. I appreciate all the feedback and tomorrow I will go underneath and check all the hardware before dunking it in the lake. I will try to watch where the water is coming from. I am also going to check the shaft packing/nut for a leak.

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We used to collect an entire locker full everyday. We chalked it up to the "Malibu Leak System" and paid no mind. When we sold the bold we learned we had a loose skag for the last year and we were taking in water. We were super shocked by this and asked if we would have noticed performance issues or anything. Our service manager was as surprised as we were that we didn't know. Probably not your issue, but it's worth having it looked at as we had no underwater damage that we knew of, nothing we hit - no clue that it happened. The point was we assumed the water was "normal" and it really wasn't.

Or 06 is always bone dry there now, with the exception of allowing Brad's crew to sac the boat and conduct total mahem on board. Even then we don't know if the water is spilled beer, sac filling/draining, wet bodies or what!

i only chili dip on demand ;)

-krak

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When I have her in the water for more than a day, my 'T' plug is under water. I'm taking her in for service this month and am going to have them check for leaking tanks, loose fins, packing etc. and will let you know if they find anything that may help.

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It isn't necessarily the ballast leaking.. I typically have some water in my bildge.. it gets pumped out if it gets too deep -

Start with a dry bildge and see where it comes from next time you put it in the water.

I know where mine comes from, and it isn't worth the effort - it is just a little water

So what is leaking?

This last weekend (WOW) I had tons of water in my eng compartment. But it was from surfing, wet people and some from my packing. When I slowed down a few times water came up and over the back eng covers and on to the seats. My front locker only had 2" in it after 3 days of being in the water and filling the tanks atleast 20 times. I think that one may be from a ballast hose.

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It isn't necessarily the ballast leaking.. I typically have some water in my bildge.. it gets pumped out if it gets too deep -

Start with a dry bildge and see where it comes from next time you put it in the water.

I know where mine comes from, and it isn't worth the effort - it is just a little water

So what is leaking?

This last weekend (WOW) I had tons of water in my eng compartment. But it was from surfing, wet people and some from my packing. When I slowed down a few times water came up and over the back eng covers and on to the seats. My front locker only had 2" in it after 3 days of being in the water and filling the tanks atleast 20 times. I think that one may be from a ballast hose.

I had the same thing happen over the weekend as well, but it wasn't from using my boat. The bilge ran for about 7-10 min when i was leaving. I know some leaks from the center sac fittings. I took them apart two winters ago and applied silicone on them and there were no leaks last summer. This year I didn't do it and it is leaking again. I also notice that when I put teflon tape on the drain plugs they tend to leak a lot. But I think most of my water is coming through the packing nut. But does the packing nut leak even when the engine is not in gear? That would probably explain the excess amount over long periods.

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Despite the 114 degree temps today we were able to get out and spend some good quality family time on the lake. I checked the hardware under the boat and all looks solid and intact. The ballast pumps don't seem to be leaking. The packing nut was dripping more than a drip a second and when in gear and with the prop spinning it was a constant stream. I ended up tightening it until it dripped about a drip every 5 seconds, but when running at 2700-3000rpm it drips about a drip a second. When I tighten it any tighter it doesn't drip at all while in neutral. I think a lot of the water was coming from the packing nut and hopefully this helps. Should the 1 drip every 5-10 seconds I hear is appropriate be with the engine in neutral or with it running at typical speed? I imagine it will always drip more with the shaft spinning.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've noticed that we are also getting water up to the bottom of the "T" handle. I keep the boat on a shore station when not in use, and I had emptied all of the water out of the bilge by removing the plug from the center of the boat, and using a sponge to get rid of the rest. Next time out on the lake, I never filled any of the ballast tanks, yet I still eventually ended up with 3 - 4 inches of water in between the fuel tank and front ballast tank. With the bilge pump only in the rear or the boat, I would notice as the bow would raise, the water rushes to the rear, bilge light would come on for about 3 seconds and water would pump out, but not all of the water, because I think that the pump is mounted higher than the level of water. When I put the boat back in neutral, the water would rush forward and be slightly lower on the "T" handle than it was before, and the engine compartment would be completely free of water.

I just want to know where is the water coming from in the first place? Is it the shaft packing? It's hard to believe that I could be getting that much water into the boat in that short amount of time from the shaft. Since I never used the ballast, I would assume it's not related to the tanks, or the connections to the tanks. The plugs are all tight, the paddle wheel appears to be tight fit as well as the fresh water pickup.

My 97 RLX always had water in it too and it drove me nuts, I was just hoping that would be one thing I would not be dealing with on this new boat.

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Dry it out, and put it in the water, and watch to see where it comes in from. Mine isn't from the ballast either. I've actually seen some water coming in from around the thru-hull fitting that the T-handle is in.

The amount of water is very small - and for me, not worth trying to stop the slow trickle

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For the first time I left my boat sitting in the water from Friday night to Sunday night (typically on a lift) this past weekend and there is not a drop of water in the bilge. It is bone dry. I was very impressed by this. This boat has the optional water-cooled coupling as apposed to the packing so I guess that helps. What is a bit strange is that we were in and out of the water all weekend tracking water into the boat but none of the at made it down the bilge area.

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I know my biggest leak is from the swim-platform mounting holes.

Haven't taken the time yet to remove the fuel tank & fix it...

bilge pump gets used for sure (right Woody?)

anyway, that's definitely a place to look (IMO) since it is a big stress-receiving spot

(think about how much weight you've had on there at one time...)

Edited by Big Dubya
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