Water coming from Supercharger

[Manzacoty]

I’m helping my neighbor who is widowed with her boat. I changed the oil for her and when I went to start the engine to check oil pressure and level, I noticed that water was coming from the supercharger. I did have it hooked up on a hose so I don’t know if that makes a difference. Any ideas of what’s going on?  Could it be a gasket/seal?  Boat is 2022 M240 with the LT4. 
 

 

[Cole2001]

Something must be cracked or bolt missing for that much water to be coming out. Was it winterized? Got any pictures not running?

[roeboat]

That looks like the heat exchanger for the closed cooling. Hopefully it's just a drain plug left out of it after being winterized. Otherwise it may be cracked from freezing.

[Manzacoty]

Her husband died 2 weeks before our first freeze. I knew she didn’t know to winterize it so I called the dealer and they walked me through what to do. They basically had me remove the water drain valves and dump the sea strainer. I also ran the boat for 10 seconds or so after all that. 

Edited April 14 by Manzacoty

[Manzacoty]

1 minute ago, roeboat said:

That looks like the heat exchanger for the closed cooling. Hopefully it's just a drain plug left out of it after being winterized. Otherwise it may be cracked from freezing.

Oh no. Is there a drain plug on the heat exchanger?

[roeboat]

2 minutes ago, Manzacoty said:

Oh no. Is there a drain plug on the heat exchanger?

I'm honestly not that familiar with that engine. I'm just saying what it looks like to me. Maybe someone with this engine would know.

[Cole2001]

The drain plugs on the LT4 are all down low, bottom of each side of headers has one, one on the very bottom of port side and another by vdrive. So unlikely it’s a missing plug.  

[Manzacoty]

21 minutes ago, Cole2001 said:

The drain plugs on the LT4 are all down low, bottom of each side of headers has one, one on the very bottom of port side and another by vdrive. So unlikely it’s a missing plug.  

Yeah - that’s what the dealer told me and what I did.  Hope it’s something easy. Thanks for the reply. 

[dizzygti]

It looks like water coming from multiple places.   Meaning something cracked....

[Bozboat]

Freeze damage should be covered by her boat insurance 

[ahopkins22LSV]

13 minutes ago, Bozboat said:

Freeze damage should be covered by her boat insurance 

Unfortunately this is only true if she added freeze coverage when selecting her policy options. It isn’t standard on most from what I’ve seen. 

[Bozboat]

1 hour ago, ahopkins22LSV said:

Unfortunately this is only true if she added freeze coverage when selecting her policy options. It isn’t standard on most from what I’ve seen. 

that would definitely be unfortunate.  

[CDAWake]

It looks like it is coming from the cover on the heat exchanger unit? Can you take that cover off and investigate? Looks like maybe only four bolts…. Sorry, I don’t have that engine so I’m not totally familiar 

[Ramdni]

I was unable to view the video, but I know from experience that the end caps on the LT4 heat exchangers can freeze & bust if you don't run the engine after removing the blue plugs. Five to 10 seconds should do it, never more than 30. 

Anyway, I'd recommend contacting your local Malibu/Axis dealer or contacting Malibu customer service (engine side) directly. They should have the end caps in stock.

[Cole2001]

At least with these closed cooling engines when something does freeze it isn't as expensive as replacing an entire block.  Hopefully, it is something simple such as a cap.

[Ramdni]

Wouldn’t play for me at work, played just fine on my phone. Cracked end cap. I see one or two every spring on the sc cooler. Did you have water coming from anywhere else, and do you want to replace the cap yourself?

[Manzacoty]

12 hours ago, Ramdni said:

Wouldn’t play for me at work, played just fine on my phone. Cracked end cap. I see one or two every spring on the sc cooler. Did you have water coming from anywhere else, and do you want to replace the cap yourself?

No. It doesn’t look like water is coming from somewhere else. I’m pretty handy and replacing the end cap would be in my wheelhouse. I haven’t pulled it yet but that’s a good idea for next steps. 

[Manzacoty]

Just a quick update on this. It’s the end cap that is broken and is about $120 to replace. However, there is an 8 week backlog. Malibu said to use JB weld on the cracks and it should be good to go. I’m letting it cure overnight and I’ll see how it does tomorrow.   They said it’s only about 35psi of water going through the intercooler. 

[Manzacoty]

On 4/5/2024 at 6:44 PM, Ramdni said:

Wouldn’t play for me at work, played just fine on my phone. Cracked end cap. I see one or two every spring on the sc cooler. Did you have water coming from anywhere else, and do you want to replace the cap yourself?

No water from anywhere else. I pulled the cap and used JB Weld for a temporary fix for now. Can you get a new end cap?

[dalt1]

On 4/5/2024 at 2:22 PM, Ramdni said:

I was unable to view the video, but I know from experience that the end caps on the LT4 heat exchangers can freeze & bust if you don't run the engine after removing the blue plugs. Five to 10 seconds should do it, never more than 30. 

Anyway, I'd recommend contacting your local Malibu/Axis dealer or contacting Malibu customer service (engine side) directly. They should have the end caps in stock.

Finding same results on a few Supra boats after winterizing by pulling plugs and draining. Not widely known but they are now saying to bump engine over after pulling plugs to move any pockets of water that didn't drain. Supra with the Raptor will sometimes crack a fitting at the bottom of heat exchanger if not bumped over.

[justgary]

12 hours ago, Manzacoty said:

No water from anywhere else. I pulled the cap and used JB Weld for a temporary fix for now. Can you get a new end cap?

Is the cap flat on the business side?  Please show a photo of both sides.  It would seem that you could fabricate one from a piece of aluminum bar.

[Manzacoty]

13 hours ago, justgary said:

Is the cap flat on the business side?  Please show a photo of both sides.  It would seem that you could fabricate one from a piece of aluminum bar.

No. It’s not flat and I think they will be back in stock in a few weeks.  I JB welded the cracks today and started on the hose today with no leaks.  Hopefully that will hold it until they are restocked. 

 

 

[justgary]

2 hours ago, Manzacoty said:

No. It’s not flat and I think they will be back in stock in a few weeks.  I JB welded the cracks today and started on the hose today with no leaks.  Hopefully that will hold it until they are restocked. 

 

 

... And no photos....

[Manzacoty]

6 hours ago, justgary said:

... And no photos....

Sorry. I didn’t take a photo when I had it removed. 

[justgary]

10 hours ago, Manzacoty said:

Sorry. I didn’t take a photo when I had it removed. 

And you call yourself a TMC member....