Help. Taking on water???

[scottsquared]

Out early this morning  great runs.

Problem:   :(at the end of our runs i pushed the throttle down to get to our cove fast and then backed off to no wake speed.  2" of water came from the back to the front of the boat as I slowed down.  I put the bilge from auto to bilge and pulled the battery panel to check the water level and it was just under the top of the battery.  Pulled the engine cover and was above idle and it looked like there was water dumping down from the transmission area or the back of the engine.  then when it bilged out dry (no leaking at idle) I idled back to the dock.  

I know the packing is not leaking with the exception of a small drip (which i understand is nomal) at speed.

Maybe the auto bilge switch is not working? but I am good about turning the bilge on from time to time just to check.

I did have the ballast full in the rear a run before.  but had emptied it for skiing.

any ideas? or similar experiences???

[toyotafreak]

Should probably keep my mouth shut since I'm not familiar with the Epic d-drive.

My bilge pump is mounted midships, right next to the drivers' feet. The low spot in the hull (when sitting still or while trailered,) is right there. Kind of anoying because pulling the drain plug only helps if the nose of the trailer is sky high.

On plane, the transom will be the lowest spot and a forward-mounted pump won't have any water to suck.

The biggest deal is your mention of water in the tranny area. The engine, exhaust and tranny (also v-drives for SX and S22) are all cooled by sea water, which is under pressure. If you've got a leak in that system somewhere, you've got some important fault isolation to do. A leak in a cooling system means something's not getting cooled like it should. Find it, fix it, or you may be replacing more than a bilge pump.


On a related note, I understand the Owner's Manual descibes a three-position bilge switch, bu mine is clearly either armed in the auto mode, or off completely. Just might double check that. Click it once and the indicator turns red and if there's water in the bigle the pump will spew until there's no water then turn off. Press the button again and the indicator extinguishes and the pump will never pump no matter how deep the water is.

[scottsquared]

I watch all of the guages very carefully and nothing has gotten hot.

Took it out again after work to try and re create the problem and could not.  If one of the exauaust flaps hung up and I slowed down rapidly could water get through anywhere?  

Probably need to test my auto bilge switch and make sure its coming on and ballast system for leaks.

[atlantabuff]

Yep, that's what I was going to say.  The bilge is either on (auto) or not.  Toyota would have changed that eventually.  So everytime we get in the boat it is one of those things we check.   Sounds like a lot of water though.

[davidgree1]

Check the  trans coupler.  If it is only dripping a few drops while at idle check it while in gear.  It may be pouring water in while in gear.

[scottsquared]

the only thing that normally leaks even slightly is the packing where the shaft goes through the hull and that is only when in gear and the shaft is turning.  thats what is odd about this problem.  it seems to be intermittent and has maybe happened 2-3 times.  when it happened recently water was just dumping out near the high end of the shaft.  I should have looked closer but i was concerning myself with getting my jump battery and extra pump out.  I thought it was just going to keep filling up.

I have been out 3-4 times this week and cannot make it happen again.

[cyclone]

Check the bilge pump, they were wired backwards by the factory on many boats Yours may have been warrantee replaced by one that either doesn't have the auto switch or wired wrong, there are two brown hot wires on the auto bilge pump, on is for auto, one for manual. The auto pump looks just like the non-auto one.

As for leaks, I would suggest that you check all bilge through hulls for leaks, and also don't forget to check the speedo cylinders (on sides of hull in trunk forward of removeable panels) to see if they have burst from freezing water in the winter. It will happen if you have a clogged speedo pitot, water stays in there and will burst the tube. You will have a full time leak if these do not maintain watertight integrity.