Hey dudes (and dudettes),
Had the SX at the lake last weekend and 12 people on board, after about five minutes, she started skipping, bogging down etc. There was whitish vapor coming from the exhaust. Boogied back to the marina and on the way noticed the boat was riding way low in the water. Checked the bilge and it was basically full. The pump was pumping its heart out but no way to keep up. I opened the transom cover and there was water flying all over the place. This was allowing water vapor to get in the air intake. It was turning into steam and coming out the exhaust. It looked to me like a cooling hose had broken. I shut her down and just towed it to the trailer. It took a half hour to drain the water with the bilge going and plug removed.
I took her to Marine Products where Jimmy found that the bolts that hold the prop shaft had come loose. He said five of the six bolts could be turned by hand and were letting water in the boat like crazy. With 12 people in the boat, it must have really been flowing. Jimmy said he had never seen this happen on any boat before. Anyway, he fixed that problem, changed the plugs and all the fluids (there was just a bit of water in the oil and vdrive) and 700 dineros later, I'll be able to finish out the season at the lake. I love both boating and flushing huge amounts of money down the boat toilet.
