thru-hull seal for v-drive

[Matthew103]

I was winterizing my 2007 Super Air Nautique 210 team edition .. I fired it up to inject rv antifreeze into raw water in-take and water was shooting out the hull @ prop shaft area..I am assuming I need a new packing seal around prop shaft? Does anyone have any experience with this /or input??? Also I was trying to figure out what type of seal my specific boat uses?

[oldsmobiledriver]

If the shaft seal has an 1/8” hose going to it then it’s designed to use water from the impeller to keep it cool. Sounds like that’s the case and it’s normal.


If you mess with the King's Queen, you better watch your Ace Jack!
#Tomcat

[t.franscioni]

Sounds like you have a dripless packing seal on the prop shaft. Check if there is a small tube running to the shaft seal from the engine water cooling line. If so then It is normal for water to come out the prop shaft area because it is used to lubricate and cool the dripless carbon seal.

[Matthew103]

O.K. I will look into that, thankyou

[ski4evr]

i put a valve in the hose to the shaft seal for just that reason. I close it off when winterizing with antifreeze. while the engine is running on antifreeze, I crack it open for a second to make sure antifreeze is in all the lines. just make sure its open when winter is over and dewinterizing.

[scottb7]

Ok, you got me curious, ski4evr. Why bother doing that? It is just one more thing to have to remember to open and reclose. Advantage?

I winterize in the driveway, and a little bit of rv antifreeze comes out of the seal, and a whole lot more comes out of the exhaust...

[ski4evr]

I use a pump to circulate antifreeze with engine running. Have a catch pan and pvc pipe for the exhaust. Lose a lot from the dripless packing when idling in the driveway. The setup a dealer in Cinci showed me allows to winterize without having to take everything apart.

[scottb7]

i see, thanks.

[functionoverfashion]

I have a question on winterizing with a dripless shaft seal. It's something I had forgotten about until I winterized the boat for the second time (last year was my first on this particular boat) over the weekend. I thought about pinching off the dripless feed so antifreeze didn't dump out all over the ground while running the engine on a/f (this is AFTER draining everything completely and replacing all plugs/hoses). In the future, that is. This year I spewed a/f all over the ground for the second and hopefully last time.

I ran about 3 gallons through the system (with engine running) and saw pink stuff come out the exhaust. But I feel like this would be way more effective with that dripless hose closed off, and would not only require less a/f but would make me feel better as I'm not dumping the stuff on the ground, AND I'm more confident that it's being circulated effectively through everything else.

When I had the backseat out this spring for other reasons, I took some pictures and looking back, I see TWO hoses coming from a T on the various water hoses. One is on the hose that comes from the through-hull fitting and goes INTO the strainer. The other is on the hose that feeds INTO the v-drive, which is after the RWP. The second one (Blue) is the one I assume is the dripless feed, but what's the other one? I confess I just haven't had time to trace it, and the boat is now out of my hands. I might have a chance to dive into it with a bright light, but I don't have time to take the back seat out and really dig into it.

See pic below:

[t.franscioni]

Do you have a shower? Could be the cold water pickup for the shower.

[functionoverfashion]

No shower on this boat that I can see, but it could be that someone took it all out years ago. The black line looks a bit small though. Am I correct that the dripless feed would be the blue line, which is "after" the water pump, aka on the positively-pressurized side so water would be forced out of it? If so, it's the little black line from a brass fitting that I'm not sure of.

[t.franscioni]

Heater on the boat? Could be the return line from the heater core also.

[functionoverfashion]

Heater on the boat? Could be the return line from the heater core also.

Man, good guess but strike two haha. It DOES have a heater, but the output is on the intake manifold and the return is a y-pipe right before the RWP. I changed the return location this year from the circ pump to the y-pipe that Heatercraft sells specifically to help with heat output at idle, which is when I really want it the most.

[t.franscioni]

Hmmmmm all I can think of that ties into the engines cooling hoses are cold shower pickup, heater return and dripless shaft pickup. If it’s on the suction side of the raw water pump then that has to be the heater return I’d imagine.... you rerouted it though to the Y pipe thing though. I’d trace it and make sure whatever it is if it’s not being used it should be capped off so it doesn’t suck air into your cooling system.

[functionoverfashion]

Hmmmmm all I can think of that ties into the engines cooling hoses are cold shower pickup, heater return and dripless shaft pickup. If it’s on the suction side of the raw water pump then that has to be the heater return I’d imagine.... you rerouted it though to the Y pipe thing though. I’d trace it and make sure whatever it is if it’s not being used it should be capped off so it doesn’t suck air into your cooling system.

It is strange. In the picture it's the really small black hose coming out of a brass fitting, from a T on the line that's on the suction side, if you will, of the strainer. I guess I will have to trace it to figure it out. Now when I go to clean the boat out, I'll bring a bright light and see if I can do it without taking out the back seat or anything.

In any case, it doesn't seem to be causing a problem, because I haven't touched it in the 2 years and ~200 hours I've put on the boat since I've had it.