2000 SAN Apex engine troubles - water leaking

[msquito]

thx all, appreciate the input - especially the encouragement to pull the boat out of the water, seems like the smart thing to do. (Cheesesteak - sorry, missed your post/question, I didn't pull the drain-plug because boat is currently in the water)
Kinda leaning towards the FAE route - have been wanting to do this anyways, and this may be just the thing to push me over the edge.

Logistically, to get the boat out of the water, I'll have to get it down to the launch. After squaring away the rest of our fluids, I'm thinking I may apply a gorilla-tape bandaid to see if I can minimize leakage from the muffler, and rig up a hose extension from the ballast pump into the bilge to be able to aid in keeping the bilge level down while I limp down to the launch. Does this seem reasonable or am I overlooking anything?

[functionoverfashion]

As far as limping to the ramp, you could do that at idle and be fine as-is, I suspect. But a second pump wouldn't hurt as a backup.

That for sure has been patched before, the top of that 6" diameter vertical tube should be a) black and b) not flat. So the failure point was (from my eyes) an inadequate patch job from the last time it failed.

I recently fixed this exact problem, but it was on a DD boat so I could do it in the water more easily. There's a pipe on the inside of the muffler that comes up from below - imagine a piece going from the output right up through the top of the horizontal tube. Water and exhaust gases are forced up between the smaller and larger outer pipe before they can exit the boat, and there isn't a ton of room between the top of the outlet and the top of that 6" part. The factory version is curved to assist that flow. The only exception is a tiny hole in the side of the output pipe to drain the water at rest.

When the one I worked on failed, the whole top had blown off which is kind of what yours looks like - I mean, what the patch looks like. I cut the flange off the top AND cut the pipe down on the inside so water just comes out the manifolds, into the large horizontal part, and down into the output with no resistance. There were no other baffles in there at all. I won't name names, but I did talk to a tech at Centek who makes these things, and some of this was his advice, without it being official advice.

I then patched the top with some wire to reinforce the glass patch, and glassed over the whole thing with 5 layers of cloth and epoxy resin. It's holding solid and sounds a little bit louder, but not much. Pics below:





I then had to take the boat on a test drive, of course.

[SilentSeven]

Logistically, to get the boat out of the water, I'll have to get it down to the launch.

Yeah...you're up north a bit at Idlywood...the state park ramp is like 6 miles down the lake. I think you'll be ok with a little tape patch, your current bilge pumps and a careful eye on the water level. You can always shut her off and pump her out if the water is coming in really fast.....water should stop when you turn her off. Then just rinse and repeat till you make the ramp.

Too bad I lost my connection at the villa marina...(the place up the ski course)....I had key access to their private ramp. That was sweet!

[msquito]

yep, Vasa much closer : ))) - Villa Marina would be so nice tho

[functionoverfashion]

Yeah...you're up north a bit at Idlywood...the state park ramp is like 6 miles down the lake. I think you'll be ok with a little tape patch, your current bilge pumps and a careful eye on the water level. You can always shut her off and pump her out if the water is coming in really fast.....water should stop when you turn her off. Then just rinse and repeat till you make the ramp.

6 miles isn't that far if the weather is good and you're not fighting big wind-driven waves or something. You can go a little more than idle and that's 5-6mph so that's about an hour. I agree, if you keep an eye on the water level, stopping if needed, you'll be fine.

[msquito]

Think we're going to try and go the route of a FAE muffler (and FAE) depending on how long the lead time is. FAE representative mentioned they might be able to rush the muffler if we were down, so trying to follow up with them to see if I can get some better sense of timeline. Would be REALLY nice to get all that handled at once...