Liberator21

If I can put in my two cents. In a way, you were lucky it was a fresh water dunk. Many years ago I had a 17' Tahiti with the bow up on the beach while my friends and I were hanging out. A large party boat came by a little too fast, and a little too close. Needless to say, the massive wake filled my boat right up with salt water! All my electrical equipment sizzled like dropping an alka-seltzer in a glass of water. I had to re-wire the whole boat, and replace all the electric motors (Trim Pump etc.).
If I were you, I'd pull the interior apart, and let everything dry out. If it's in good shape to begin with, there should be no reason to have to replace it. As far as motors go, replace the cheap stuff like bilge blowers. You said the starter was replaced. The trim pumps can get expensive. If you're handy, open the motor up, dry it out, clean the commutator, replace the brushes, clean any corrosion, regrease the bushings, and close it up. The windings are coated with a varnish, so water should'nt affect them. I've fixed plenty of fresh water soaked motors that way, and they worked fine for quite some time. You could even get a rebuild kit for the alternator that even includes the bearings. Those are pretty easy to rebuild. This site: http://www.alternatorparts.com/gm_al...grade_kits.htm has kits for $29.00 and $39.00. That's a far cry from the $100.00+ to replace it. It all depends on how much you want to spend, and how much work you want to do. Sounds like you have more labor in front of you than anything else. Hope this helps.

Paul

mcollinstn

I've sunk several (all at the dock - one was a hose, another was a roof leak in the dock, another was parked at a marina under a bad gutter, etc.).

Take the alternator and starter to a shop and have the water dried out and the bearings regreased.

Plan on dumping the water separators every ten minutes for the forst couple of hours. Dump and bleed the trim and tab fluids. Regrease the throttle shift and steering cables. Remove the drive and grease all points inside and out on the drive.

Run her and make notes of anything that is odd.

After the first weekend, drain all fluids and refill with new filters.

Then chase problems as they come up.

jpclear

I didn't see where anyone had concerns about going down running. I would! Probably means that it shut down due to ingesting water through the carb. That means that even though it seems to run O.K. on the hose, you could have a tweaked rod or two. (hydro-locking does that) I can tell you from sad experience that when that tweaked rod lets go at speed there is very little short-block left to salvage. I hate to say it, but for peace of mind I know that I would have the motor pulled down and inspected by someone knowledgeable, and that will probably blow your budget. LUCK --- Jer

Dono72227

Regarding a possible tweaked rod? I don't know if water ingestion shut the engine down or not, I speculate that it did. The boat circled in reverse for about a half an hour taking on a little water with each pass I was hoping the engine would shut off or run out of gas but it finally just rolled over, don't remember exactly when the engine shut off. I was kinda shocked at the moment. The dealer ran the boat twice that I know of, the day after recovery and flushing off the engine, (I think they did like six oil changes on the bill, I'll have to check the bill to confirm). The second time about a month later before the buy back, the starter had failed and was replaced the fuel tank pumped out flushed and refuelled. The dealer assured me that the boat was lake tested and seemed fine. Would this overcome the objection of a possible tweaked rod? or do I still need to proceed with caution?

Thanks for all the help

mcollinstn

oooh, excellent point.
Running in reverse fast enough that nobody would try to get in it (2000rpm?).

Ran until the boat rolled on its side, then quit?
That's bad.

You need to remove the drive to regrease it anyhow, so go ahead and yank the motor when you pull the drive (don't pay someone to do it, just find a friend with a hoist). When you pull the motor out, you can yank the oil pan and inspect the rods. In addition to inspecting them, you can go ahead and start putting new rod bearings in it - If you do it carefully you can do them one at a time right there. If it hydrolocked, you may not be able to see the knuckle in the rod with bare untrained eyes, but you'll be able to see it on the bearing. If you find a smashed bearing, then plan on replacing the rods (or having a rod shop check all of them and replace the bad ones).

Just cause it has been run on the lake doesn't mean much.

It's a roll of the dice.

jpclear

It's a real judgement call here. I had G.M.'s best 7/16 bolt rods that had been magnafluxed prior to assmb. but was a dumbass and tried to crank her over without pulling plugs after having had my stern washed down by a jerk while docked. Flappers didn't do the job and it hydro-locked. I pulled the plugs and pumped out the water and everything was fine till it blew sky high about 30 eng. hrs. later. The subsequent teardown (and we really didn't have to unbolt much) told the story. Rod damage due to hydro-lock. Rod broke midway up and damn near cut the whole engine in two, including pan. I hate to see you go to lots of grief for no reason on just my account, but..... Maybe someone else here can address this specifically. Are you lucky in Vegas or Atlantic City? --- Jer

jpclear

I see Mc. just came in while I was responding. I think we're on the same page here. --- Jer

BadDog

Some years back my neighbor and I were trolling for bikinis in front of the public park at the lake and some Bozo fell out of his boat. Boat was circling at high idle approaching the swimming area. Local water cops were near by and proceeded to pull up near the circling boat. Looked like they were fixin to do a Wild Wild West stage coach hop!

Meanwhile Dave was casually dumping the beers and ice overboard out of the cooler while I located the anchor and removed the line while heading towards the headless boat at half plane speed. The local boys in boat had a fit waving and shouting etc. Dave attached the line to the cooler and did his best cowboy impression and slung the line out near its path as we came up one plane to avoid being hit ourselves. At this point officer boater had his gun out taking aim at the craft. Yeah, that would work. He seemed to forget that there was a beach full of people down range. The boat ran over the line and wrapped up the prop. Engine stalled with a clunk.

We stayed on plane until we returned to our departure point and were picking our beers that were floating about as the water cops headed our way. One of them (the one with the gun) was screaming and shouting something about jail. The other one told him to shut up and thanked us.

Anyway something to thing of if you ever come across a pilot-less boat.

bford1

Oh man I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah I'll bet you were shocked at the moment. I'd be freaking out. How fast was it going in reverse? It had to going pretty good not to want to try to jump in it or run an aluminum boat along side of it or something? Did the Marina's insurance company end up flipping the bill or was it yours? Sorry i can't offer any great advise. Just curious.

Best of luck in getting her dried out.

Dono72227

The way it actually sank is I let someone off at a marina and waited with the engine running the dockhand came over with weighted dock lines in the floor instead of tieing to the cleats, I got out for about 2 minutes had my back turned, (my fault) heard it throttle up and watched it take off. Someone cut a wake in a no wake zone and the line must have knocked the boat in gear, throttle was pushed up also. So I waited as a crowd gathered waiting for it to sink or run out of gas. The boat was fully insured, no point in risking injury, since no one was in it there was no need for heros. The good news is that the insurance company gave me a first right of refusal and only one bid was submitted, they were offering the boat in unknown condition without the trailer. The title never transferred as well, still clear non salvage. Just now is the question of much money do I want to tie up in it.

Thanks for all the help