I just purchased an 01 H2X with the 496 mag and only 68 hours. The boat is cherry, but after the first day of use i pulled it out and opened the drain plug and 7-8(seemed like) gallons of water came out. The hull is perfect...so is the drive leaking? Could this be a million diff. things?

Thanks

to really get a good handle on where its coming from you will have to put it back in the water and do some looking around the bilge to see where the water is coming in at. check all the hoses in the cooling system and look for water trickeling through the gimble housing. 7 or 8 gallons sounds exessive for a boat that new. heck my boat is nearly 20 years old and i dont have that much all season and i keep it in the water 24/7

Run it on the hose for a while on the trailer. You'll know if it comes from the engine

Is your speedo operable? if not the hose in the back may have popped off like mine did.

I'd suspect the cooling system... ALL my hose clamps were loose on my 496 when I changed my impeller at Spring ...

8 gallons is a lot and you should easily see the water leak inside the bilge while the engine idles.

Well i found it....as soon as i got to the dealer to have them look at it. The female end of the drain plug was loose in the transom. A little sealer and tightening of the bolts fixed it up. Wish i had bothered to do that in my driveway.