First trip of season ...oh dear !

[antlouhay]

well that went well.........NOT!
finally got out of the business for a few hours yesterday.... off I head off (10am) to christchurch to clean the boat and maybe a short shake down trip around the bay, with the wifes words "dont be late!!" echoing around my head I finally got out of the harbour at 6.15pm
boat running great, sun shining and a couple of mates with me too ( hence the late departure ) what could possibly co wrong ?
before long we found ourselves outside Yarmouth harbour and it seemed only fitting we should call in and have a pint... oooups no mooring lines ! all left ropes on my home pontoon anyway made do with my emergency towing rope. (got something right)
next along comes the harbour master to collect £ 8.50 (short stay mid week 7.30pm) from me ............ second ooooups! got no cash with me but never mind my mates do
now to the juicy part, we have a very quick pint get back to the boat, Jamie my mate and a marine engineer takes my keys to start her up while i shove off .............
but no simples for us, big bang and crunch and the boat was going nowhere .
of course Ive not got around to putting the socket set back on board or any other tools so even with probably the best mercruiser marine engineer with me I was stranded !
Highly embarrassing when you have to ring seastart to come out and hand your crew member a tool kit as he was the most qualified there !
Anyway the diagnosis is ... water in cylinders (hydraulic lock) caused by failed (corroded internal) manifolds . this aint going to be cheep !
anyway seastart towed us to lymington as it was too dark to get to Christchurch, we got a taxi back to Christchurch and I finally got home at 3am .
and yes the wife was still up
latest is, boat still in Lymington, hopefully getting brought back this evening, where the damage will be assessed (£££££££££)

[ColinR]

Ouch, Sounds like an expensive day out.

Hopefully you'll get it all sorted soon though.

Another endorsement for SeaStart though.

[Xboatboyx]

Have the manifolds ever been changed in the boats life?. Concerning as our boat is also a 2008 with 350mag although it has been kept out the water all its life and flushed through after every sea trip.

[antlouhay]

It appears the manifolds, risers etc have not been changed recently but I have been told they are the new design dry seal manifolds and early / quick inspection looks like it was gasket failure still not cheap !
engineers have said how lucky I was stopping in Yarmouth, had I have gone for the original simple blast I would have got back and the damage would not have been noticed until later and most likely would have been catastrophic, engine destroying / seizing as water would have been left sitting in the cylinders, rusted the piston rings and dropped into lower engine ...
boat was driven back from lymington to Christchurch this afternoon under its own power once cylinders were water free so that was good news but I would have been too worried of a high rev hydraulic lock to attempt that but I was told the chances are the water would be kept out while the engine is running so chance of a lock up were low .......... hate lo think the mess the engine would be in with a 4k rpm complete and sudden hydraulic lock and whether it was my responsibility to pay for the extra damage done.
seastart were great, first time ive had to use them a big thank you to Lymington harbour commission who when I contacted them this morning said they would not charge me for using the harbour master pontoon for a day or so and would help me find a mooring / space should my boat need to stay a bit longer.

[shibbs]

Sorry to hear your bad start to the season, I hope you manage a speedy and a not too expensive repair!

[ian h]

Ouch does not sound a good start to the season,

But the old saying of what does BOAT stand for ...................................................

Bring
Out
Another
Thousand

[betty boop]

Gezzz not good - glad ur looking on the positive side, with Betty still being winterised Im hoping its a one off.

[Ianfs]

I really hope you got away with just a gasket leak. If it was a hydraulic lock and with that big bang you mentioned makes me think that a piston might be blown or con rod bent, but then it would run like a pig. However good fortune might have played a part in that the engine was being turned by the starter and the bang was a back fire and the crunch was the starter gear?

As an aside and I suspect you already know this but for those who don't, I looked at buying new manifolds and elbows from the States, looked a lot cheaper and checked out nearly all the internet sites. Then I looked into Import Duty, which would be paid by the courier then charged to me. It wasn't worth it unless you can get a friend to send them to you as a gift. So I bought mine from the UK and in the end it was cheaper.

The Dry Joint versions were made for 2002/03 models upwards. It just means that the joint between the Elbow or Risers (if you have them) have the water flow by passing the joint via two ports either side. Most manifolds have facility for both, its the Risers/Elbows which are different.
In the pics below you can see on my Manifolds the blanking plugs either side, the gaskets would be blanked off and have two holes either end of the gasket. It's the Elbows/Risers which would be different.

Manifolds & Elbows.jpg (337.68 KiB) Viewed 13997 times

[Matt13]

Blooming eck Anton nightmare! Got me worried about mine now seeing as I have the exact same boat as you. Hope it doesn't end up too expensive but at least it happened where it did and not out in the middle of the Solent.

[Ianfs]

It begs the question that with a raw water cooled engine is it better to spend the £1000 ish after a certain time and possibly throw away perfectly good equipment or take a chance that all is ok?
When I changed mine, it was the exit routes on the elbows which were nearly blocked with rust, the manifolds seemed solid.