Engine compartment bilge

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Rick D

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Was reading an article by a surveyor this weekend who stated "no good can ever come of having water in your engine compartment bilge". While I understand it's ideal to not have water in any bilge, I don't think there's every been a time when I haven't had water in my engine compartment bilge... and I thought this was pretty normal since during a down pour, the canvas with all it's zippered pieces is not perfect in keeping every drop of water out.

I may be skipping this season as I intend to have some engine motor mount work performed to handle some cracks where the mounts meet the stringers. The upcoming work got me reading about stringer repair and the article with the quote about keeping your engine bilge dry.

Do others here actually maintain a dry engine compartment bilge?

--Rick
 
Like Bruce, I try..

Whether on the trailer or the boat lift, I remove the drain plug. This still leaves water in the engine compartment bilge. If I don't ventilate the compartment by blocking the hatch open, the engine is covered with condensation every morning. Is that directly damaging? No, but would it be better not to happen, youbetcha. If I had a way to run the bilge blower full time, that would probably keep the engine dry, too. But as it is, keeping the engine compartment just that little bit open, even under the full boat cover, serves that purpose also. I'd rather have the engine dry than wet.
 
Rick:
Where is the water coming from? Prop shafts? I/O drives? Engine leaks? cockpit hatches?
Keeping water out is difficult but usually can be improved.
 
i keep my boat in the water year round, have stern drive. My bilge is always dry as a bone. If I have water coming in, I find it pronto and fix it. Inboards would be difficult to do that with, perhaps with dripless seals but stern drive should be dry.
 
Hi Bruce.
Primarily cockpit hatches I'm assuming... I've never seen water leaking from within the engine compartment area.
If I wash the boat with all the glass and canvas on, some water inevitibly channels in a way that makes it's way to bilge area.
Not a lot... but i've always left it in there as it is well below what the pump will pickup. I've always assumed some water in the engine compartment bilge was not uncommon.

--Rick
 
cockpit hatches are a problem. Check all gaskets for deterioration then by pulling paper such as a slick magazine page along the closed hatch gasket to look for places not sealing. There may be drains in the hatch drip edge; make sure they are clean. Check hatch clamps for tightness. Make sure that main cockpit scuppers are draining properly.
 
Dry bilge here, and when I see a drip of water or oil I can immediately find out where it is coming from and address the issue. Ours is in the water 365 days a year and our boat is 9 years old.

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WOW!!! Joey that's beautiful. Looks like a new boat catalog spread page. Except maybe yours is cleaner.

Yo Bruce! Our engine hatch cover has drains in its channels. Guess where they drain to:

A. Bilge
B. Bilge
C. A or B
D. A and B

Answer Key: D. is correct, one drain each side, both into bilge...
 
Just dumb J D .
Perhaps running them to s shower sump or new hull side through hulls or even aft might work
 
Joey: That bilge is gorgeous; you're putting all of us to shame. We used to have 2000 Signature 240; a gift from our daughter and son-in-law of a 33' Cruisers replaced it. I must admit our engine bay bilge is not that clean nor dry. A little water in the bilge from the inboard seals and from rainwater is common and not a real problem. Our engine bay hatch drain to a thru-hull overboard. Before our boat goes back into the water in April, the bilge will be washed and scrubbed clean, something which hasn't been done in years. Only 11-12 weeks until splash! Hy
 
My old '87 Mainship has a dry bilge from October to the next May every year when it is on the hard for the winter otherwise never but I wish it did

Niles
 
quote:
Originally posted by littlebookworm

Joey: That bilge is gorgeous; you're putting all of us to shame. We used to have 2000 Signature 240; a gift from our daughter and son-in-law of a 33' Cruisers replaced it. I must admit our engine bay bilge is not that clean nor dry. A little water in the bilge from the inboard seals and from rainwater is common and not a real problem. Our engine bay hatch drain to a thru-hull overboard. Before our boat goes back into the water in April, the bilge will be washed and scrubbed clean, something which hasn't been done in years. Only 11-12 weeks until splash! Hy

Click to expand...


Thanks all, one of the things I had to change is Chaparral had the A/C condensation line running to the bilge. I don't care for that since the A/C runs most of the spring, all the summer and some in the fall. I added a sump pump to discharge it overboard.
 
My '78 Chris craft engine compartment doors were not designed to be sealed from the rain. So my bilge is usually wet. I just manually turn on the bilge pump before I go out. Every once in while when I'm really bored, I use my manual pump to get out the last gallon. I do dry it out for the winter when it's shrink wrapped.
 
I keep my bilges as dry as possible. Even if water isn't touching anything, moisture can cause corrosion of metal parts where the paint has failed or where there was no paint to begin with.

Also, a dry, clean bilge allows inspection and easier location of any oil or coolant leaks.
 
The engine bay on our Cruisers is definitely not designed for easy access for anyone over the age of 13 or so. The hatchways are small and the twin engines, transmissions, generator, batteries, etc. make everything very tight. I did hose off the bilge when the boat was hauled and do plan on scrubbing as much as possible before it's launched in the spring. The cockpit floor can be removed for better access, but that's not something that can be regularly done. I actually look forward to doing the cleaning because that would mean boating season is beginning. Fantasies are fun sometimes. Hy
 
Hy: After cleaning consider some anti corrosion spray.
 
I find that keeping the bilges dry is a loosing battle. It would be nice but every time you open a strainer you re going to end up in water in the bilge which can be every week, sometimes I wish I could rig a small impeller pump with suction hose where water remains after the bilge pumps stop but not really worth the trouble, as long as the water doesn't splash on gear, a few gallons isn't going to make a difference in humidity when you have air intakes opened out to th outside...
 
Cant figure why builders don't make a small sump a little lower than the bilge. A normal pump would only leave a small amount of water then.
 
Because you want the bilge as low as possible so building a sump would raise the bilge bottom a couple of inches...
 
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