where is the oil coming from?

[yager97]

had another issue this weekend. put the boat in the water, fired it up, and the oil gauge was fluttering around. there was no oil in the engine, but there was a ton of oil in the bilge. somehow the oil has all leaked out of the boat somewhere. so i filled it back up with oil, oil pressure returned to normal, and kept on with my weekend. I am still using the boat, however it is still leaking oil somewhere, i had to put more oil in last night. the engine runs completely normal, normal operating temps. normal oil pressure, nothing sounds different, it has full power. I am taking the boat out of the water tomorrow and will be inspecting it to find the oil leak. The boat was bought used last summer, and seemed to be operating fine last summer. however this summer, after we have done our first oil change, this has bein happening. any ideas? im pretty frusterated with this boat, i thought i had fixed the issue with my ballast system by replacing the pump, turns out taht isnt the problem either. the fuse still blows when i turn it on.

[JesseC]

Anyway possible that you did not get the gasket off of the top of the old filter. I have seen plenty of oil filters come off and leave the gasket on the engine block or remote mount housing. You end up with two seals and the oil just shoots out between them. It can empty the engine in a hurry. Also check the bolt in the end of the drain tube and where the drain tube connects to the bottom of the pan. A salt water user on here had his rust out and oil was leaking around the pan to hose connection. Let us know.

[K_E_N]

I ditto what Jesse says about the oil filter and rechecking the drain line to be sure you're not loose there. Also, if you have a v-drive or have remotely located oil filter for some other reason, check where the lines attach to the engine all the way up to where the oil filter attaches. These can work loose. Never specifically heard of it happening on boats, but I have seen it on other applications especially those with remote/auxillary oil coolers.
As far as your ballast problem, if it is only doing it on one pump, try rearranging your wires so that that circuit is operated by another switch. If that blows a fuse, you will possibly have a wiring issue. If so, check where the wires are spliced to be sure the 2 wires aren't touching. I tend to solder all of my connections, and have created sharp edges with the solder that can poke through tape, and theoretically create a short to the other wire. If the affected circuit does not blow a fuse when you try another switch, your switch could be bad. When I added ballast to my boat, I bought 3 on-off-on switches. One of them just didn't feel right so I took it apart. I found that a spring inside the switch was out of place. While tinkering with it, I saw that these type switches could easily short, thus blowing a fuse or tripping a circuit breaker.

[yager97]

well none of those suggestions were the problems, but thank you all for the suggestions. We still cannot locate where the oil is leaking from, and it has made a mess of the bilge and is a bit of a pollution hazard. our thoughts are that to fix this problem, the engine is likely going to need to be lifted and we are into some heavy repair bills. It looks as though the moomba may be getting traded in for something else....

[zegm]

yager,

You did check the connection from the drain hose to the oil pan! A good experienced inboard mechanic should be able to get that engine in and out in 3 hours. Inspect it and locate the leak. At 90 to 100 bucks an hour you are looking at around 300 dollars, 400 tops. You will spend much more than that on a new boat and I am sure it will be a simple fix.

[bamaspiveys]

stupid question....
have you taken the motor cover off and ran the engine?

I had water coming in a few weeks back FAST, sitting still it was not coming in that fast, and it took me a while to track it down.

Eventually I took the cover off and the floor pan out over the drive shaft, a freind and I drove it around until we found the leak in a ballast hose

If you expose the motor and crank it, then take it up to speed and have a friend watching the motor you should be able to see something.

Besides if you trade it and don't tell the dealer we will be solving this problem for someone else in a few months when they get your moomba.

Don't know they whole deal but if the previous owner knew about the problem he was not right sticking you with and and you shouldn't do that to someone else, look at how you feel. Spend the 500.00 to get it fixed, and you'll have a great boat that you can enjoy without a new boat payment.

of course you may be rich, if so go get two boats....

my 2 cents

[yager97]

nope not rich, I work very hard to pay for this boat, I'm 25 and work as a regional engineering technologist, no support from the parents either, just dedicated to the sport. and you are correct i dont want to stick someone with this problem. This problem was passed down to me from the previous owner it appears, along with a few others, the dealership I bought the boat from was supposed to do some sort of 70 point inspection, I don't think this was done properly. I question the service department of this particular dealership since they charged me 200 dollars to take rocks out of my ballast pump for a fix that wasnt even the problem in the first place, pumps were burnt out. they are not a moomba dealership also, they are a nautique dealer. I love the boat, but just frusterated. Yes I have checked the drain hose also, no luck. Off to the local moomba dealership once I get some money saved up for this repair I guess. My father who is very mechanically inclined also thinks this boat may have bein poorly maintainedby previous owners, does it strike anyone else that it is odd for a 2003 boat to already have rust all around the manifolds?

[Buttafewcoe]

They are cast iron and in a damp environment, hell yeah they're gonna rust. Manual says keep a coat o paint on 'em.
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The oil leak? Maybe hard to find, but in the scope of things, inexpensive to fix. Keep looking, you'll find it. Motor oil only comes from one place....the motor. And not too many places to come from.
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Check high on the block, around the intake manifold. If no runs, drips or errs (=-)), then has to be lower. Input shaft seal? (hope not...one of the tuffer ones to fix, but it can be fixed).
Valve covers, front seat, oil pan. Rust??!??......the connection of the drain hose @ the oil pan?
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Hey I'm just throwin' out some ideas or places to look. I wanna see ya get it fixed, then see another moomba on the lake
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