Water in engine hole

[LadyG]

I have a two compartment engine hole, the aft compartment has a bilge pump and I've never previously seen any water in it,  its rarely checked.

Bilge pump is not automatic. I have not been turning it on recently so a tiny drip could have filled it 

Bilge pump is working, and there is some water in the area after use.

Aft Compartment was full, to the point of overflowing into the drip tray area under the engine.

Doing my checks this was what alerted me. The drip tray area has never been flooded before. There is about fifteen litres in it and about seven in the aft bit.

 

I know I had weed on the way down, but I thought it had been cleared by hard astern  This weed is very stiff stuff, and lots of it.The shaft is turning easily. 

I've not looked inside weed hatch, it is firmly sealed and screwed down, no likelihood of water ingress.

I had been tightening the greaser hard , daily, when it was near empty, and there was grease in in when I refilled it, recently, though it seems not to be very firm at the moment.

So, where has all  the water come from. Was there such a lot if weed that it affected the shaft alignment?

It seems unlikely a tiny drip has overtopped the stern compartment while the boat has been moored for five days.it has never done so before .

No boatyard here.

I'm wary of going on the Trent, knowing that I will need to open throttle at Keadby.

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by LadyG

[rusty69]

Remove water, dry bilge out. With such a large amount it should be obvious to detect it's source, whether it be canal/rain/engine or domestic water. 

Edited September 8, 2023 by rusty69

[Rob-M]

What method did you use to refill the greaser?  You may have large air pockets and not getting much grease when tightening the greaser but if the stern gland is dripping you should be able to see that and the rate at which it is dripping.

 

You really should have an automatic bilge pump with a float switch so if you get too much water in there it turns itself on.

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, LadyG said:

No boatyard here.

I'm wary of going on the Trent, knowing that I will need to open throttle at Keadby.

 

Don't risk going on the Trent, you've been moving now for a couple of weeks so C&RT should be very understanding if you explain you have another emergency and need to stay near a facilities block (and convenient for the shops).

Slowly cruise until you get somewhere suitable and then get settled down for the Winter and that'll give you time to isolate the problem and find someone to come and fix it for you.

 

Enjoy.

[rusty69]

1 hour ago, LadyG said:

I know I had weed on the way down

Could this be the problem? I know toilet activities can often be a challenge for single handers. 

[Lady M]

Very hot weather can affect the stern gland grease.

[Psychalist]

Agree on identifying source so it can be rectified, so starting with it dried out is essential to achieve this. It could be the stern gland needs tightening. There should be some resistance when turning the prop shaft. It should turn freely but with some resistance but if you can more or less spin it, the shaft could be drawing in water whilst underway. This is less easy to check but the signs would be splashes rather than drips due to the shaft throwing the drips on the sides and other parts of the engine bay.

 

Surely checking your weed hatch would be a routine check given the amount of weed you've encountered? On our boat we can easily lose 1mph with weed and detritus that is bound on the shaft and that cannot be removed by reverse thrust. You need all your power for forward motion not losing it by friction or dragging weed.

[Onewheeler]

Does the stern gland need tightening? Half a turn on each of the nuts, ideally checking that the two plates are parallel using vernier calipers.

[Tonka]

You really need to check the propellor is clear of weed or a plastic bag so you can discount it. 

[Hudds Lad]

Is your calorifier mounted in the engine hole? On the old shareboat ours was and developed a leak that was running down a passing cable and so leaving the water in a different area than you'd think. Drying everything out first, as mentioned above, helped diagnose this.

[Bee]

If you have a water cooled engine I would check that first, make sure you have water in the keel cooling tank and engine then run it and see what happens then run it in gear to see if water is dripping from the stern gland, after that just dry everything out and again, see what happens.

[blackrose]

Switch the engine on and put it into gear while moored up. Observe the stern gland to check for excessive water ingress, but obviously don't get your feet, ankles, etc, too close to the spinning shaft.

[Tacet]

If you have neither been checking the compartment nor operating its bilge pump fora considerable while, it could have accumulated very slowly.

 

Empty it, run the propeller to see if there is an appreciable leak from the stern gland.  If so, fix/tighten the gland.  If not, keep any eye and see how much water arrives over the next days.

[Tracy D'arth]

The weed or debris on the prop could have worn through the hull around the stern tube. If so you will sink unless you find the leak and bung it with epoxy putty.

[Peugeot 106]

To mop up bilge to get it bone dry incontinent pads are great. You can find cheap ones at budget shops. They hold a lot of water and make life a lot easier. Also excellent for oil.

[Rob-M]

2 minutes ago, Peugeot 106 said:

To mop up bilge to get it bone dry incontinent pads are great. You can find cheap ones at budget shops. They hold a lot of water and make life a lot easier. Also excellent for oil.

Or nappies

[Hudds Lad]

2 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

Or nappies

Or puppy pads (we also use one with a hole poked in the middle when filling the diesel, stupid balanced tanks).

[David Mack]

If you have mains electricity /generator / suitable inverter, a wet and dry vacuum cleaner is surprisingly good at removing not only the bulk of the water but also most of the wetness left on the surface.

[haggis]

3 hours ago, LadyG said:

 

I'm wary of going on the Trent, knowing that I will need to open throttle at Keadby.

 

Hope you find out where the water is coming from. Just a thought, but if you applied a lot of reverse to get rid of the weed, did water come up beside the tiller base (sorry, can't remember the right name) ? If so, could it have found its way down into the engine hole? I know you have a trad stern but often there is a hinged plate there which might allow water past  the edges.

Sorry to hear you are not continuing your journey onto the lovely narrow lowland canals. 

Edited September 8, 2023 by haggis

[JoeC]

2 hours ago, Rob-M said:

What method did you use to refill the greaser?  You may have large air pockets and not getting much grease when tightening the greaser but if the stern gland is dripping you should be able to see that and the rate at which it is dripping.

What is the best way to fill a greaser?

I need to fill mine for the first time soon. I have a tub of grease with no plate and hole in the top of it to push the plunger down onto to fill. I was going to use a spoon to top it up.

[Tracy D'arth]

5 minutes ago, JoeC said:

What is the best way to fill a greaser?

I need to fill mine for the first time soon. I have a tub of grease with no plate and hole in the top of it to push the plunger down onto to fill. I was going to use a spoon to top it up.

Buy a tub with the plate and keep it when empty for your tub without.

Spooning is messy and you will get air trapped which mucks up when injecting into the gland.

[LadyG]

2 hours ago, rusty69 said:

Remove water, dry bilge out. With such a large amount it should be obvious to detect it's source, whether it be canal/rain/engine or domestic water. 

The engine coolant is normal.

No rain can get in.

No domestic water can get in.

The greaser seems to have tightened up to normal now.

There are no shops handy to get nappies.

I'll proceed with caution if I can't replicate the water ingress.

[David Mack]

How often do you check the bilge water level? Could this be a small inflow which has accumulated over a long time, in which case its really not much to worry about? Or has a substantial quantity appeared in a couple of days?

Worth running the engine with the covers open, in neutral, full forward gear and full astern and see if you can see any water coming in through the stern gland or weedhatch (or indeed leaking from the engine pipework).

[Tony Brooks]

17 minutes ago, JoeC said:

What is the best way to fill a greaser?

I need to fill mine for the first time soon. I have a tub of grease with no plate and hole in the top of it to push the plunger down onto to fill. I was going to use a spoon to top it up.

 

As Tracy says, ideally you need a tub with a disk on top of the grease.

 

Undo the greaser body from the BOTTOM.

Put it centrally over the hole and apply moderate pressure, but keep it upright (if it tilts, a mess ensures).

With your other hand, unscrew the greaser piston fully.

Wipe base of grease and screw back into the base.

 

You can also take both ends of the greaser tube and just push it into the grease or onto the disk and watch the grease fill the tube.

[Rob-M]

17 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Buy a tub with the plate and keep it when empty for your tub without.

That is what I did after having little success spooning from a large tin I bought a small tub with the plastic ring in it and refill that from the big tin and fill the greaser free m the small tub using the plastic ring.