Seeping seacocks

This may be common knowledge to all of you here but I ran into something yesterday that I haven't seen before. When they dropped Brigadoon back in the water after winter storage on the hard, water was coming in! :eek:

It had a bad case of seeping seacocks.:(

All of the intake seacocks on the boat have the normal basket type sea strainers. Most of them were leaking with one of the engine baskets leaking quite a bit. At first I assumed that it was from the top plate where the basket can be removed for cleaning but it wasn't. All of them were seeping/leaking at the actual base or top of the basket portion where the clear plastic outer section joins the bronze bottom/top.

There are four long studs/bolts that hold the assembly together and many of them were now barely finger tight. So the fix was simple - just tighten all the nuts and the leaks stopped.:)

All the cork gaskets shrunk a bit in the dry and cold environment on the hard as opposed to the boat's normal wintering in the water. My previous boat did not have basket strainers at all so this is the first time I've seen this occur. In talking about it later, the Marina crew foreman that launches/hauls boats says it's normal but it was new to me.

In any case, it wasn't a big deal but it points out it is important to check everything. I could have checked/tightened them while the boat was still dry but it didn't occur to me to do so. Now my dry bilges aren't.

But the bilge pumps worked perfectly!

Wonder when I'll actually know everything there is to know about this (or any) boat?;)

In any case, at least I know how to use the emoticons!


Oops, I guess I don't. I had 8 icons in the post but the message couldn't be posted because there were "too many images" so I had to drop 4 of them.

Still learning stuff!

I can see how the cork would contract when it dried out, and thus, resulting in a leak upon splashing.

Although I don't have to put my boat away for the winter, some of our strainers have been leaking. I've been going through the boat and rebuilding all of the sea strainers just to bring them all up to date and on the same schedule. I take them off and disassemble them, dig out all the rotten cork, put the bronze pieces in a bucket of toilet bowl cleaner until they stop boiling, cut new cork and reassemble. They look brand new! Sprayed witha little CorrosionX and they should stay in pretty good shape for a good while.

Just yesterday, I noticed the big sea strainer on the starboard engine is dripping. It wants new cork, too! :) That one is going to be tough. When the ERs were modified for the "inspected vessel" thing, that one sea strainer got moved over a bit closer to the motor mount and it almost sits on top of the mount/stringer. The port one isn't like that. I'm not sure there will be enough room to drop it out from the bottom. If not......then, a total dissembly of the plumbing from the seacock will be required. And I am NOT happy about that! Just another reason why we're getting her back to the "uninspected vessel" configuration as far as the engine rooms go. I'll never want enough charter guests to warrant the need for an inspected vessel, anyway. The modifications made maintenance difficult, and in some instances, impossible since some things were just completely covered up with no access - like the clamps on the shaft hose! When they did the modifications, they never intended to get to those again. How stupid! Of course, when Ed finally got to them, they were mostly gone. :mad:

If your strainers are Perko, I believe you can get ready made cork or rubber gaskets from them. I've used a little (important word - little) grease on cork gaskets in the past and never had problems with seepage. But then, I've never had boats out of the water for months at a time either.
Will

On the strainers that I've rebuilt, I tossed the old, dried out cork gasket and cut a new one out of that red rubber material. It is much more pliable and will probably last longer than cork.

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Originally Posted by Will

If your strainers are Perko, I believe you can get ready made cork or rubber gaskets from them. I've used a little (important word - little) grease on cork gaskets in the past and never had problems with seepage. But then, I've never had boats out of the water for months at a time either.
Will

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Yeah, I know you can buy them ready-made, but I just can't bring myself to pay $16 for a 10-cent piece of cork. And that really adds up when you do 9 sea strainers.

Just get out a sheet of cork and a razor blade..... or better, buy a sheet of EDPM low-duro (e.g. no more than 70) rubber and make 'em out of that.

Doesnt everyone have a gasket cutter on board? You can also get a kit with square and round "o" ring stock and custom make your own too. With cork or paper gaskets or any material for that matter, a liberal film of never seize will ensure being able to re-use the gasket several times without leaks.
If you feel gutsy, get your nose and a flashlite down next to the strainer with the engine running and look for the bubbles. A dab of RTV will stop the vacuum leak to fix a nuisance drip without having to pull the unit apart. ws
http://www.allpaxcorp.com/cgi-bin/a

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Genesis

Just get out a sheet of cork and a razor blade..... or better, buy a sheet of EDPM low-duro (e.g. no more than 70) rubber and make 'em out of that.

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That's what I do! And it works just fine. I don't really save any money doing that....the money just goes into the boat somewhere else. :D