Water in hull

[Kerlin]

2000 challenger 2000 w merc m2 240. I had it on the lake yesterday trying to access a no power issue. I determined the problem to be the throttle guardian and disconnected it. In trial and error, I noticed when I throttle up, a large amount of water fills into the bilge area from the hull causing the bilge pump to come on. I've never noticed it come on that often. Multiple times in just a few hour trip. I opened the storage area and pulled the black mat up and noticed there's a ton of standing water towards the front of the boat. When I throttle up it allows some to drain to the back, but there's a fiberglass blocker built into the boat that doesn't allow it all to drain back. When I pulled out of the water I tried rocking it back and forth on a fairly steep boat ramp but wasn't able to get much more water out. My concern is the weight of all that water is contributing to not being able to plane the boat out as quickly. I haven't seen much info in this forum on this topic. Has anyone dealt with this problem? Obviously I can pump the water out, but what's the preventative measure to keep this from happening?

 

[Dr Honda]

That's not normal... and yes... a lot of water will keep it from planing out.

The first thing is to figure out where the water is coming from. The second thing is... make sure your engine syphon and bilge pump work.

There was a thread just recently, that the gray syphon hose, was not tied up to a high point... and water was just flowing in while sitting. You may want to check that. The hose should be tied up above the water line, and that keeps it from back flowing. But, once the engine starts... it will suck out any water that may be down there. (So make sure that hose is cleanr, and the screen on the end is clean) The normal spot is the "Y" between the 2 heads.

In the pic below... you can see where the gray hose is.

 

[Kerlin]

Thanks. I can't find any water leaks but I did find the screen was all gunked up on the siphon. Cleaned that out and I'll give her another try.

 

[Dr Honda]

With a clean screen... at least it will suck the water out while running.