[Lakelife17]

I recently purchased a 1997 Shabah this summer and I absolutely love it. I have had no problems and have had a ton of fun. But over the summer, I would notice that my boat would actually "feel heavy" if that makes sense. I would get that uncomfortable feeling and kick on my bilge pump and, of course, water would flow out continuously for 3-4 minutes. Simply sitting in the middle of the lake hanging out for an hour, I would turn the bilge pump on and water would stream out. I am a nazi about having the main drain plug in and I do it myself each and every time I unload the boat so I knew that wasn't it. Obliviously, I checked the hull religiously looking for cracks or anything that might make the boat take on water. Well today, I got it professionally winterized and when I went to pick it up, they handed me a busted up "port manifold drain plug". They told me that most of the time it causes the boat to take on the water I described to them. I was so relieved to find out the problem had been fixed that bothered me all summer. Now my question is, does that sound accurate? Could it be something more serious or could that busted up plug have caused any other problems I should be weary of? Any and all information and comments would be appreciated! I would like to make sure everything is ready to go when Summer rolls back around! Thanks a lot!

[jayws6]

Did they hand you a blue plastic plug? I'm thinking it could be the exhaust manifold drain plug from the port side manifold. If it was busted up, it would leak sea water that was running through the engine.

[Lakelife17]

Yes, it was a blue plastic plug. They acted as if it was no big deal but it was a huge relief to me since I was always worried about always taking on water. Could this be my problem with always having to run the bilge pump? And are there any other problems this could have caused?

[Z210 Shabah LE]

What a coincidence! I had the exact same issue with my 97 Z210 Shabah this summer (5.7 LX). The boat was taking on water and I looked for hours but couldn't determine where it was coming from. I focused my search on the transom around the out drive (seemed like a logical area to me). I was so worried that it was coming in around that are that I never looked directly under the engine.

I discovered the point of entry when I put the hose muffs on and warmed up the motor prior to winterization a few weeks back. It was then very easy to see the water shooting out of the drain port on the Port Side when I turned on the hose. Mine was the drain plug that is located in the tube connected to the smaller cooling hose on the port side. This tube sits below the exhaust manifold.

My drain plug broke and the threaded portion was still inside the drain port. I removed the tube and then easily extracted the threaded portion of the drain plug. My concerns for an expensive repair we quickly replaced with the relief of knowing that my "leak" is a $5 repair that takes less than a minute. I am still kicking myself for looking for so long in the wrong area. My eyes were literally within inches of this drain port during my search but my tunnel vision kept me focused elsewhere. In my defense, I never looked with the engine running, but it did still have a slow drip into the boat with the engine off as this drain port is well below the water line.

Lesson learned...but at least it wasn't an expensive lesson...this time

Love the website and hearing from all of the other Mariah Owners!

Mike