New owner questions
 

Well i'm not officially a new owner but I have a friend's 1998 Z202 Shabah with a 5.7 in my driveway. He wants to get rid of it so if it runs i'll likely buy it from him as a project. Interior all needs to be replaced. I started it on the trailer with the back-end in the water yesterday and as soon as it fired up water started coming in the bilge. So I'll check that soon enough.

My main question: there are 3 knobs above the key to start the motor. They aren't labeled and I have no idea what each one does. I am confident the left-most is the blower. Which doesn't appear to run. But the other 2 are unknown. Can anyone here help identify these as I start my restoration journey?

Thank you in advance!

Joseph

Re: New owner questions
 

Welcome to the group.

I'm not familiar with your model boat, but the water source could be a few things:
Did you put the drain plug in the back?
look for a bad or disconnected hose.
possibly a broken/cracked exhaust manifold.
Leaking water pump.

As for the switches, someone with that model should pipe in soon. or go through the gallery and see if you can find a good pic to zoom in, or google it for an image.

The facebook Mariah owner group page is much more active than this page, so you may want to join that group and post your pic there for a faster answer.

Re: New owner questions
 

Thanks for the quick reply!

Hadn’t thought about exhaust manifold… I’ll check that shortly. Battery is 3 years old so I grabbed a new one over lunch and I’ll get to that shortly. I’m counting on a hose…. Who know.

So the 3 knobs… one is nav lights. One is blower (which the boat doesn’t have) and the other may be a lights dimmer. It is a potentiometer of some sort. It doesn’t click… just free movement.

I’m not on FB and continue to try to avoid going back. But I may have to. I’ll see how the next couple of days goes.

Thank you!!!

Joseph

Re: New owner questions
 

They did use potentiometers for the dash lights, which I believe activate when you turn on anchor or nav lights.

Myself and a few others frequent this page and will gladly help when possible. You can also search the posts for some great info from years back. I just got my Mariah (finally) last month, so I've been going over it like you are doing too.

If you want the specific details, including brochures, manufacturer info, diagrams, etc. then I suggest paying for the membership here. I got tons of good info off here.

Re: New owner questions
 

So the adventure continues…. Keep reading and you’ll be rewarded with the humor and sadness.

Figured out that 2nd knob is definitely a dimmer so thank you for the assistance!

The fun part/. So I don’t know the history on the boat but I started digging in yesterday. It was used as collateral on a cash loan and the owner never paid so my buddy gives it to me to assess.

What I found:

Belt disconnected and hanging in engine compartment (deliberate).
Coolant lines disconnected deliberately at engine inlet and outlet.
Exhaust bellow deliberately disconnected going into outdrive. Boat registration was current into 2022 but recently expired. Bilge pump was disconnected from battery. Oil level was ok. But not problematic looking.

Then I started it…. Tons of white smoke . The more it warms up, the more it smokes. And that is without me putting any water into the exhaust…. Starboard manifold smokes also like a blockage or a leak. And the port side rattles a little. Not as bad when it warms up a tad.

So here is my theory: owner blew a head gasket and knew it wasn’t worth anything broken. So he gets a loan on it. Then walks away (just phone is disconnected). When he went to get the loan, he started it on the trailer and said “I can’t run it for long b/c I don’t want it to overheat out of water”. But the dude had already disconnected the water lines. And the belt. Guaranteeing no water circulation.

Anyone have any differing opinions or theories? I loaned out my leakdown tester so I can’t do a leak down until later this week. But I suspect I’ll find a blown head gasket. And a boat that I can give back to my buddy as this may be too much of a project for me.

Re: New owner questions
 

Wow, didn't see that one coming. Now you know why so much water entered before. I can take a shot at theories, like the hoses are disconnected as part of his "winterizing" plan, but the amount of white smoke you are describing is very concerning. Given the interior is bad and now this, unless you are looking for a big project then I'd shy away from it. Does he have a clear title if the previous owner walked away? In some states, you must have the title to register the boat.

Re: New owner questions
 

I know, right! Weird indeed!

Yeah… I thought about winterizing too. Which would have been done in Oct/Nov. But the guy did start the engine to show off that it ran. And hoped that nobody would look at the engine itself in detail. Which they didn’t.

Titles are clear/clean. And present. Hopes and dreams of a 20ft boat with a 5.7 in it are slowly dwindling…. :shakehead:

Re: New owner questions
 

Depends on how mechanically inclined you are and how much money you are willing to put into it. Mariah hulls are the best on the market, so that part is solid. An engine is not overly complicated, so you might check with a marine repair shop or two to see what they say and the cost of a head gasket replacement. Interiors can get expensive, but you can do them over time.

If the boat is in good shape overall, and you really like it then investing a few thousand to make it right again may be a good route to take. The more work you can do yourself, the more you'd save. In the end, you would know and trust your boat better than going out and spending $10K+ for one that may have issue too.

Re: New owner questions
 

Sound advice.

It is all about how much of a project I want. My wife has recently acquired a Sailrite machine and she has done some vinyl projects so she is willing to consider taking this on. I can do any of the engine work… just trying to figure out if I have the time.

One thing I forgot to check is the risers. They look original so there could be a blockage. But I do want to check the leak down too. I could do compression but that isn’t as much of a concern as the head gaskets. And with the back cover off the boat, a head gasket wouldn’t be hard. Plenty of clearance.

The current owner was hoping to get 4k including the beat up trailer. Given what I know right now that is too much given the current condition. But I need to dig deeper.

Did I mention it doesn’t shift smoothly? Need to pull the Alpha at some point too… if I dig that deep.

Re: New owner questions
 

Whoa, no way it is worth $4k, or even close to that for the issues you described. I was hoping you'd say it was free.

If you dig into the heads, you will pull the risers and exhaust manifolds anyway so you can check them for blockage and corrosion. I just pulled one of my risers and it did have some corrosion partially blocking the water ports.

I also just discovered my trim sensor wire broke off, so I'll be pulling the lower and gimbal off to replace the sensors as well as bellows while I'm there. Never done this before so this will be a learning experience.

Finding all the gremlins and unknowns is a pain, but once you have solved all those issues, proper maintenance should keep the boat running well.

Re: New owner questions
 

So it turns out the boat was winterized. Which makes some sense.

It still has a lot of weirdness. I fired it up and it smoked at operating temp for a long time. Like 20+ min. Since it never stopped I eventual out shut it down.

It revs alright. Some vibration when sitting on the trailer revving in neutral.

I really wish I could tell if the smoke was oil or not. There isn’t any water in the oil which is good. The outdrive doesn’t shift into gear smoothly so it likely needs maintenance. Although the gear lube looks like it was recently changed.

At this point the question is whether I’m willing to buy the boat and take on the project or just give it back. So many choices…. I mean it definitely needs work. Lots of little things. And the smoke…. That is a deal-breaker for me but knowing it was winterized means that -should- burn off…. But maybe it won’t.

Re: New owner questions
 

If the smoke is blueish-white and does not dissipate quickly is is burning oil. If it is white and dissipates very quickly then that is water vapor which is normal, the cooling water mixes with the hot exhaust gasses.

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Re: New owner questions
 

Here is a video of the steam/smoke. Does this look like oil or steam/water? Note the engine had been running for 20 min at this point...

https://youtu.be/wZjb6Zn5uJM

Thoughts?

Re: New owner questions
 

2nd video of smoke. Again, it had been running for 20 min or so.


https://youtu.be/JImufIb-cFQ


And the exhaust bellow is disconnected on the outdrive…. I need to re-connect that. It is quite obvious…

Re: New owner questions
 

My 2 cents - doesn't look like it is burning oil from what I saw on the video. You should run it with the outdrive down, especially if you engage the gears. Being up like that is hell on the driveshaft u-joints from what I hear. Sounded nice though, and you have captains call which is fun.

I did notice quite a bit of water under the engine, is your bilge pump working, or is that leakage while running?

Re: New owner questions
 

I agree with GregT, that appears to be steam...not oil burning. Sounds good on video.

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Re: New owner questions
 

I have a similar boat, a 99 Z202. 5.7 Chevy engine with Bravo 3 drive.
I recently had to replace the fuel tank because of leakage. I was dreading it. Cutting up the floor was something I had done in other boats and was not looking forward to it.
Nevertheless I started anyway. I love this boat. Nothing was getting in the way of me in enjoying it.
To my surprise, it went well. I peeled back the carpet and to my delight I found the floor section was separately screwed down and easy to remove. With the floor out, I easily removed the old tank. Installing a new tank was a challenge because I had to find one similar in size and shape. I did and proceeded to do that. It went well.
The thing that impressed me most is that this 24 year old boat had virtually no rot damage under the floor. I was shocked to say the least.
Mariah was a high quality boat and very expensive. Not surprising it failed. Everyone wants cheap things....not me.

Re: New owner questions
 

That could be a problem with the shift interrupter. Usually a simple fix. It is problematic when shifting out of gear?
Your video looks pristine. Water vapor steam..normal. And the A outdrive looks pristine also.
Pulling the outdrive is something we all do about every 3 years...routine inspection.

Re: New owner questions
 

Hard shifting on an Alpha is usually the cable that goes from the shifter plate on the engine thru the transom plate to the shift mechanism on the bell housing. It most likely needs to be replaced.

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Re: New owner questions
 

I was planning on a lake test this weekend but with a freeze warning for tonight and tomorrow…. That may not happen. One more week to wait.

I really appreciate all the feedback and encouragement. The more I hear, the more I may want to take on the project. Now to convince the wife to try the vinyl…