Z302 Bilge????????????
 

OK, here's a goofy finding on my boat. Just bought a 2000 Z302 and started a complete detailing inside and out over the weekend. I pulled up the floor in the mid-cabin and to my surprise found about 4" of standing water. I immediately tried reaming out the pipe that leads to the rear cockpit bilge area and found it open. Looked inside the engine compartment and not only is it bone dry, but it is gel coated and has never had a drop of anything inside it so the bilge pump located there has nothing to pump out. Next I pulled up the floor in the cockpit and found water about 6" deep. After a few beers, I got the brainy idea to pull the drain plug on the outside of the transom while stored on my lift and low and behold, the water started flowing.

What's up with this, all the water that drips off our bodies and accumulates from rain inside the boat has no way of being pumped out??? Did Mariah simply forget to bore a hole from the nicely gel'd engine bilge area into the main hull of the boat? Is this a typical Mariah build practice?

Anyway, my last boat was a Regal 8.3SE and before that I had a Searay 240 which all drained every drop of water that entered the boat from any area to the rear engine bilge where the bilge pump was located. I just can't believe that I have to pull the external drain plug on this boat to get out the water. Who knows how many years the water that was in it had been accumulating. It was pretty gross stuff.

This dang thing could fill up with about 24" of water before it would be noticed seaping out of the mid-cabin floor. And still, the bilge pump wouldn't see a drop. For that matter, the boat would sink before the auto switch on the pump ever kicked on.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

hmm, that is an interesting find! we don't have many members on here with z302's, i'd be interested to see if it was a factory thing, or perhaps one "mistake" at the factory that got overlooked. The question is, if you drilled the hole out into the main bilge, would that remedy the situation?

I'd definitely start getting in the habit of pulling the main drain plug about once a month to try and get the excess water out, if you can. Or if you've got an in-water slip, I might think about adding some additional bilge pumps into the system.

can you snap some pics for us, so we have a better understanding of what's going on?

I pull my main plug every time my boat comes out of the water, and I store it without the plug installed. Having persistent standing water in the bilge is one of the least desireable things you can have, as it can lead to delamination.

With that much water in the bilge I'd be surprised if you able to get up on plane... ;)

FWIW my bilge drains all the way back...

Pics really won't show anything. When you lift the engine hatch on my Z302 all you see is a very nicely gel coated and polished engine compartment. Obivoulsy this is a seperate molding that was installed into the base hull before the top was screwed/glassed on. The engine is then installed and thru bolted to the stringers. There is a bilge pump inside the engine compartment but it's only function would be to pump out fluids the engine decided to let in or water that came in thru the transom plate. When you pull up the panel in the mid-cabin or the cockpit, you actually see the inside of the bottom of the hull which is not gel-coated, or epoxy painted; just raw resin. After I drained out the water thru the transom plug, I shined a light into the hole and also probed around with my pinky. You can visibly see and feel the bottom side of the engine compartment insert about 1" above the hole. Thus, even if there was some type of passage from this engine compartment into the bilge/open hull of the actual boat, all the water still would not be able to find its way into the engine compartment for the pump to remove.

The gas tank is located under the cockpit floor section that is removeable which precludes any installation of an out-of-sight additional bilge pump to deal with this water accumulation. I have a home at the Lake of the Ozarks with my own private dock. The boat remains on my 10,000lb lift year around so I'm really not concerned about it sinking. However, I still have to get out in the paddle boat to get at the transom to remove the plug. While I can certainly drain it monthly as suggested, I can't believe this was Mariah's design.

I will say that my Z302 out-rides my old 27' Regal 8.3SE open bow but the quality of workmanship definitely isn't on par with it or my prior SeaRay. The mid-cabin design was what sold us on the boat and we had been looking for the Z302 specifically as the other option, Envision 32' Intruder, had a much narrower interior and much less storage space with the same beam. I'm not suffering from buyer's remorse yet but I am dissappointed in some of the build quality. There are quite a few stress cracks in the gel in various locations from cleat holes, snap holes, radiused interior corners and even on the dash. I had looked at several over the past year of which all suffered from these gel cracks in the same areas so I know it comes with the territory.

Anyway, if anybody else with a Z302 can verify that their engine compartment has a passage pipe in the front, bottom bulkhead that allows the water to make it to the bilge pump I'd appreciate it. I don't want to simply bore a hole into this area if it's not how Mariah designed it. For that matter, if you have a Z302, have you ever had water at all in the engine bilge where the pump is. If not, pull your plug!

Milemarker60,

I just recently purchased a 1999 Z302 for a very good price that needed some TLC and can hopefully answer your questions. Several weeks ago I too removed the cabin flooring to check things over and found a huge pile of screws and misc junk in that part of the bilge. While working on some draining issues with the bow compartments, which I solved by drilling a small drain hole in the rear lowest part of it, I cleaned and flushed out the entire boat and found how things drain in the boat. There is a 1/2" to 3/4" pvc pipe that runs from the rear part of the cabin floor all the way to a large hole drilled in the engine compartment liner (gel coated sub floor) right before the transom drain plug. The water has to then fill up enough to reach the bilge pump which is located at the front of the engine compartment to properly drain while the drain plug is installed. I used my water hose to fill up different parts of the boat to make sure things are draining properly and everytime water build up first in the engine compartment at that rear location. I cleaned out that pvc pipe with my shop vac and water. There was alot of crap in that pipe so you may want to check that out.

I just this past weekend removed EVERYTHING from the engine compartment including the 7.4L engine and will take some pictures and post them here as soon as it stops raining here. It's been raining so much my boat is almost floating away!

I am so glad I found this website as I know how important it is to find people that have similar items that they want to share their ideas and problems with.

Boat minus engine pictures to follow.

Steve-Boatcrazy

Steve,

I would definitely like to see the pics of what you have in the bilge area. The pipe you speak of on yours that runs from the back side of the cabin through the cockpit to the engine compartment liner doesn't exist on my boat. I do have a pipe exiting the back of the cabin but it is only about 6" long and simply empties into the hull under the cockpit. Absolutely no holes in my engine liner on the front or back. Does the transom drain go thru the back side of the engine liner on your boat? There is defintely about 1" of clearance under my engine liner to the inside of the hull, how about yours?

Thanks alot for the info

Milemarker60,

After I had removed the engine I used my shopvac to clean up all the junk in the bilge of the engine compartment and did notice there was a 1 1/2" - 2" hole drilled in the rear of bilge through the gel coated hull liner that allowed me to put my finger in and feel for the smaller pvc pipe that runs forward. I assume that it's the same pipe that runs up to the cabin area because when I used my water hose to allow water to build up in the cabin floor it drained through that pipe into the engine compartment.

I will take some pictures tomorrow and post them here for you to see and hope it helps you figure out your problem.

Do you have pictures of your Z302 you can post here? I have over 900 pictures of Z302's and Z300's I have collected over the past several months that I have on Shutterfly and will make available to anybody that is interested. I do get boatcrazy at times.

Hope I can help.

Steve

Milemarker60 & others,

Here are the pictures of my engine compartment minus the engine giving detail to the hole drilled by the transom. There is a pipe that is just out of sight of that drilled opening.

The engine is in pretty bad shape even though the computer states it only had 117 hrs run time. Salt water is a bad thing......................

Hope this clears up things.

Steve-Boatcrazy

This finish looks really nice Steve. Thanks for posting the pictures btw, very nice repository.

Packing the ice chest now to head to the lake.

Brent

Thanks for all the help and pics. Certainly gives me some idea of what to work towards.