[jmorgan]

DCB MINDED,
I am not sure I agree with your drawing. My Z212 is not that way. The bottom of my engine compartment is simply the stringers w/ motor mounts and the inside of the hull. The vertical partition between the engine compartment and the gas tank is shaped to fit the inside of the hull an has a large drain hole. I always store my boat with the trailer jack all of the way up and the drive lowered until it just clears the ground. This gives a good angle for drainage.
Jim

[DCB_MINDED]

Well, Update. I'm an idiot, and there is definitely a hole on the front side of the partion. However, the engine compartment area is definitely shallower than the fuel tank area. so, I don't know where the hole goes.... It's still not draining I tried using the hose to blow water through it, but it sounds like water sloshing around as if it opens back up on the other side instead of going through a tube. (like maybe under the engine bilge area.)

[jmorgan]

I bevieve that the water should be ending up in the bilge area, under the engine. Is water coming out of the hull plug at the rear of the boat?

[DCB_MINDED]

Originally Posted by jmorgan

I bevieve that the water should be ending up in the bilge area, under the engine. Is water coming out of the hull plug at the rear of the boat?

Thats what makes logical sense to me... but it doesn't end up in there. The engine area is dry. The hole in the back of the boat drains the engine area. I'm starting to wonder if there is another hole somewhere in the engine area that is stopped up.

[ShabahZ280]

I'm not sure if your boat is like mine, but I can have quite a bit of water in my bilge, and never see it under the engine at all, but it pours out when I pull the transom drain plug. Maybe it's just mine, but under my engine seems to be some sort of faux fiberglass "floor" that's glossy, smooth, color matched, and mounted above the real bilge area, with cutouts for the bilge pump, and depth transducer. I noticed it when I was replacing my bilge pump last year. The pump actually mounts into the dirty, rougher, raw fiberglass below the faux engine "floor" about an inch. The pic below shows it best.

[jmorgan]

ShabaZ250,
Nice, clean engine compartment. That's what mine will look like by summer. I noticed the lack of engine....you must be re-powering??

I don't think mine has a false floor like yours and probably DCB_Minded's. I am on the way to finish cleaning out the interior of mine in preparation to hauling it to Lake Powell in the morning. I will try to get a foto of my bilge area and post it.

DCB_Minded,
If you have this false floor, the drain hole will be under it, where the vertical partition meets the hull, at the lowest point...I know it has to be there somewhere, otherwise things would be underwater and rot.
Jim

[DCB_MINDED]

Agreed! Nice clean engine compartment.... Thats almost exacty what mine looks like, except the bilge pump is not in a hole. it is actually mounted to the engine compartment floor. Maybe I just need to drill a hole for the pump to sit in.... Still confused as to why Mariah would have missed that one....

[ShabahZ280]

That was from '09 when I had the coupler go bad and had to pull the engine for repair. I won't be sharing any other photos of my poor boat from that time, as that was a rather dark and depressing part of her history. All I can say is thank god for insurance... BUT! It did allow me to explore around and clean up lots of things while the shop had it out!

I'd be interested to see a photo of your bilge for comparison. Something just didn't seem right when I compared the depth of the transom plug and the bottom of that faux floor in mine. There's a pretty good area that's unable to be seen, and water won't appear under the engine until there's probably 10 gallons in there.

One other thing, I mentioned in another post, my boat has somewhat of a "sub" drain plug. I don't know if it's factory, or if it was installed by a previous owner. But, it's attached with a wire inside. I believe it's plastic, or something (I can never see the full thing, other than it's colored plastic with a rubber washer on it), but I think this is what is considered an "emergency drain plug". Basically, if you leave out your main drain plug, dunk the boat into the water, take on large amounts of water into the bilge, and put the boat into forward motion, the flow of the water backwards forces this plastic plug into the transom drain to not allow any more water in. Maybe it's plugged up in some area which won't let the water out?

Just trying to think of all the possibilities!!

[jmorgan]

I'll post a pic tomorrow night. My son's car broke down the other day and I never made it to the boat or Lake Powell! Planning on going out ot the boat tomorrow afternoon to finish cleaning out the inside. I store it in airplane hangar while I am working on it, so it is 20 miles away.
Jim

[jmorgan]

Here is what the bilge area of our 1994 Z212 looks like. No false floor. You can see the large partition drainhole, stringers, bilge pump and float and transducer…all directly on the inside surface of the hull.