[Toddwick]

So yea, I picked up a 99 Shabah z250 with 265hrs on it a few months ago. Had some good weather this past week so I started to do some cleaning and found a crack near the motor mount! I ran the engine on muffs yesterday and it didn't seem like it moved at all when reved. Opinions? Thanks

[Toddwick]

Another pic

[mikeyt]

It may not be cracked thru to the structural component behind and may just be a surface f-glass fracture. That said, i would still likely try to find a way to secure it (with a plate?) and patch over the repair.

[Toddwick]

Yea I have to get a better look at it, the boats at a friends house so it might be a day or two till I can get there. I'm hoping it's not too bad...I do like the idea to strengthen it with a plate of some sort, gunna look into how I could do that. I'm pretty broke right now so "professional" repair isn't an option. Any idea of what could cause this?

[mikeyt]

Just think of the pounding the boat absorbs in rough water and the weight of that 7.4 back there. It shouldn't be too hard to fabricate a stiff metal plate with a few screw holes that will fit back there and do it all yourself for the cost of your time, effort and a couple of cold beers.

[gahooligan]

It appears that the upper piece is holding the weight but that doesn't discount the support the lower piece with the crack in it is giving it if you look close that crack extended underneath the engine mount. In my opinion if I were to fix it I would fix it as good as I could. I would probably repair the fiberglass underneath and if I were to add a metal plate I would remove the engine mount and cut a plate that saddled the outcropping that holds the engine mount. I would definitely rough up the fiberglass and bond the newly fabricated metal plate to the existing fiberglass as well as screw it in place. I highly doubt you'll be able to get to the backside to install thru bolts. Just my $.02, I tend to overkill on structural things...

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[Motoxxx43]

When its all said and done it may be a good idea to check the drive shaft/ coupler alignment. If you run with poor alignment you are looking at a new coupler at a minimum. Not to mention drive shaft, yoke, gimbal bearing. The coupler along is around $350 not to mention the motor has to come out...

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[ShabahZ280]

I had a relatively similar problem with my Z250. The thing to keep in mind is, there's a secondary fiberglass liner specifically for the engine compartment, which is a cosmetic feature to keep the engine compartment looking clean. If you ever get around your bilge pump/depth transducer area, feel around the cutouts, and you'll find there's a more rigid "sub-layer" below it, which is the actual hull and support structure of the boat. What you're seeing most likely is just the crack on the fiberglass liner, which is more of a cosmetic than a structural piece. I wouldn't be overly concerned with it, but you can have a shop check it out for you.

The fiberglass engine compartment liner also explains why it can appear to be dry as a bone under the engine, yet when you remove the drain plug, water pours out. This is what we sometimes call "mystery water" that lives under the compartment liner.

[Toddwick]

Makes sense. I bought the boat in December, the day after I brought it home, I poked the drain hole(which had no plug to begin with)with a screw driver and water drained for close to 2min!!!

[gahooligan]

Lol. Mystery water... I wonder how much they hold before they start filling the actual bilge, lol. And shabahz where was this answer when I was asking about my bilge drain lol...
Btw, good answer shabah, I didn't know if the liner played a structural role or not. But from what you are saying it doesn't appear so.

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