Mystery "bolt" found in engine compartment bilge

[c130king]

All,

Found a "bolt" in the bilge of my engine compartment. A friend and I looked all over the engine and transmission and can't seem to figure out where it came from.

Previous owner thinks maybe it was some sort of bolt used to mount something.

The tapered flat head of this thing makes it seem like it was meant to be flush when installed.

It has a hex hole for an allen wrench to tighten/loosen.

Has the letters MSV (I think) on it. And looks like it may have been painted or coated with bronze/copper/brown color.

Anyone have any idea what it is or where it came from?

Engine seems to work fine. No leaks that I can tell.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[gpd955]

I'm headed back down to the boat today and will look around to see if I see anything that resembles it. I checked the parts manual for the engine and cannot find anything that looks like it.

 

[Silvio]

Don't know exactly where it may have come from but you might consider looking aft of the engine as well. The color makes me think prop shaft or transmission maybe.

 

[anchorclanker]

Seems too short to couple anything together, and doesnt appear to be any bolt that would generally be found on an engine. However, it could be from an engine or transmission mounted bracket such as throttle or shift control.

Too, gravity is going to drop anything into the lowest place it can reach. Outside of an engine bracket, another place you often find countersunk screws like that are access covers, maybe for a fuel or water tank, etc..

I would give the engine room a thorough exam, use a mirror if needed, as well as look at an exploded view of the engine/transmission, and all other accessories, to see if anything uses a bolt like that. Then look around the boat. If you find nothing amiss, put the screw in a junk drawer and put it "almost" out of your mind. There is a good possibility it has been there a long time, or came from somewhere else, was never found and was replaced. The main thing is to give a serious look at all fittings and machinery to make sure the boat is sound. Thats about the best anyone can do. You never know, some mischievous person might have tossed it in there for a laugh.

 

[philwsailz]

As a supplier to the marine industry, and due to the replacement of parts gone missing from my gear sold to the OEM builders I can tell you that a new boat will routinely have lots of spare parts dropped in the bilges straight from the factory. On a new boat I bought in 2006 I had a bilge pump stop and blow a fuse. When I finally dug down to the beast to figure out how to proceed, I found that it had not ingested anything but that a wood/sheetmetal screw was lodged in the intake grate of the pump in such a manner as to prevent the impeller from spinning. I subsequently found several other screws dropped in there at the plant during the build.

Classic result of mass production.....

I am not saying that this is the case for your boat, but know it is a remote possibility. The paint on the head tells me it came loose from someting rather than simply being dropped in. It was obviously painted when it was part of an assembly but for all we know it might have been a screw off of the chain hoist that set the motor in place.

 

[pan zagloba]

It looks similar to ss screws I am using on my mast t-track. 5/16" x 3/4" length. I am using Phillips but I have seen hex. So maybe something from topside that rolled down into bilge.

 

[c130king]

Thanks for the inputs. I have cleaned out my engine bilge several times...most recently about 3 weeks ago and I look in there every single time I use the boat. It was only there for a day before I found it.

Looks a lot like the screws that hold down the track for the genoa lead cars on the port/starboard side deck. But those are phillips head.

I have looked at transmission area the best I can. I definitely need to find a mirror I can use to look up on the underside of everything down under the engine and transmission area.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[edvargas]

Check your enging mounts. I found the same bolt on my bildge a few months ago. It seems the vibration on our 25xpb, over time, got it loosen.

 

[CraigS]

I have acouple of screws that look like that holding in the hatch board slide. Mismatched with the other phillips heads.

 

[c130king]

Craig,

Thanks. I did not think to look "above" the engine.

Jim

 

[c130king]

Found it. Had a fuel leak...didn't tighten down the bleed valve nut enough following a fuel filter change. In searching for the source of the leak I found the missing bolt hole.

There appear to be four bolts mounting the engine mounting brackets to the engine itself. Two are normal looking wrench head bolts...and two are flush hex head bolts.

Cheers,
Jim

 

[justsomeguy]

Check your enging mounts. I found the same bolt on my bildge a few months ago. It seems the vibration on our 25xpb, over time, got it loosen.

We have a winner!

 

[anchorclanker]

In the first picture, the mount looks cracked at the 90 degree point. I would remove that mount and inspect it. Its probably just cracked paint but a crack may also explain why the bolt came out. If nothing is amiss, I would use blue 242 loc-tite on the threads and screw it back together.

 

[c130king]

And a funny follow-up. Found the bolt in my engine bilge again this afternoon. But it wasn't the same one...it was the other one from the same mount.

Will try some loc-tite and re-install both bolts.

Thanks,
Jim