Water in the aft berth

[oceansail0]

I have a water leak in the aft berth. It is not the cockpit drain as I have fixed that one. I am leaning towards an exhaust system leak as the water has a black soot mixed in with it. Has any one else had an exhaust leak and where should I start looking. I have a 1984 h31. There is no accompanying exhaust smell so the accual exhaust is making it out of the boat. It is just clear water with a black soot.

 

[oceansail0]

Additional info needed

Has anyone just put a new muffler in. I feel it would be easier than trying to repair the one in place. What type did you use? A verilift? An inline?

 

[Steve Dion]

Your muffler is on the starboard side.

While I would have to agree that it may be the muffler, you aft berth is on the port side. This does not seem like a likely site for the leak. Have you checked your exhaust hose?I would think that a more likely senario may be that the water tank is leaking and you also have an exhaust leak.Your muffler is made of fiberglass, so it is easy to patch. I do not think that removing and replacing the muffler is going to be an easy job. I hope to hear more about your adventure!

 

[SeaRanch]

H31_83-87 Muffler

H31_83-87 Muffler is a "built in" fiberglass box that is filled with water discharged into the mixing elbo. The sound is "muffled" by forcing water out the exhaust hose. There is no "replacing" it, unless you are going to extensive efforts. If it is leaking, it can be patched with fiberglass.Get into the starboard laz, check the exhaust hoses where they are attached to the "muffler" or squeeze yourself behind the fuel tank to see if the hose is leaking where it attaches to the outlet at the stern of the boat (or get an extension mirror). A water or fuel leak in the starboard laz on the level of the muffler and fuel tank, will make its way into the port berth.My fuel vent hose leaked into the starboard laz, which drained into the port berth soaking my rear port cushion.To fix my leak and clean up all of the fuel, I cut the divider between the port berth and starboard laz, just in front of the fuel tank. Removed the tank, cleaned up the mess and replaced all of the hoses, including exhaust, while I had the tank out. Replaced the piece that was removed with a piece of starboard, making it easy to remove for future servicing.bill

 

[Jim]

muffler replacement

I replaced mine with an after market muffler. I just bolted it to the laz floor and connected the hoses. Fast and Cheap. I had the same signs, water with a little soot.

 

[Chris W.]

Cracked Fiberglass

I had a very similar problem with our H31, it turned out that the water lift muffler which was original to the boat had a small crack in it, this was located by lifting up the service port under the aft berth, get a flash light and look aft and to the left, Run the motor and you may see after a while a small stream of water coming from this direction. Now as some have said this may be the hoses, so that is something that should be looked into as well, ours was the result of some hurricane damage. And no we do not have hurricanes here in MN but it was Ivan in Pensacola a few years ago that caused the hull formed water lift muffler to break. Easy fix, just buy a new verilift muffler, cut off the old hose nipples on the old muffler and suck out the remaining water, set your new one on top of that spot and bolt it down, hook up the hoses and away you go, problem solved for about $110.00