Hi
I own a 98 Carver 530, and this winter noticed water trapped under the engines up against the stringer. The bilge only drains the center of the boat, so I was looking for a drain tube from under the engines to the center cavity so the water could be removed.
My mechanic is also stumped, so if someone could help with where such a drain tube is located, I would be very appreciative.
That's a very common thing with Diesel engines. My 444 has the same compartment under engines. It's because of the amount of oil carried by diesel engines and the risk of pumping the oil out into the water in the event of an oil leak.
This didn't settle well in my mind so I installed Water witch sensors in there and tied it to the existing high water alarm on the boat. I also installed bilge pumps in each engine compartment that moves the water over to the center bilge (so over the stringer). The pumps are controlled by a separate water witch sensor and this solves the oil problem as the sensor will not activate in the presence of oil, only water.
Ya pretty common in later builds. As Hugo mentioned, it's to isolate the area under the engines from the rest of the bilge and minimize overboard discharge of oils, fuel, etc. Your mechanic should know this IMO. Some builds designed with this in mind were completely isolated while others had drain holes in the stringers but had plugs in them that could be removed for draining water out of the cavity to the center bilge when needed.
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