Water under port engine (where are limber holes??)

[Zwick2020]

I recently bought a 97' 320 Voyager in very good shape. On my first trip to go get it ready I noticed a lot of water (5" +) under the port engine compartment. Since bilge is in center of boat it was not pumping out. I thought maybe there would be a plugged up hole or passage from the 'compartment' holding the water under the port engine but could not find one.. I am confident the water poured in there due to a blocked drain in the deck above causing overflow of rain water runoff directly into the compartment (was MAJOR) rain last week... and there was nowhere for it to go.

I manually pumped the water to the bilge compartment but my question is 'shouldn't the water drain out from under the engine automatically if it fills?" Is there a drain hole between each compartment??

Thanks for any insights you may have.

Jeremy

[Midnightsun]

There definitely should be, they are called limber holes by the way. Somebody with the same boat will hopefully chime in.

[Zwick2020]

Thank you, I could not find the 'limber holes' anywhere in sight even on the starboard side... must be hidden somewhere. Hopefully someone will be able to direct me where to find them.

Jeremy

[Viper]

I would expect limber holes for draining out from under the engines in most vessels of that vintage. Many designs now though are doing away with that in order to contain/isolate major oil and fuel spills to the compartment under the engine. In doing so, this prevents such liquids from draining to the center and being pumped overboard by the bilge pump. It's an environmental thing!

[Cooler]

I do not have any limber holes in the more forward compartment that houses the shower sump. The one time my float switch failed, I had to vacuum the water out with a shop vac. The limber holes that are in the engine compartment are a little high, so I do get some water under the engines when I launch due to packing adjustment. er

[Omni44]

We are having the same problem but with our 350 Mariner - ‘98. Have you gotten any other advice? We manually pumped the rising water in the port engine compartment as well. Convinced there must be a drain clogged somewhere but can’t see it anywhere.

[bud37]

There aren't any in the port compartment.....water will be trapped forward. If you have the bilge pump forward of the batteries, then perhaps the discharge hose for that pump goes thru the stbd stringer.....chances are they never sealed that well so water in the stbd side drains thru that hose run to the center and can be exhausted by the pump.

The only way for water to get out is, you pump it out, or it runs to the aft and thru the limber hole under the genny and then forward.

Most of the water in there is from the deck plate drains leaking or being plugged and overflowing into the bilge.

[rjr]

I found out the hard way that there are no limber holes in the compartment under the engines. It must be the design Viper mentioned. My water pressure saga (posted here under plumbing) included about 50 gallons of water (up to oil pan) in the compartment under the starboard engine. Lots of bailing to the drain for the bilge pump and later a shop vac, the water was removed.

[bud37]

The following applies to the 350 Mariner.

All those things look good on paper engineering wise but don't work as designed in practice.....while the boat is underway all the accumulated water etc runs aft then thru to the center compartment to be pumped out by one or both of the pumps there. The only way it works as by design, if that in fact is what they were going for, is if the boat is sitting static and does not move and the operator pumps out the bilge and disposes of the bilge water in the appropriate manner. The reason for having those oil absorbent pads and drip pans under the engine/trans assemblies IMO.