04 Tige 22v bilge issues

[wakeboardchurch]

Hey everybody.

I'm new to the forum and new to Tige's. Wakeboard Church just got an 04 22v and so far we love it. It's got a couple of quirks and I wanted to see if anybody had bumped into these issues before.

I guess I'll start from the beginning. When we weight the boat. (desired weight is going to be 750's in the rear, and 1000-1500 in the bow plus people) the boat takes a bit to get on plane. I'm pretty certain that it's the stock prop and I plan on getting a 1235 at some point in the future. What happens is when there is water in the bilge it all goes to the back of the boat when we are trying to get on plane. Since the motor sits so low in the bilge that water gets in the serpentine belt and causes slip. I've messed with the belt tensioner and i feel like it's as tight as I can get it. When the belt slips, I lose cooling and charging until it stops slipping. Sometimes that results in the motor going to limp mode and having to drop the rider.

At first the bilge pump was shorting out and I replaced that.

I just wanted to pick your brains to see if anybody else had dealt with a similar issue on this boat. If so, what solutions did you go with?

Are there other belt tensioner that you have installed after market or an upgrade from the current on the 350Mag motor?

Sorry for the novel.

Thanks for the help.

[ajholt7]

First I would find out how that much water is getting in the bilge.

[chpthril]

Welcome to the site.

My solution would be to address the cause instead of putting a bandaid on the effect. Find where the water is coming in. $.02

[wakeboardchurch]

At this point it's your usual amount from when people manually fill 3K in ballast through over the side pumps. Maybe 2-3 gallons. One sac as an o ring leak. Once I plumb the sacs in it wont be much of an issue, but i've had other boats with more water in the bilge than this and the belts have never slipped like this before. This boat feels like it wants a dry bilge. I'm learning to drain the bilge out with the drain before I drop it in. But once again, boats get water in them during days use and this boat doesn't like water in the bilge.

[ajholt7]

Where is your bilge pump located? Do you not normally pull your drain plug after you pull your boat? I have never heard if anyone else having this issue. I'm sure we can come up with a fix for you.

[wakeboardchurch]

The bilge pump is located underneath the v drive to the side a little bit. I'm pretty sure the lowest spot in the bilge when we're not up to speed is the bow. I'm currently installing a bilge up front as well. I thought about installing a drain plug up there. Have you heard of anybody doing that?

[Ewok]

Where is your bilge pump located? Do you not normally pull your drain plug after you pull your boat? I have never heard if anyone else having this issue. I'm sure we can come up with a fix for you.

X2, I would get new bags for ballast that don't leak, or investigate other sources of water. Make sure your bilge is dry before you head out and drain it when you get off the water. 2-3 gallons is not normally supposed to be in the bilge.

[IDBoating]

2-3 gallons is not normally supposed to be in the bilge.

...AND 2-3 gallons should not be enought to cause the problems you're describing. Are you saying that 2-3 gallons is enough to reach the belt on your engine?

[chpthril]

Ok, sounds like most of the water is use induced. I would do what I could to reduce the amount of water entering the bilge from the ballast first. Then, locate, or relocate a bilge pump to near the transom where the water is pooling. This should keep the water from getting deep enough to effect the belt.

To address the belt: Check the condition. If age is unknown, replace it. Check the tension. If its a spring-loaded tensioner, then try cleaning the pulleys. Use a wire brush on the grooved ones and sandpaper on the smooth ones.

[wakeboardchurch]

WABoating, I agree. This is the first boat i've been around with this sort of issue. We have tons of people on our boats, and tons of weight also. Yes, the amount of water that has been in the boat has been enough to make the belts slip. The issue is mainly when we're pulling out of the hole or surfing. We pulled about 15 minutes of surfing the other day before the alt and the impeller stopped working. The boat then goes into limp mode and we have to get the water to the bow of the boat so we can dry off the belt.

The tensioner is a hand tightening gear sort of tensioner. I've never seen a design like that on a serpentine set up before. I'd love to go with a spring tensioner if anybody knows of something like that for the Merc let me know.

chpthrill, it's always the easy stuff that you end up forgetting. I hadn't even thought of replacing the belt or messing with the pulleys. Thanks for the thoughts on that.

[chpthril]

I wouldnt want a spring-loaded on a boat, ive seen/replaced too many GM's that flew apart. Belts stretch out over time, get the bilge dry of pooling water and adjust the tension on the belt and let her ride and see.

[Paublo]

I had an '04 22V and I can make one suggestion. The bilge pump will come on automatically when the water level gets high enough. But as you have found, when taking off with the nose in the air, all the water runs to the back. If you run the bilge pump manually now and then you will be surprised at how much water you can pump out. I did this periodically and could keep the bilge much dryer- especially if you turn it on while taking off. I never waited for the float switch to come on.

[wakeboardchurch]

Paublo, I found out that one of my problems was a faulty float switch. I've replaced that unit with a manual, and just ran it every so often. That proved much more helpful that the previous unit.

I just finished the install on the front bilge pump so I should be able to empty that bilge out whenever I'm sitting still now also.

Thanks for the help everybody.

[IDBoating]

No offense intended, but it feels like you're treating the symptom rather than the disease. I agree with having the extra bilge pump, but it would be even better to not have all that excess water in there in the first place.

Any chance your stuffing box is leaking? That happened to a friend's Tige recently out of the blue, and on a v-drive it can be an out of sight, out of mind thing.

Just trying to help....

[wakeboardchurch]

Could be. I've got one of those "new" style ones and hadn't thought of checking it.

I do know I have a bad o ring on the ballast bag. But it really isn't "that" much water.