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Blueghost93

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Upon re-wiring and re-plumbing all the hoses in my 2320 today I noticed some of the foam behind the tank near the bilge is pretty damp. I had an incident a couple weeks back where a bunch of rainwater filled the bilge and since I had all the hoses out and stupidly left the drain plug in I think some of it spilled up and over the top. The top half inch or less you can take a chunk of them out and squeeze it and see some water bubble up . It’s also only on the starboard side of the boat it seems. Should I worry about it since it’s freshwater or with the hot weather coming up this next week hopefully it just evaporates?
 
I put a tiny fan in the aft bilge where the batteries are. Let it move the air through there. It’ll dry out.

I place the fan so the air is blowing out of the bilge. The air is not blowing into the bilge.
 
Blueghost93 said:
Upon re-wiring and re-plumbing all the hoses in my 2320 today I noticed some of the foam behind the tank near the bilge is pretty damp. I had an incident a couple weeks back where a bunch of rainwater filled the bilge and since I had all the hoses out and stupidly left the drain plug in I think some of it spilled up and over the top. The top half inch or less you can take a chunk of them out and squeeze it and see some water bubble up . It’s also only on the starboard side of the boat it seems. Should I worry about it since it’s freshwater or with the hot weather coming up this next week hopefully it just evaporates?
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I remember your post. Did you have your inspection plate off when your bilge competent filled with water and spilled onto your deck or was the O ring gasket bad on the pie plate? As far as wet foam, I likely have some as well from a bad O ring. To my knowledge a little water on the foam should dry out. You might want to core the foam on that starboard side and see how much water got in there
 
12Parker2320 said:
I remember your post. Did you have your inspection plate off when your bilge competent filled with water and spilled onto your deck or was the O ring gasket bad on the pie plate? As far as wet foam, I likely have some as well from a bad O ring. To my knowledge a little water on the foam should dry out. You might want to core the foam on that starboard side and see how much water got in there
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The inspection plate was off as i am mid repower and re wire and hose..... The O right is bad so where do i find new ones?

Basically it filled the bilge and splashed over the bilge cut out for hoses onto the foam. I cant reach in far enough to core alot out so i might try the fan method for now and we have a very hot rest of the week it looks like thank goodness.
 
I just found a cheep, yet small fan at a drug store. It draws the air through the bilge nicely.
 
Blueghost93 said:
The inspection plate was off as i am mid repower and re wire and hose..... The O right is bad so where do i find new ones?

Basically it filled the bilge and splashed over the bilge cut out for hoses onto the foam. I cant reach in far enough to core alot out so i might try the fan method for now and we have a very hot rest of the week it looks like thank goodness.
Click to expand...
I bought a couple Tempress 4” replacement O rings that were recommended but they were a little big. Tried another brand, little bit thicker, but it also didn’t fit. I ended up stretching the Tempress O rings around the entire outer lip of the plate instead of in the groove where it was meant to go. That worked as a temporary fix. I just recently replaced both pie plates with the screw down version. Maybe someone knows the exact spec O ring you need but I couldn’t find the answer when I was searching.
 
12Parker2320 said:
I bought a couple Tempress 4” replacement O rings that were recommended but they were a little big. Tried another brand, little bit thicker, but it also didn’t fit. I ended up stretching the Tempress O rings around the entire outer lip of the plate instead of in the groove where it was meant to go. That worked as a temporary fix. I just recently replaced both pie plates with the screw down version. Maybe someone knows the exact spec O ring you need but I couldn’t find the answer when I was searching.
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Which ones did you order I’m ok with screw downs.
 
A-K said:
I just found a cheep, yet small fan at a drug store. It draws the air through the bilge nicely.
Click to expand...
Do you use it often? Never heard of anyone fanning out the bilge to be honest. Seems like a good idea for the day after being on the water.
 
Take the time to epoxy your exposed wood in the cored out hole when you replace the hatch. I used a liberal amount of 4200 during my install as well
 
I always epoxy the wood because I’m paranoid lol

That is a cool fan idea. Now I guess another question is how necessary it might be as my boat is kept under a cover and in a garage?
 
This is a technique somewhat akin to folks who stretch a tarp over a leaking roof of a building and nail it down as a semi permanent repair, but here it is. Try as I may, including multiple replacements, I could never get those pie plate hatches to be 100% water proof. Subsequently, I keep a tube of inexpensive white bathroom silicone on the boat and I goop up those pie plates whenever I seat them. I don’t open the plates frequently and this does add a slight inconvenience to the process when opening/closing but it’s worked for me. When I open my bilge access hatch, I can reach forward and touch the area of the fuel tank where the pickup tubes and sending unit are located, the foam at the back of the tank and the deck around the rear pie plate. I typically check for leaking water after I’m done washing the boat after a trip, for the last couple of years since practicing the above hack technique, the area is consistently dry.

If you’re an everything perfect all the time guy this technique is definitely not for you but as a former Marine, I learned long ago how to make do with available resources to get the job done and this hack technique has been effective for me……
 
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I ended up finding this solar fan on Amazon and it fits right in the hole. Works great! Next step is to mount the new engine and repaint my deck 🙌🏻
 

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A few words about O-rings, you can cut your too long o-ring with a razor blade and over lap to see where to cut again to get the right length then rejoin with a drop of super glue. We had a kit at work with rolls of the o-ring material and custom made them when needed, trick is getting the glued edge aligned.
 
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