Dirty Water

[hardworking]

Hey All,

So we have not long had our Sea-Ray 18ft with Mercruiser Stern Drive and I am about ready to get it out in the water, and so today I gave it the once over and gave it a run with the rabbit ears, and I have a question. Now keep in mind this is a 2005 model, and I have recently had it serviced with a clean bill of health.

So when I kicked it over and let it idle nicely, the water (looked like coming out of the exhuast) was pretty dirty. It had a black tinge, but I am thinking this is normal?? As I gave it a rev or 2, the shade of the water got a bit worse.

Given this is my first boat, I thought I would ask - sorry if this is a dumb question - I am still learning.

Thoughts?

Cheers
John

[oldie]

did it come clean after a little while? this is normal for them to be a bit dirty on start up usually its rusty colored water then it clears itself, sounds like it needs a good run in any case!!!

[juggernaut]

Might be some residue left over from the service perhaps......as above - run it for a while and see if it clears.

I have a bigger penned 2006 Sea Ray with a couple of 8.1 litre Mercruisers on a V-drive setup and water from the exhausts is always clear.

[hardworking]

I ran it for a while and on idle it went clear, but if I gave it a rev or two I could see it slightly change to a smokey type colour. It appeared to have small specks of black in it.

I could take some pics or video if I get a chance.

I ran my finger up and in the exhaust port and it came out with a smear of black residue, but I would expect that I guess - it's an exhaust after all!!

[scottar]

I would say it's normal. Can be caused by a couple of different things - exhaust soot being washed out from where water is injected to cool the exhausts or water that has sat in either a heat exchanger (if the engine is freshwater cooled) or elsewhere taking on a black appearance due to rust as mentioned above.

[hardworking]

Yeah cool! I will keep my eye on it.

[The Woo]

Rusty/murky water from the manifold and riser. Or just from the riser if it's got a closed cooling system on it.
If you haven't replaced the riser in the past 3 or more years, it's probably very close to time.

[hardworking]

The risers etc have all just been changed.