Fixing stress cracks in Engine Room

Spyderweb

At the end of my 1st year with 2008 330 I discovered stress cracks on fiberglass underneath the starboard engine.  Due to a steering pin leak on that side, I decided to wait till 2nd year to fix, since there was often water in area.  Plans fell through to get someone to fix pin, and now it's end of 2nd year.  While cleaning the bilge before the long layup this Fall, there were a few drips of oil, that when wiping clean "stained" the stress crack, making them more visible, and reminding me of that project.  I don't believe the cracks have gotten worse, just more visible with the stain.  Since I got leak fixed in off-season, patching the cracks is on my list for this coming season.

No idea why there are cracks there, no visible damage to hull underneath area.  

My thought is to gouge out each crack some with a sharp end of can opener, clean up any oil residue, and then trowel over area with Marine Tex.

Am I on the right track here or am I missing something?

 

J3ff

I'm going to piggy back on this about how to fix stress cracks everywhere?? 

I have some MAJOR ones after having the boat trailered 1200 miles + all the times it got lifted in and out of the water over the last 6 months

aero3113

I don’t think I would worry about that, it looks like it’s just the thin layer of gel coat that’s cracked. You have fiberglass under there that I’m sure isn’t cracked.

Liberty44140

Agree with aero that it looks cosmetic. I’d just clean it up real well and figure out where the water is coming from that’s making that water stain and just fix that.

mattie

Had that on our 08 276BR under the fresh water tank. Eventually the thin gel coat shaled off. Fibreglass underneath was perfect. I put a coat of latex flat primer on the bare spots could hardly tell.
Figure out what’s dripping. As Lib said above.

That is really a thin layer of gel coat they use to dress up the engine room. You can often see the fibreglass strand pattern right though it. No biggie.

Spyderweb

Liberty44140 said:

Agree with aero that it looks cosmetic. I’d just clean it up real well and figure out where the water is coming from that’s making that water stain and just fix that.

And I assume you mean "...where the OIL is coming from..."  Just discovered the oil drip at very end of season, so haven't looked into that yet.  But it seems to be up under the starboard side of starboard engine, near the front.  Hard place to get to on this boat.  But something I should look into.

Liberty44140

I assumed it was just dark nasty water. If your sure it’s oil then yes. 

Spyderweb

@Liberty44140, yes, with the steering pin leak, there was always fresh water coming in and flushing out.  That side of the bilge stayed pretty clean.  That’s why I was particularly surprised when I did a final cleanup to see a few oil drops.