had a bit of a fire yesterday...

212rowboat212rowboat Member Posts: 2,591 ✭✭✭✭✭
so I'm helping a buddy re-introduce a boat to the water for the first time in a decade... It was serviced and ran (muffs) last two years ago... the plug was in it and it appears rain filled it at one point to the starter, which took it out.. so.. after replacing that and several other items, a full tune up and a lot of scrubbing- yesterday was splash... 

Another friend and I took he and his son out to show them the ropes, so to speak... it's a 19' runabout w/ 5.0 TBI and SX drive on it, running a 23p alum prop.   It scoots right along- he's got a quick boat.  

we ran about two miles down the sound, and (sniff sniff) I thought we had an electrical fire... nope... the smoke worked it's way from the engine compartment up through the freeboard passage to the helm... Opened the engine cover, extinguisher in hand, and I literally couldn't see the engine for the thick white smoke.  We emptied the extinguisher on that thing...  At first, my friend (not the owner) thought it was a harness that was touching the starboard manifold- I told them there isn't any way that much smoke came from the small amount of missing insulator... 

after much poking about, carefully looking and such- and no hint of fuel, we turned it back over... it ran fine... after a few seconds, however, it became apparent what was happening... this is something I wouldn't have expected... 

the starboard riser is toast- there is no water moving through it to the elbow/bellow area... there certainly WAS water when we ran it in the yard, but we couldn't load the engine there, and we weren't bouncing about there either... I think it disintegrated on the interior and blocked the passages... the bellow was burning- which is apparent with it's shape and form right now, but not on the outside- but from the inside... 

lots of smoke... 

we had several boaters come to our aid, which is nice- but we put-putted back to the launch on our own power... I could put my hand on the port riser indefinitely, but I couldn't get near the starboard riser without leaving skin... it didn't burn again- well... it didn't burn like THAT again, but it smoldered the whole way...

new risers inbound- and new boots to boot... gotta love it, huh?  

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