ccave04
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2011
- Messages
- 104
Hello All,
So, I purchased a 2000 Marada 198 SKE (Open Bow fish/ski ish vessell) with a 5L V8 Merc I/O engine. I just bought the boat in September and got 3 trailer uses out of it since I've bought it (decided next year will definelty be a marina slip to get more use out of it) and now since it's October unfoortunately I figured it's time to winterize the boat and set her aside till next spring when I can really get the use out of her (Live in Upstate NY and you never know when it's going to freeze here). So since I bought the boat I have read alot of threads on these forums and have learned alot! (This is my first boat ownership so I am pretty much in the dark on most items).
Anyways, here to the story and basically it is a story and I don't really need any advice because I am beyond that. After reading all the winterizing tips/forums decided I will drain all the water from the engine using the drain plugs (5 in my merc) and then after doing this pump in anti-freeze for safe measure. Well I flipped upside down and reached through the cut-outs in the firewall in the engine compartment to remove the drain plugs and 4 of them came out no problem (they are plastic so I figured it should be no tools required / no problems). One plug whoever was stubborn and wouldn't come out, figured it was in there a bit too tight and plyers would do the trick. Grabbed on to the blue little plug with a set of plyers and one of the "butterfly wings" broke right off in the plyers. Said oops, and grabbed the other side with a majority of the plug and again broke off. I now got a pair of vice-grips and grabbed the entirity of the plug to see if this would give it a turn, nothing. Now realized this was going to be a pain, took out the entire firewall to get more acceess and kept going at it with the vice grips. Slowly the plug was disintegrating into nothing, kept working at it hoping it would turn. Finally realized that some one sent thing in sideways and misthreaded and must have forced it in as 3-4 threads were out on the bottom of the plug but none were out on the top. Anyways, kept working at it finally broke away most of the plug, thought I would drill in to it and break the rest of the plug away. Did so and chiseled out "most" of the plug. Start looking at the opening and realize there is plastic almost melted into all the threads, now I am sitting there with a pocket knife and any other tipped tool I can used to try to scrape out the plastic from the threads. 4 minute drainig of the engine has now turned into 1.5 hours.
Decide this is stupid and no matter what I have to drive down to the marina to get a new plug and figure while I am out I will stop at the hardware store and get a tap to try to remove the remaining plastic in the thread. Takes 1 hours to drive to Marina and Lowes. Marina is 2.5 miles away Lowes is 1.3 miles away. (Traffic was bad, this town sucks.) Get home, purchased 2 drain plugs from Marina, 1 tap from Lowes (1/4" pipe tap). Tap won't fit. Wrong Size. It's raining out, and it's cold (well not really it's 45 but cold doing this.) Now I have been at it for about another 45 minutes and just trying to scrape away any plastic in the threads then try to screw in a plug. Nothing works, really mad I bought the wrong size tap. I give up for the day, send a Plug home with my father and tell him to figure out what tap it really is and mail it o me (he owns any tap or tool you can think of). Then I retire for the day and go visit with family who was there.
New boat owner, learning that simple tasks can get complicated quickly!
So, I purchased a 2000 Marada 198 SKE (Open Bow fish/ski ish vessell) with a 5L V8 Merc I/O engine. I just bought the boat in September and got 3 trailer uses out of it since I've bought it (decided next year will definelty be a marina slip to get more use out of it) and now since it's October unfoortunately I figured it's time to winterize the boat and set her aside till next spring when I can really get the use out of her (Live in Upstate NY and you never know when it's going to freeze here). So since I bought the boat I have read alot of threads on these forums and have learned alot! (This is my first boat ownership so I am pretty much in the dark on most items).
Anyways, here to the story and basically it is a story and I don't really need any advice because I am beyond that. After reading all the winterizing tips/forums decided I will drain all the water from the engine using the drain plugs (5 in my merc) and then after doing this pump in anti-freeze for safe measure. Well I flipped upside down and reached through the cut-outs in the firewall in the engine compartment to remove the drain plugs and 4 of them came out no problem (they are plastic so I figured it should be no tools required / no problems). One plug whoever was stubborn and wouldn't come out, figured it was in there a bit too tight and plyers would do the trick. Grabbed on to the blue little plug with a set of plyers and one of the "butterfly wings" broke right off in the plyers. Said oops, and grabbed the other side with a majority of the plug and again broke off. I now got a pair of vice-grips and grabbed the entirity of the plug to see if this would give it a turn, nothing. Now realized this was going to be a pain, took out the entire firewall to get more acceess and kept going at it with the vice grips. Slowly the plug was disintegrating into nothing, kept working at it hoping it would turn. Finally realized that some one sent thing in sideways and misthreaded and must have forced it in as 3-4 threads were out on the bottom of the plug but none were out on the top. Anyways, kept working at it finally broke away most of the plug, thought I would drill in to it and break the rest of the plug away. Did so and chiseled out "most" of the plug. Start looking at the opening and realize there is plastic almost melted into all the threads, now I am sitting there with a pocket knife and any other tipped tool I can used to try to scrape out the plastic from the threads. 4 minute drainig of the engine has now turned into 1.5 hours.
Decide this is stupid and no matter what I have to drive down to the marina to get a new plug and figure while I am out I will stop at the hardware store and get a tap to try to remove the remaining plastic in the thread. Takes 1 hours to drive to Marina and Lowes. Marina is 2.5 miles away Lowes is 1.3 miles away. (Traffic was bad, this town sucks.) Get home, purchased 2 drain plugs from Marina, 1 tap from Lowes (1/4" pipe tap). Tap won't fit. Wrong Size. It's raining out, and it's cold (well not really it's 45 but cold doing this.) Now I have been at it for about another 45 minutes and just trying to scrape away any plastic in the threads then try to screw in a plug. Nothing works, really mad I bought the wrong size tap. I give up for the day, send a Plug home with my father and tell him to figure out what tap it really is and mail it o me (he owns any tap or tool you can think of). Then I retire for the day and go visit with family who was there.
New boat owner, learning that simple tasks can get complicated quickly!
