Thread: 351 ski boat, in salt water

It is possible to have it fitted with a heat exchanger. The set-up runs a closed cooling system running coolant but instead of a radiator, a heat exchange unit uses salt water to take the heat out of the coolant.

Do some research and ou will find that with the newer boats you have to replace the exhaust manifolds and a bunch of other parts every 2 years or so in salt.

the heat exchangers can also be found in plastic.....sounds crazy but theyre on a lot of boats..........

this mite be the way to go,

so when ppl say the sump rusts out,,, as water will make its way inside the hull,, is it as the engine sits so low in the boat that if water is inside the water touches the sump ?

not much comes in but it still gets in there

I haven't checked out any v8 ski boats, but I wouldn't think the engine would be that low.
Check out www.wake.com.au in the boat section and search on maintenance.

I'd think it's last of a good washdown that would cause the rump to rust. The head on my boat engine (3L 4 cyl mercruiser inboard) rusted through and became porous, along with the manifolds but the sump was fine. Hot salt water rusts things better than normal salt water.

Originally Posted by stig0000

this mite be the way to go,

so when ppl say the sump rusts out,,, as water will make its way inside the hull,, is it as the engine sits so low in the boat that if water is inside the water touches the sump ?

not much comes in but it still gets in there

hang out at a boat ramp and chat to the guys with older in boards to see what they do, the good thing about water sking is that you can easily strike a conversation about gear and equipment...........

if you are sking salt water all the time than i reckon outboards are the go or a modern marinised motor

my mates only had inboards and the saltiest water they would expose their boats to would be brisbane river around jindalee and up stream from grafton

The inlaws have a v6 mercruiser sterndrive, bit different I know but, just after buying it it died and rather than listen spent a large fortune having it rebuilt. I managed to convince them to flush with the leg in a large plastic drum with a coolant/corosion inhibitor mixture. In the last 6 years they havent had to replace a hose or metal companent of the cooling system despite being told to replace the cooling manifolds every 2 years. I had them ultrasonically tested for thickness and they have lost less than 2mm over that time. Might be a bit hradfer to adapt to a full inboard but you should be able to do something.

I have a 1/3rd share in a Meos spider that is actually currently on Boatsales.com.

We flush our boat for 5 min after each outing, especially in salt water but if you also run in fresh water from time to time, have found that any residual salt will get well and truly flushed after a run in that.

My jet ski gets a good run in the ocean and we flush that super well.

Just have to calculate a certain amount each year for maintenance and you be fine.
Salt will get into everything though and not just the motor.
Fittings and wiring and submersible bilge pumps fail quickly due to the sand build up etc.

Best of luck and enjoy the ride.

if i run a gut full of coolent thru it after each use to sorta make a layer wile its not been used,, i think that will help it out stop or slow down the rust, ???