Another Livewell Leak

[CastawayRK]

I get more water in my bilge than I should. It seems to correlate to running the livewell. I’ve looked at all the hoses, as has my dealer and we see no leaks/loose fittings. We both have looked for other sources of leaks from engine cooling, etc and found none. I don’t have an aerator so I don’t have the unconnected hose issue. Dealer concluded that the standpipe is too tall but Yamaha doesn’t make a shorter one. It is 1-1/4” PVC pipe (not standard thickness) and the threaded fitting on the end is much more coarse than standard PVC pipe.

I left water in the livewell for 5 days between trips and it did not leak, so I think that rules out the base of the standpipe and the cute little blue light. The filler nozzle seems tight. I zip-tied a baggie over the top of the standpipe, made sure livewell was full and after a 15 minute run on choppy lake 2 inches of water was gone. This obviouisly happened without running the livewell pump. This tells me the water is splashing over the top of the livewell (but under the clear lid) as it is a separate piece screwed to the bottom of the deck. Thus if I’m running livewell all day and running around there is plenty of water to splash and fill the bilge. What triggered me is that one day recently I saw the bilge auto-on light twice. To that dealer says “oh well we told you that you need a shorter standpipe”. Seems to me the top of the livewell should be sealed to the deck. There is a crack there and I can’t tell if there is any sealer there but it seems easy enough to go around the top edge inside the livewell with something. Or, little higher degree of difficulty, loosen the screws and if the livewell drops down just a little (which would indicate a complete lack of sealer) shoot sealer in there. Thoughts?
Cheers
Randy
PS - old picture - it's not that clean any more!

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I get more water in my bilge than I should. It seems to correlate to running the livewell. I’ve looked at all the hoses, as has my dealer and we see no leaks/loose fittings. We both have looked for other sources of leaks from engine cooling, etc and found none. I don’t have an aerator so I don’t have the unconnected hose issue. Dealer concluded that the standpipe is too tall but Yamaha doesn’t make a shorter one. It is 1-1/4” PVC pipe (not standard thickness) and the threaded fitting on the end is much more coarse than standard PVC pipe.

I left water in the livewell for 5 days between trips and it did not leak, so I think that rules out the base of the standpipe and the cute little blue light. The filler nozzle seems tight. I zip-tied a baggie over the top of the standpipe, made sure livewell was full and after a 15 minute run on choppy lake 2 inches of water was gone. This obviouisly happened without running the livewell pump. This tells me the water is splashing over the top of the livewell (but under the clear lid) as it is a separate piece screwed to the bottom of the deck. Thus if I’m running livewell all day and running around there is plenty of water to splash and fill the bilge. What triggered me is that one day recently I saw the bilge auto-on light twice. To that dealer says “oh well we told you that you need a shorter standpipe”. Seems to me the top of the livewell should be sealed to the deck. There is a crack there and I can’t tell if there is any sealer there but it seems easy enough to go around the top edge inside the livewell with something. Or, little higher degree of difficulty, loosen the screws and if the livewell drops down just a little (which would indicate a complete lack of sealer) shoot sealer in there. Thoughts?
Cheers
Randy
PS - old picture - it's not that clean any more!
View attachment 217307

Dealer; We told you that you need a shorter stand pipe.
Me; Then get me one. That’s a you problem not a me problem.
Also me; the top of the live well is not sealed to the underside of the deck like it should be? Even with a shorter stand pipe the water is going to slosh out

Is there an additional overflow drain up high on the live well? Mine is a different set up than yours I just have a drain plug in the bottom corner, but I can just leave the fill pump on and that water will flow of the overflow drain that is up high on the outboard side.

How does that area look from the inside looking up to where those screws are ?

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

The other place it could be leaking is around the fill fitting. On mine it seemed tight but it wasn’t, i had a leak there that I caused when I was installing my electric raw water wash down pump and I tapped into the oem live well fill line, the jostling around of the line worked the fitting loose. I had to reach back up in there and tighten it, had to break out my Hobo Kelley arms to reach it.

You might try your plastic bag over the fill pipe trick in the driveway with the boat level and fill the live well to the top. Turn off the sea cock for the supply to the fill pump so no water can get back out that way. Then you can look up in there with a flash light and find the leak. I’ve found one of the AAA mini mag lights work great for this leak chasing, very small and very bright. I used a telescoping inspection mirror to see in places that had no direct line of sight.

Re read your post, I wouldn‘t loosen those screws unless you know that’s the problem. Please get some pics from the inside looking up at the flange.

 

[CastawayRK]

@FSH 210 Sport Thanks the feedback. The boat lives on a lift at the marina so I try to do all testing there. I can shut off the fill nozzle and re-run the bag over the standpipe test. I will get pics next time I go, will probably be the weekend before I get up there since the weather is going to turn ugly this evening for a couple days. And I also realize that I need to pop the engine cover and look around after the baggie test to see what's wet. I didn't do that last time. There also is a rod holder right there on the gunwale that I could pull out and look in at the fill line. It's amazing how sometimes I don't think of some obvious things to try!
Cheers

 

[CastawayRK]

Didn’t have great success taking pics with the camera pointing back up at the sun but here they are. The gap around the top of the livewell varies a lot and in the wide gap it looks like you can see fiberglass at the top of the gap. There is a gasket that fills the small gap but only fills half the large gap. It’s a pretty large gap to fill with a sealant or caulking.

Looked under the hood after losing the 2” of water and the bilge pumping out a gallon or 2 and weirdly saw nothing wet around the livewell, although can’t really see the forward side of it.

And really if I didn't use it for ballast I would rarely use it. I only use it when I use minnows which is rare. Otherwise when using herring or artificials I wouldn't even know it was an issue.

I've been surprisingly happy with my dealer service dept so this point and was trying to avoid starting a fight over this but I might have to.

Cheers

 

[JPboat012]

Hey @AlpharettaRK,

I just dealt with this issue on my fsh222.
Mine was exactly leaking through the gap between the tank at the top. My bilge auto started every time when we were fishing with the livewell on.

I went with the route cutting the drain pvc pipe shorter and connected back using a coupling piece. I thought the tank was filling too much anyway and the livewell has to stay “on” with this model since there’s separate aerator than just pump fresh water.

Since I shorted the drain pvc, I no longer have “leaking” issue. I can take a picture sometime tomorrow when I stop by the storage.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Hey @AlpharettaRK,

I just dealt with this issue on my fsh222.
Mine was exactly leaking through the gap between the tank at the top. My bilge auto started every time when we were fishing with the livewell on.

I went with the route cutting the drain pvc pipe shorter and connected back using a coupling piece. I thought the tank was filling too much anyway and the livewell has to stay “on” with this model since there’s separate aerator than just pump fresh water.

Since I shorted the drain pvc, I no longer have “leaking” issue. I can take a picture sometime tomorrow when I stop by the storage.

Pictures please!

Thanks for the post!

 

[JPboat012]

Here’s some photos from my boat.
Same gap @AlpharettaRK posted.
I used 1 1/4 PVC coupling from Lowes.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/LASCO-1-1-4-in-x-1-1-4-in-Coupling-PVC-Coupling/5005862723?no_universal_links

I cut about 2-3 inches off. Before cutting, the top of the drain was almost touching the top glass door, so it was not draining unless the tank was filled over that white fiberglass part. When I accelerated, water was pretty much leaking on the back of the tank to the hull.

I didn’t have to use any pvc cement. Coupling seemed tight enough that I didn’t need to do anything else.

 

[drewkaree]

For those that want to cement this together, they do make a clear cement. Oatey's version is likely the most common in your area, and it's the can with the Gold color to it. If you're color blind or they don't sell Oatey in your area, read the cans, and it should state that it's clear. This is really for cosmetic purposes only, as it works the same as the purple stuff.

 

[CastawayRK]

@JPboat012 Thanks for the post. Glad to know standard 1-1/4" fitting does the trick. I was going to mic the outside diameter of the standpipe before I cut it to know that the fitting would work and wasn't something non-standard like the threads on the bottom are. I don't see a downside so shorten it I will! Especially since it doesn't have to be glued. Actually there is one downside - the mod gives it sort of the dildo look of a Blue Origin rocket.
It sure is sloppy how the livewells are really just too small for the opening.
Cheers
Randy

 

[CastawayRK]

I have deployed the Blue Origin Dildo mod and can confirm it works. Seems pretty sketchy for an expensive to me boat, but it does fix the problem
cheers

 

[CastawayRK]

One more note on this topic, should somebody in the future stagger across it. The standpipes are available in a couple different lengths from TH Marine Supply.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

One more note on this topic, should somebody in the future stagger across it. The standpipes are available in a couple different lengths from TH Marine Supply.

Thanks for closing out the loop on this one for people in the future!