bilge pump on a ski nautique 2001

I know this will sound stupid, but the bilge went out on the boat and we didn't realize it until we pulled it out. The question is, will the engine burn out because the bilge isn't working?

No. Just make sure that the water level doesn't get high enough to reach the engine.

Melanie-

Assuming by bilge pump you mean the pump used for removing water from inside the boat, and not the pump used to bring water to the cooling system, you will be fine. If you are talking about the impeller on the water pump you will want to change that immediately. Do not run your boat without the water pump working. Doing so will hurt the boat.

If you do loose your water pump for some reason, and you've got a pump for your fat sac, you can rig it up to the outflow hose on your waterpump and idle your boat back home without doing any damage. But be careful and monitor your temperature.

Hope it helps

Melanie:

I am confused regarding your post.

"The bilge" is an area of the boat, the lowest part, typically where water collects. The bilge can't "go out". The bilge pump, which removes unwanted water from the bilge can fail. The bilge blower, which provides ventilation and removes unwanted fumes can fail. Either of these can fail without any immediate risk to the engine but you should fix them as soon as possible.

When you said "we didn't realize it until we pulled it out", does that mean when you left the dock to go skiing, or when you pulled the boat out of the water to put it away? I normally do my boat maintenance with it sitting on the trailer so I don't see a problem here, unless "pulled it out" means that it was put in storage and you can't get to it anymore.

Any way you look at it, if the engine was running okay when you stopped using it last then it is probably okay. Fix whatever is wrong before you use it again.

If your talking about the pump the only thing that is bad to go under water is the starter. Other than that you can submerge the whole engine except the carb. That is where the off road snorkle comes in.

Thanks for the replies, I'm sorry I wasn't more detailed. I have a problem with giving too little information.

The bilge pump went out, after we pulled the boat onto the trailer and went to take the plug out I noticed alot of water and it's never been like that before. When the bilge pump switch (button on dash board) is on, no water is being pumped out. Everything else is fine, the coolant temperature and all other levels were fine that day. I just noticed after we got the boat on the trailer that there was alot of water.

The boat should be fine, going by what you all have said so far. We're taking it in next week to have it maintenanced, so they'll fix it then. I was just curious as to whether we damaged it by not having the bilge pump running, but the boat ran great the whole day.

Thanks guys for the response!

It could just be the inline fuse. Check that first. If not you can buy a new bilge pump pretty cheap

If you have alot of water in there you should have the packing gland for the prop shaft checked and it may need to be either re-packed or adjusted. They should also check the rudder packing. This should be easy to do on a DD. You will be amazed how little water will be in the bilge area if these are working right.

Kris

By the way, I used to have a Nautique 2001. That was a great boat. I put over a 1,000 hours on it with very few problems. Only draw back was the lack of room, which became a big problem with a couple of kids. Then on to the v-drive, which has a lot more room, but not near as fun as the 2001 was to drive.

Kris