Sanger mercruiser engine help?

Last summer we noticed that our vdrive engine seemed to leak water lots. A couple of times if we accidentally didn't have our bilge on, the engine area would fill up and would become a problem. We figured it came from this spot here back by the bilge pump. I'm just wondering whether this is normal, what this part actually does as me and my dad are not experts, and also what we should do to fix it. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I think this will show the picture:

You don't sound too sure. I havent dealt with mercury inboards, just indmar and PCM but that looks like a raw water pump in your pic. It could have a failed gasket or shaft seal.

I'd run it on the hose either with a fake a lake or the hose/bucket technique and see if you can spot the leak with it running in the driveway.

If you get no leak in the driveway then the water is probably coming in through the prop shaf seal, the ballast system or some other miscellaneous spot. Drop it in the water without starting the engine and just sit and watch for 10 mins or so. Still no water? Fill the ballast. Still no water? Start the engine and let it idle. Still no water? Cruise for a few minutes and recheck.

HI Jason the part you are looking at in your photo is called the "water circulation housing" its a hollow chamber that mixes the cold raw water with hot water coming from the engine so its not getting stone cold water all the time. Its not a pump or anything it may have a pump thing on it but that is for draining the water out of the engine when winterising the motor . I have had trouble with this housing cracking and leaking as they are only made out of plastic. I ended up making up one out of stainless steel for less than the replacement part from mercury and no problems any more! it could well be leaking pull it off and check it out as a small crack can easily turn into the housing failing if it fails you will loose all water cooling to your motor not good !!!!!
look for cracks at the drain plug and around where its glued together as that's where my two have failed. Hope this helps
cheers Reggie

same problem with my water circ housing, I actually cracked it myself by tightening the blue plug to tight. Hand tighten these and do not tighten with a pair of plyers. Learned my lesson the hard way.

Thanks you guys for the help. Ya we are definitely not experts so any sort of advise has been usefull. We ( as in, me and my dad) did funnel water through and it definitely was coming from this part and then i got my iphone out so i could peer around to the back of it and found this two little holes that we did not know were there. we are now pretty possitive that thats where our leak has been coming from. Should there be plugs in those? this could be the most amature question ever but how do you learn if you dont ask right? we are just so unsure about this.

It looks like you're missing parts #10 & 11 on this drawing. http://www.ishopmarine.com/ishop/jsp...ier-300-020-MC

Those holes are only used if you have the air actuated drain system. Don't think I have seen one of those systems on a ski boat. Try inserting something in the holes (i.e. Pencil ) see how far in it goes. They should be blocked off on the inside, if you don't have the air drain then mercury doesn't drill them out. More than likely as Jason said it's cracked somewhere.

http://www.marinepowerservice.com/Bo...ickyear/0.html
Part # 863631T1
Incase you need to replace it.