Stuffing box water getting onto the cabin sole

[slaume]

Okay so I have been a little slow in figuring out that I am getting water from the stuffing box onto the cabin sole. This is on a 1984 CD-30 C. It only happens when the boat heals to 20* or so. At first I thought it was fresh water from the starboard tank as I found a lose hose clamp and tightened it up. Well it happened again and I figured I had better investigate more carefully. All the fittings and caps on bothe water tanks were dry with topped off tanks. The channel at the bottom of the tanks was also dry. Okay, not the fresh water tanks. A taste of the offending fluid has a salt flavor, HMMM. The bidge is pumped out not flooded. I pulled the engine cover and the raw water plumbing is new and dry. What I do see is that I have a little dam of sorts that forms a pan under the engine. This pan is full of water. When the boat heels excessivly the water spills out and finds its way onto the sole. I am pretty certain it is comming from the stuffing box and only fills up asfter running the engine. My concern is not where it is comming from but where it is going once it gets out of that pan. This is not nice water to have spilling out onto teak and holly (not that any water is). I can see why Cape Dory would want to contain any spillage in the engine pan. What I cant understand is why there is not a way for the stuffing box the drain directly into the bildge. On my boat the holding tank is in the aft end of the bildge area. With out really crawling around I do not see a way for water to get from the stuffing box to the bidge without first flooding the engine pan. This seems very wrong on a few counts and there must be a way this is supposed to happen. Help, Steve.

[Ed Haley]

The pan under the engine is meant to capture oil or fuel that may drip from the engine once in a while. It is filling with water probably, as you say, from a leaking stuffing box. It may also come from a leaking rudder post but more likely to be the stuffing box. Tighten the stuffing box nut 1/4 turn and see if it helps.

However, the salty water that accumulates on your cabin sole is coming from the drain in the sink. Water in the drain is normally at the level of your sink. As your CD heels and puts the sink seacock below water, the water spills out of the drain and onto the countertop and then onto the floor when you tack. Close the sink drain seacock in the galley sink and in the head while sailing and your problem with water on the sole will disappear.

[slaume]

It is definitly not the sink that is leaking. The water is coming out of the engine pan and onto the cabin sole. I may need to tighten the stuffing box to reduce the amount of dripping while the engine is running but I would still have the same problem when the pan eventually filled up. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the sanitation hose is blocking the intended path of drainage. Is the stuffing box supposed to drain into the engine pan and then into the bildge? This seems to negate the purpose of the engine pan in that it is to isolate any contamination from the engine. It seems like the water from the stuffing box should bypass the engine pan on it's way to the bildge. Am I missing something? Steve.

[Ed Haley]

I have a CD330 and the stuffing box water flows into the engine pan as well. But it usually evaporates so I never notice any water in the pan. I just can't see how water fromthe pan could get onto the cabin sole unless the pan was above the level of the floor. It's usually several inches or more below.

[RichMason]

my engine tray on my CD 28 was filled to the brim last week since I didn't discover until then. It drains into the regular bilge - not onto the sole - when it is full as it is separated from the sole by a channel that runs to the bilge.

[Shanna Paxton]

I have the same issue on my CD30MKII. My entire engine pan would fill with water and when the boat heeled over it would run on the cabin sole. Before I figured out the problem, I ended up putting a drain in the bottom of my engine pan with a tube that drains to the bilge. I keep it plugged now, but it is nice to be able to drain that area out entirely.

After a lot of searching the problem was found to be a bent rudder shaft post from when the boat drug anchor and went stern into the mud during hurricane Isabel. After the repair I still had a major leak which was fixed by adjusting the rudder shaft stuffing box.

I guess the bottom line is that there should not be a significant amount of water draining into the engine pan in the first place.

FYI we found the issue with the bend rudder shaft by having one person turn the wheel while the other watched the rudder shaft post (thanks Lou). You could see the tube flexing as the wheel was turned.

[jambalaya]

While your leak could be from a variety of sources, including the stuffing box, maybe my experience might help you pin it down. I had always had the experience of my engine pan filling with water but was unable to find the source. Initially I thought it was the stuffing box, but much observation over a long period convinced me that was not it. It was not until I removed the engine to replace it, and in the process replaced the stuffing box, that I discovered the source of the leak. It seems the CD 30's, and probablay all CDs, have a bronze plate behind the deadwood and through which the prop shaft extends. This plate is attached by two bolts, one above the shaft and one below. The inside of the top bolt is visible inside the boat. It is the attachment point for the bonding wires attached to the cockpit scupper throughhulls. No leak there. However, the lower bolt is not visible since it extends below the shaft. But that was my leak. It seems a P.O. had seen fit to replace a worn out bolt with a screw, and some bedding compound. The screw, which was stainless steel had corroded due to galvanic reaction with the bronze plate. It was leaking enough to be noticeable and enough to fill the pan and overflow if it was left untended for more than a week. It would overflow into the bilge, not on the cabin sole. I don't see how its possible for it to reach the cabin sole unless you fail to pump the bilge.
Moral: When you have a problem, fix it prperly and thoroughly with the right materials, or else you will continue to experience the same problem. What the P.O. did was merely an expedient.
Ultimately, that leak rusted out my engine when the boat was left untended for about 6 months on a mooring while I was recuperating from a physical problem.

When I first got the boat I did experience water on the cabin sole, which took a while to find. It turned out to be one of the potable water tanks under a sette berth. A connection had worked loose and had to be re-glued (which, of course, took special 3M type hot glue from a special applicator).

Hope the above recitation gives you some useful insight into your boat. Good luck.
Will
Jambalaya
CD30C

[Jim Lewis]

Not sure where your ice box drains, but mine drains into engine pan of a 1978 30K. However when I got the boat there was a hole in the forward part of engine pan. A simple plug will keep fluids in pan when necessary......good luck

BTW if stuffing box is filling pan it needs some attention

[slaume]

Thank you all for shedding much light on my problem. It seems I should be shedding some light of the flashlight under there to see just exactly what the source is. The ice box is under control with frozen jugs for short trips and the drain line spills just over the edge of the pan. Being new to being responsible for an inboard power supply I am not sure just exactly how much the stuffing box should drip. I will crawl around a bit and check the rudder shaft and stuffing box. The engine pan could have taken a long time to fill to the point of spilling. The pan also has a slight dip in the center that would allow water to drain in the center before the pan is really full. After redoing sanitation hoses this winter I should check to be sure the hose is not acting as a plug in the spillway. So back to the stuffing box which it sounds like I should be prepared to adjust; just how many drips per min. or min per drip should I be striving for? There may be some wind tomorrow and I would love to get down to check this out while doing some sailing, Steve.

[rtbates]

I've heard 3-8 drips per minute is about right. The dripping water is used to cool/ lube the shaft. So if it's too tight, drips too little, the clue is that your stuffing box will get hot to the touch. It should be slightly warm to the touch. If you want zero or very near zero drips add a stuffing product to the STOCK flax stuffing. It goes BETWEEN layers of the stock stuff and contains lubricants that premeate the falx and cool/lube withoutr having to pass water thru.

randy 25D seraph #161