Bilge filth

[Betterdays]

Sorry for the rehash on an old topic.  Ive just cleaned out my bilge, from prior owners, electric tape, plastic caps, a screwdriver (phillips)  a wrench (20mm box) 4 gallons of water, bucket of gravel, undiagnosable petroleum products, rotted wood, and broken fiberglass.  I'm putting a new floor down, and reusing the sides, filling the gap with epoxy, that was West systems idea.  From what I can see there is a tube that comes down from the top that looks like a dishwasher hose, the hose for the manual bilge, and  a hose for the automatic bilge.  Is there something else I should be aware of ?  Where does the water come from ? Should there be a way for water to get from the engine compartment to the bilge hole ?  I have 1992 27 ft compac fyi.  Pump doesn't run that often. 

Thanks
Stephen
Betterdays 

[relamb]

I lost a couple of sockets and an extension, did you find them in there?
I was at compac a couple of weeks ago, Gerry said that there was a plywood floor glassed in at the bottom of the bilge sump.  He said they did not screw down the bilge pump, just let it set in the hole so as not to make any penetrations in the wood..  People run screws down through the plywood and don't seal it, and it causes water to weep through and rot the plywood, and then water gets down inside the keel.
So it might be a good idea to make the floor of starboard or a fiberglass layer, not wood, and make sure it's sealed up well.  Mine definitely has the bilge pump and float screwed down, so I'm going to need to check that.
In my boat there's a white fiberglass pan under the engine to collect oil spills, etc.  but at the far back edge any water in the back compartment would go under that pan, into the bilge.   For example, my shaft packing gland that leaks like crazy and needs tightened, that water would run under the engine pan.
In bleeding my fuel pump, I got a lot of diesel in the pan.  That does not drain into the bilge, unless the pan overflows at the front.    In my bilge there is the bilge pump and float switch, the manual pump suction hose, the shower drain, and the icebox drain.  Someday I will tee the icebox drain into the sink.  I have a 1988.  Some of the mud and dirt probably comes from the anchor locker in the bow.  If you bring up wet muddy line and put it in the anchor locker, there's a drain in the bottom which runs down under the floor along the top of the keel and back to the bilge.  I had a bird get in through my hawse pipe and build a nest, so I had to clean out all the sticks, vacuum it out, and then rinse it out down into the bilge.

[Betterdays]

Thanks,  Already bought the starboard and made a cardboard template.  I will install today.  Just thought there should be something more in the bilge hole.  My 1992 ice box drains overboard, fyi.   

[relamb]

If the boat is out of the water, you may want to drill a small hole or two down at the bottom of the keel from the outside, just in case any water leaked down into the keel from the bilge.  I have done this, and fortunately it was dry, but others have installed a keel drain.  epoxy the hole shut before you put the boat back in the water!

[deisher6]

Thanks for the scoop on the plywood at the bottom of the bilge....I screwed my bilge pump down!  Will check on that next time on the hard. 

I am wondering about the third hose in the bilge.  If it is not the icebox drain then could it possibly be a shower drain.  Our boat at one time was rigged to pump the shower overboard.  It was a charter boat and I was told that overboard shower discharge was required.  It may also be the old icebox drain that was not removed.

Sources of water in our bilge are:  Mainly shower, then stuffing box (which unfortunately first fills up the area around the shaft tube then runs forward), then as with Rick very little engine fluids and other sources.

Always wondered about the gravel, there were about two cupfuls in the bilge when I first cleaned it out.

regards charlie