Greetings! I recently bought a...

[Dave45]

Greetings! I recently bought a 2007 Amberjack 290 with inboards and v-drives. The boat is currently fitted with shaft logs/seals from Tides Marine. I believe they are known as SureSeals, but they have started to leak, only on the starboard engine, so far. I have searched the owner's manual that came with the boat, but I'm unable to determine the original equipment manufacturer of the logs/seals that equipped the boat originally. The current logs/seals were installed in 2014. Can anyone please let me know what brand of dripless logs/seals with which the boat was originally fitted? My wife and I would like to have the original brand installed, if possible. Thanks!

[wingless]

Welcome to the forum.

Good luck w/ your new boat.

This link permits identification of the two Tides seals, Sure Seal and Strong seal.

https://www.tidesmarine.com/pdf/SureSeal/strong_vs_sure.pdf

It is a great idea to provide immediate attention to the seal, so that the failure doesn't rapidly transition to a very unacceptable condition.

There are two tests that should be performed on a regular basis.

One is to disconnect the hose at the seal and cap off the hose barb. Start the engine and verify sufficient cooling water flow. It should be about one gallon per minute at idle.

The other is to remove the cap and verify unimpeded raw water ingress flowing back through the hose barb.

Verify that the raw water supply hoses are not contaminated w/ rust, scale or other crud.

My guess is that the original part was a Tides Sure Seal.

The engine alignment should be good to ensure the seal does not suffer excessive wear.

[fwebster]

Sea Ray installed Tides Sure Seals after 2000.

[Charles3]

I would second the suggestion to take care of it soon. I have a 2005 290 amberjack that I have had for about 5 years. They were leaking a couple of years ago and had a second seal in a container on the shaft, so I changed them while in the water, which is very difficult because of the lack of room, I had to remove (and at the same time clean) the manifolds to get enough space to work between the engines. At that time I also added fresh water rinse so that I could run the engines after each use (I am in saltwater). This summer, I noticed one of the seals was leaking again, but did not address it right away. Went out for a cruise, came back in the harbor and found both bilge pumps flowing full speed. Opened the hatch and found water pouring in. Since the amount was so much, I went to the Harbor Patrol dock in case I needed one of their pumps. Anyway, long story short I had to pull the boat that evening to avoid worrying about a make shift repair over the weekend (it was the evening before 4th of July). Turned out the hoses had clogged, did not get cooling water and it had a catastrophic failure of the seal. Expensive lesson to check the flow to them.