Help with removing water intake to fix leak

[Viking]

I have a 1980 f30 flybridge express boat with twin 318's. Last summer I had a small leak coming from aroung the starboard water intake. My boat is out of the water for the winter. I went up today to remove the intake, and re-seal it. Even brought my neighbor with, who is a marine mechanic. There is one small screww on the strainer, and two like lag type bolts going up through the bottom. I removed all of these, but was unable to remove the strainer even. My neighbor said most of the boats he has worked on, the valve on the topside screwed off, and you were able to push it out the bottom. This did not seem to be the case here. Can anybody tell me how this is removed ?

[Old Duke]

Viking, if you are still looking for some help, you might try a boating forum called boated.com , I have gotten help on several issues with my 1968, 42' Trojan Sea Voyager. The forum is well deversified in several subjects. Good luck if your still looking

[Viking]

Thanks, I will give that site a try

[Danny Bailey]

If you don't already have it off, check for a nut between the valve inside and the bottom of the boat. That's the way my A/C intake fitting was installed.

[Viking]

The valve appears to be one solid unit. it has a flange with two slots, where there are shoulder bolts that come up from the bottom. Looking at the other side, that one appears to have been fixed. The fairing block appears to have been ground down a little. I am wondering if the whole valve turns. I did put a monkey wrench on it, but was afraid to put too much pressure on it. The strainer or cover, had one screw. I got that out but not sure if that slides back or forward to come off. I just don't want to end up breaking something.

[Danny Bailey]

If it's the original Groco valve with the round rubber insert, it screws off. It's probably frozen to the strainer due to corrosion. If you can chip the inside wood block away, you may have clearance enough to get a hacksaw to it. If this won't work, sand off the strainer with a 90 degree grinder and 60 grit discs, drill the heads off the two bronze carriage bolts and the whole assembly should tap out with a drift and hammer. You can fill the bolt holes with epoxy putty before installing the new stuff. The first two spring haulouts that I had my 1980 F-36, I methodically removed all the old Groco bronze thru-hulls and replaced them with new. One of the engine intake thru-hulls had some kind of growth / deposit?? in it closing off all but 3/8 inch of the inside diameter. Surprized the engine didn't run hot. All of them had pink and crumbly spots. It was a matter of time before one of them sank the boat.

[Viking]

Thanks for the info, I hope to get up there in the next couple of weeks. Will give that a try

[Viking]

It is the original Groco . I see they have 2 of them pictured on the used parts part of this forum.

[JuiceClark]

When I replaced all my through-hulls, I just cut those big ones off with a dye grinder. Bam! 30 seconds of cutting, a whack with a rubber mallet and it was ready for the new one.

Thank God we own Trojans! Can you imagine what a hassle this would be with a cored hull?!? You couldn't just whack it. The 5200 would be glued to the balsa core and I'm sure there would be some rot around that balsa to cut-out. A friends crappy Sea-Ray had rot in the core for almost 10 inches all around his raw water intake...what a mess.