I can take some pictures and post if anyone likes.

The before shot. If you look close, you can see where they tried putting a bead of silicone along the bracket to make it water tight.



I bought a ring and hung the engine from a hoist. All cables are still intact. I moved the boat into the garage to have a little control over the weather during the process.

This picture shows the inside of the bracket after removing from boat. You can still see where the water came out after pulling the bolts.



This picture shows the bead that was put around the bracket. It did nothing as far as sealing went. You see a stain down below where the bracket was mounted. That was oil from the engine. These engines have a bad habit of leaking oil from the reservoir if you fill it completely full. I had put a little too much on it and it had run down the bracket and then onto the hull. At this point, all 4 bolts have been removed as well as the 2 drains in the splash well. We had removed all of the lower thru hull fittings and replaced a few months ago.

Grout Scout, here is the top of the transom that you were asking about. It appears in the photo to be a fairly large gap but that's just because of the camera angle. That was sealed with silicone and then had an aluminum cap over it. Right now, it is giving a space the entire width of the transom to allow the water to escape.

Here are the heat lamps that I am using. These bulbs are 250 watt bulbs. I just bought clear but was told you could use the red also.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-250-W...16743/202768698

They told me they didn't sell the fixtures but I continued looking until I found them. You'll need the heavy duty 300 watt fixtures. I have 2 of each and clamped them on the motor and have them about 12" away from the transom. They will get it too hot to touch the transom with your hand. they had a good amount of water dripping out the first day. The water stopped coming out and you can feel the wood starting to dry and harden back up. I go out every day and will reposition them to heat a little different part of the transom, pretty much concentrating on the area you see lit in the photo.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-10-1-2-in-Brooder-Clamp-Light-HD-303PDQ/204684496

At this point, I am doing nothing to the transom but trying to let the lights do their job. Once the time has expired, I'll get everything cleaned up. I had my worries in the beginning, now everything seems to be going as planned so it's just a waiting game. I'll spend the next 1 1/2 weeks doing some work to other parts of the boat.

I'm half tempted to take a grinder to my top cap/transom joint. Being a newer style it's completely different, no splash well and the top cap was very tight to the transom except for a few small holes. My major problem is looking like it came from some idiot not putting 5 screws back into the top cap and no sealant on the other 20 screws. This was covered with a stainless steel cover piece. Who in their right mind would not put screws back into their holes or at least not put something to keep water from going into the hole. Freaking idiots.

I was originally thinking that the heat light basically dryed out the water, now I'm not sure what to do with mine since I don't have a way to get the water out, other than to drip it for months. I wonder if making a tent and running a dehumidifier would accomplish anything at all?

Now, I'm not recommending you do this...I have repaired a rotted transom on a previous boat with something like seacast. In order to do that, you used a small cutoff wheel and cut the top of the transom cap off to get to the wood. After the transom was poured, the top cap was fiberglassed back down and then covered with the stainless cover and you couldn't see that it had ever been touched.

That would be worth a try plus, know leaving it out in the texas sun for a summer during a drought worked but that will take months. Or you could try this also maybe?

4 days of dripping and it's finally slowing down, hopefully she will dry out.

Keep the heat lamps going grout scout. Time is your friend here. Let em work. Doesn't need much of a hole to come out. Remember, you are vaporizing water to a gaseous form that will seek the path of least resistance to escape. Drop Pat a pm & get his opinion on that type of splashwell/transom. If anybody knows it's him.

Has it started drying out yet? Mine dripped for the first night and then stopped. It is all dry. I avoided the temptation to start sealing early. It will be just over 2 weeks when I get home and start buttoning it up. Hopefully, it will get completed this weekend ready for a vacation trip to Fork.

I did this in summer of 2015 on my 1995 202. Pat's advice is right-on. I let mine dry for 3 weeks and sealed it back up. It is hard to wait but all is well with mine so far. Good luck with yours.

Parts have, but now I'm working on the stringer. This thing was so unsealed it's just stupid... bottom 2 motor bolts were sealed, top 2 were not. 5 screws missing, top cap and bottom cap weren't sealed very good. I'm tired of dealing with it and I'm always worried about something catching on fire, but I'm going to keep moving the lights every couple days before I do something stupid and seal it back up. If I had been the one that paid the shop that did this, I'd file some kind of lawsuit against them, ridiculous that a boat repair show didn't take the time to properly seal up the back.


4 heat lights, an air conditioner and a dehumidifier running 24/7...

There are some late 1990's MH hulls that have a balsa wood transom and these age a lot when wet. In theory Pat is right if you get there before it degrades. If not your looking at replacement.Balsa wood rots extremely quick and softens when wet, just think of your Bagley's when they got chipped. The thickness of those transoms made it almost impossible to get the amount of resin to absorb to prevent degradation. It could be done, though not in an hour through production.

Just a concern as if that is a balsa transom it probably is not very good.