We had a similar problem with our Sundancer 245. But it turned out to
be our dumb mistake, hopefully not yours. We purchased the boat from
the East coast, and it had a lot of corrosion in the water jackets.
So we have, a number of times, "flushed" the system to help get all
that junk out. However, we got a little excited with the water
pressure, and filled the cylinders up with water!

First, we were exteremly afraid that we had cracked the heads. But on
inspection, and a few different farmer tests, we decided the heads
were fine. So we drained all the engine fluids, and gave her a trial
in the shop with water muffs to supply water. Thus we decided that
for some reason, we had reversed the one-way valves in the
exhaust-water-jackets and filled the cylinders with water.

In your case, since the engine started (it won't with any water, they
call it hydraulic for a reason), I'd take a look at the exhaust
jackets as the other fella mentioned.

On Sun, 03 Aug 2003 14:40:07 GMT, "MJT" wrote:

1987 Sea Ray Sundancer 250.
Thank you,
Mike