flooding inside of boat works

Just thought I would tell you guys flooding the inside of your boat to find a leak works.
I had a leak on my boat I could not find, had to pump maybe 5 gallons every 2 hours. So late last year I put the water hose to the inside and let it run till I finally saw some drips near a reinforcement rib 2/3 of the way up the boat. Right at the forward part of the rib. Did not take much water, maybe 20 gallons. In any case, I still could not see a hole or leaky rivet. So I just gooped the rib - hull union up with 3m 5200. It sat all winter, I took it out about a week ago and not one drop leaked in a 6 hour trip. Hope it holds.
A good idea I got here, thanks guys.
Tim

I found quite a few of my leaks this way, including a hairline crack in the solid aluminum that didn't show up while it was floating.

but...

My boat has a keel rib on the outside that runs the length of the boat and is attached to all the rivets, it has a drain on the backside, so all the water of any leaky rivets was running down the rib and out the drain, not dripping from the rivet itself.
even tho i discovered 1 leaky rivet on the outside of the keel by having the boat full of water, I found 4 more by taking the boat out into the lake and using it where i could see the water come up in..

In other words, If it's a "new to you" boat, it's important to test it both in the water, and full of water..

I got a used 10' jon boat it did have leaks, with the water fill test, so I used the pore 15 on it and it did seal some of them.
with the others what I did was I used roofing mastic, and it pluged them right up, had it on the medina river, over branches and rocks, it surprised me for such a small boat, and after 3 hours still no leaks, and I put the mastic on the inside and the water side. will post on the next trip to update you guys on the fix.

Last year I repaired several leaky rivets using some epoxy I got from Cabela (that is ideal for sealing leaky rivets) and used some aluma weld to repair a 4 inch long rip in a Seanymph 14 foot v-hull. After repairing the rip I noticed some more leakage from the seams near the rip repair. The heat from the propane torch had melted the Alumalast that the factory uses to seal seams. I then coated the entire bottom of the boat with Fiberglass (2 coats) and allowed it to run down inside the seams and also applied fiberglass to the inside of the boat in the area where I used the propane torch. Me and my wife have fished out of the boat dozens of times now with absolutely no leaks at all.

Funny thing...my son traded for a 13' v hull awhile back. We tried the water inside of the boat and didn't see a single leak. Put the boat in water and found about 4 leaks...lol all were right down the center rib...

JGibson said:

Funny thing...my son traded for a 13' v hull awhile back. We tried the water inside of the boat and didn't see a single leak. Put the boat in water and found about 4 leaks...lol all were right down the center rib...

Click to expand...

Sorry its not a 100% test but its fast easy and cheap and will show most..Also beware water is heavy ,do not Fill boat you may create leeks..Fill only to normal waterline...Just a quick calculation my boat 16/5/2 will hold about 1200 lbs of water and on a trailer supported by a couple 10f 2x4 on trailer...cva34

well the mastic on the inside worked, had it out twice and no leaks, I just painted over it .
now it might not be the best or right fix, but it worked.

I've used this method for many years to detect leaks in boats for repair. Works every time.