Carver Owners Forum

I'm trying to remove a weird smell in my 3807 that I'm 95% sure is coming from the bilge. I can smell it strong when I open any cabinet under a sink where there is an opening for plumbing into the bilge, not a sewer smell but just a musty smell that drives me nuts. FYI my bilge is pretty much bone dry. What is the best go-to solution I can pour into the bilge and help with the smell? I really don't want to buy a bunch of the off-the-shelf bilge cleaner because I'll need A LOT. Any good home remedies I can mix up? Odoban? Thanks!!

You might have to dig a bit deeper to find the source, perhaps something got moulded over time. Happened to me up front where a floorboard got wet and over the dripping years started to rot from underneath. Behind some carpeting was the worst as it stayed wet/moist for years with obvious effects.

AFAIK, fighting the remaining smell is more a matter of ventilating than of spraying quick fixes around.

Check your shower sump/sumps if you have them, also the shower drains to the sumps......they can get quite funky if not cleaned and sanitized. Also if this has just started after storage check for critters......birds nesting in engine room vents, mice etc, etc......you get the idea.
There is also the test to check your head hoses....wrap with warm damp cloth, leave there a while then take the cloth outside and see if it smells.

In my new-to-me '92 350 AC, smelled bad, and I found BOTH my Y-valves were cracked and leaking sewage into the bilges. I bypassed both (I'm in an NDZ, Hudson River, for the foreseeable future) and the smell largely went away, just sort of an ol' bote smell remains. I washed down the compartments wit plenty of Dawn, and use MANY Damprid 10 oz. tubs all year around.

FWIW, one of my (LOUSY ZAMAC PERKO!!) deck pumpout fittings corroded off right inside the deck, and I had to work all last season to find out why I could not pump out the aft holding tank. I finally found it and now I can pull a vacuum and empty out! Drove me nuts! Something to keep an eye on!

if you have no leaks and just residual smells, an ozone generator will eliminate them.

I also like some of the citrus-based degreasers to clean the bilge. They smell strong at first, but that dies down after a bit and the original smell is also gone.

We discovered the problem was the aft cabin shower sump. We replaced the pump, cleaned the small tank and problem solved.