Thanks Gene. I think your assessment makes sense that it is to inject
into the engine. I tried asking the previous owner but he hadn't used
the boat in about 5 years and it didn't ring a bell. It told me that he
used to drain it from the oil pan via a hose, but I checked and there
is no e-z drain there. So.. I guess I'll suck it up from the dipstick
as there really is no way to easily access the oil pan.

Incidently, I do have the orignal Engine owners manual provided by
Berkeley
for the packajet engines and one of the 4 methods described in the
manual to drain the oil is to connect a "t" with a hose at the oil
sending unit, start the engine and run at idle no more than 1000 rpm
for no more than 60 seconds.

What threw me was this hose is in this location but has the ball and
spring at the other end of the hose which to me would mean that when
oil from the engine entered this hose that the ball would seat and not
allow the oil out.

Mark

Gene Kearns wrote:
On 31 Jul 2005 04:24:11 -0700, wrote:

I just purchased a jet boat and have a question about a hose coming
from the oil sending unit. The engine is a 455 olds converted by
Berkeley for use on their jet drive. Anyways, there is a "t" coming
off the block at the oil sending unit. On one end is the oil sending
unit. Coming off this "t" is a short 1' hose. On the end of the hose is
a fitting that has a short coupling that looks like you would fit a
piece of hose over. If I take off this coupling fitting what is left
at this end of the hose is a spring with a check ball in it.

I'm going to assume that this hose may be used for draining the engine
oil. I checked under the boat and I don't see any eazy-drain coming
from the oil pan (in fact I can't even find the drain plug on the pan
so if anyone knows what side the plug is on...)

Anyone have any idea how this hose would be used? I'm guessing that
when the engine is started the oil would flow into this tube and force
the ball to seal the end preventing the oil from squirting out, but how
would you use this to change the oil?

From your description:

1) "there is a "t" coming off the block at the oil sending unit"
2) "If I take off this coupling fitting what is left at this end of
the hose is a spring with a check ball in it"

I deduce that the check ball is part of a check valve. The purpose of
a check valve is to prevent one-way fluid flow. If oil doesn't spew
out of this fitting while the engine is running, the valve must be
turned so that the direction of flow is prevented when the fluid is
*leaving* the engine.

Thus, my take on this is that your fitting is for introducing
something *into* the oil galley, since it seems to be oriented to
prevent the removal. (Makes sense, though, last thing I'd want to try
to do is suck dirty oil, sludge, etc. through the engine to drain it.)

My SWAG is that this is a port installed to introduce something *into*
the engine and I vote for pre-oiling, possibly for de-pickling and
re-commissioning at the start of the boating season.