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I have a 2005 282 with a 496MAG/HO. This morning I noticed strong fuel smell around the boat, so immediately turned on the bilge blowers and let sit for a few minutes, then opened the hatch and noticed a red liquid in the bilge. At first I'm thinking it was coolant, but as you can see the coolant levels here fine. There was no red liquid spray in the bilge, nor any visible leaks near the heat exchanger, power steering reservoir or hatch pump. I took the boat out and monitored the temp and oil pressure, all normal. Then finally when I lifted the hatch a second time after running the boat and checking for issues I noticed red liquid "squirting" from the hole of the hydraulic ram as it reached the top of the lift. It squirted a small amount on the battery, but that does not explain the liquid in the bilge. Any thoughts?

Can you tell if it's sweet like coolant or stinky like hydraulic fluid? Hard to guess, but the fact that there's red fluid squirting from your hydraulic cylinder makes me want to think it's leaked out over time and collected, coloring whatever else is in the bilge.

But if it leaked over time, I would have seen a stream of fluid leading to the bilge. The smell was somewhat sweet, not much of a petrol smell. I cleaned the bilge after discovering the leak and ran the boat for a coolant test. The temps were fine and after the run I inspected the levels, it was the same level of coolant.

By the way.. when i cleaned and inspected the liquid, it was mostly water and just a small film of red fluid. So its not a major fluid leak as the picture might suggest.

I truly have no idea, but could it be anit-freeze?

". . . 'squirting' from the hole of the hydraulic ram as it reached the top of the lift. It squirted a small amount on the battery, but that does not explain the liquid in the bilge."

But it might explain that pool of liquid when the hatch is down.

If someone tops off your hydraulic reservoir (which uses a red power steering fluid) with the hatch up, it will squirt out the rams when the hatch is closed. The reservoir should only be topped off with the rams retracted and the hatch on a prop rod to keep it from squirting out the rams when lowering. This may be the issue.
Or you could have a bad ram seal.