1979 IH 190 V8 water in engine

" I recently purchased a 1979

" I recently purchased a 1979 MMC trawler with an International Harvester 190 HP V8 engine. I believe this is a marinized version of their truck engine. The engine has about 3400 hours on it and it surveyed fine. After using the boat for only several weeks I checked the oil and found it totally dry- and droplets of water on the dipstick. I added 9 qts of oil (capacity is 13.5 qts.)and still got no oil reading- only water droplets. And there is almost no oil in the bilge. I had a mechanic check it and he feels that water somehow came in through the exhaust system- but at this point it's a mystery as to how or why this happened. Does anybody have any idea as to what might have caused this?

The mechanic says the engine has water damage but we won't know the extent of the damage until he looks inside. If the damage is extensive, I need to decide if we should rebuild my engine, get a short block or replace with a rebuilt engine. Does anybody know anything about availability and costs for this engine? Any information would be appreciated. "

"Art,

Maybe IH still sells

"Art,

Maybe IH still sells the truck engine and you could buy it and transfer the marine parts over. What is the cubic inch displacement?

Palmer "marinized" a number of IH diesel engines... but I don't see any that were V8.

Good luck.

Regards,
Andrew"

If you want to stay with IH e

If you want to stay with IH engine you should buy a reman long block an bolt on the cooling parts. There are a number of places on the net with info. Or you can buy a used marine engine and replace it. Good luck.