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Need help cruising home on one engine

Drained water by cranking the engine with all plugs pulled. Sprayed wd40. Went back yesterday cranked the engine more water came out (all out of one side). Cleared the water re-installed plugs and attempted to start the engine. Turned over hard would not start. Pulled the plugs. More water again.
Will pull the heads in about 2 weeks when I have more time and see whats going on. Engines are very old. Depending on what I find I just might replace that engine. If I replace the engine then next year I will replace the Starboard one.
 
By the looks of a few of the head bolts removing the heads will be a challenge. They are all rusty and 2 bolts have heads that are partially rusted away.
 
They will come out....though its easier with the engine on a stand....guess the question is do you want to get it running asap or when the budget can absorb it??
 
Right now ASAP for the holidays. Next year I hope to be retired and have more time to devote to re-powering. If Im pulling the engine out of the boat I am going to replace it with a new long block vs rebuilding.
 
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Opened up the engine that has been my night mare. Looks like somebody spilled a mocha milk shake in the top side of my engine. Pulled the head on one side. All four cylinders had some water in them. The combustion chamber of the head looks bad. Lots of rust. The head gasket and intake gasket looks very good. Not blown. Puzzled at the source of water intrusion. The intake manifold is a strange animal. I'll post that picture when I get it cleaned up. Ill try to attach some pictures.
 
You said it was an old engine, I would seriously think about replacing it with a long block rather then putting a penny into the old one.
 
Oh yea. Not worth the trouble. Ive ran her for 12 years, The previous owner about 8 and it was rebuilt years before that. Time for a new GM built marine long block. At least the exhaust manifolds are new. Only about 3 hrs on them. The starboard engine will be replaced down the road. Its still running fine.
 
If you plan to reuse the manifold and elbows on a new block, I would be very careful. Even though "new" that doesn't mean they are not the source of the water. Although I would suspect the elbows and gaskets.
 
The on going saga continues.....
Finally had enough time the past 2 weeks to remove the heads. One head had 4 deteriorated outside bolts. Talk about the variety of tools I had to use to remove the bolts. That done I took them to a local machine shops that rebuilds a large number of the boat heads in the area. Got the call after a week. The heads are not worth rebuilding. The heads themselves were badly deteriorated. The water jackets had rust holes that would need to be welded up. Valves bad. Quite a few were stuck open. Not worth putting money into them. With that said I started thinking the water jackets in the block it self would probably be in the same shape. I've run those engines for 12 years. The previous owner for 6 years. The last rebuild was in the 1990's. I'll be pulling the port side engine hopefully in the next week or so depending on work. Tranny will go out for a rebuild. I will order a new Base GM long block built and marinized by GM and get her running again. The starboard engine still runs well. I'll wait until next year to do the same with that engine that way I wont have too many hours between the 2 engines.

Oh I forgot to mention. While taking things apart down below. i saw the front mount/hanger for the muffler on the Port engine had broken causing a low spot on the run for the exhaust water to exit. I believe that at idle and idle speed this was causing water to build in the low spot and start backing up the exhaust hose. Finding out that valves in heads of that motor were stuck partially open This I believe could have been the cause of the water in my engine.

Jim
 
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Sounds like a good plan. When you get the new engine in install an hour meter, it helps with keeping track of maintenance issues.
 
How much of an angle can the carburetor be at? The modern after market intake manifold does not level the carburetor.
 
I have never seen a production intake that had any 'cast in' provision for leveling......I believe the 'standard' engine bed dimensions will usually give you ~ 12 degs of tilt. Crusader offers a wedge plate (8 degs, I think) to mitigate the tilt.
 
makomark said:
I have never seen a production intake that had any 'cast in' provision for leveling......I believe the 'standard' engine bed dimensions will usually give you ~ 12 degs of tilt. Crusader offers a wedge plate (8 degs, I think) to mitigate the tilt.
Click to expand...

The old low profile intakes on my boat have the carburetor mounting pads factory cast to keep the carb level. Is a wedge plate necessary? I've seen 5 to 12 degree wedges on line.
 
"Level" on a moving boat is a concept and really hard to achieve. that said, I would use the other engine as a guide. The carb only needs to keep enough fuel in the bowl to keep the jet wells full and to work the float as the level rises.....they usually tolerate a fair amount of motion.....as long as there's no 'leak' from excess fuel in the bowl. If the gasket weeps at the 'low end', you can usually resolve it by changing the float setting.

As a rule, using a wedge plate will require 'longer' studs....and for them to be 'bent' once the gasket and plate go on...
 
makomark said:
"Level" on a moving boat is a concept and really hard to achieve. that said, I would use the other engine as a guide. The carb only needs to keep enough fuel in the bowl to keep the jet wells full and to work the float as the level rises.....they usually tolerate a fair amount of motion.....as long as there's no 'leak' from excess fuel in the bowl. If the gasket weeps at the 'low end', you can usually resolve it by changing the float setting.

As a rule, using a wedge plate will require 'longer' studs....and for them to be 'bent' once the gasket and plate go on...
Click to expand...
Hence the carb has been riding backwards keeping the primary side on the downhill side.
 
With a inline reduction gear, the engine has to be balancer up....which would make the primary end of the carb 'hi' relative to the secondary end......the wedge plate will mitigate this to some extent....never seen the intake as you described....how much angle did they machine into it, to get the primary end 'low'?
 
makomark said:
With a inline reduction gear, the engine has to be balancer up....which would make the primary end of the carb 'hi' relative to the secondary end......the wedge plate will mitigate this to some extent....never seen the intake as you described....how much angle did they machine into it, to get the primary end 'low'?
Click to expand...
A lot..I will try to post a picture.
 
Finally got to pull the engine yesterday. Hurrah. Now to send out the transmission for a rebuild, steam clean and paint the bilge while I wait for the new engine.
 
Here are the pictures for the intake manifold.
Also checkout the bell housing pretty cool info on the plaque. I need to look up the serial number on the tag.
 
test of adding a picture worked ffine for me.
 

Attachments

  • anti-syphon2.jpg
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lets try again. Nope no luck. What was your procedure?
I opened a reply to thread box.
Clicked the insert image box.
Picked a file from my download file in my computer.
The file uploaded. I watched its count down.
Then it said waiting for Marineengine.com. After about 20 seconds it finished no other messages. No picture.
 
jclays said:
lets try again. Nope no luck. What was your procedure?
I opened a reply to thread box.
Clicked the insert image box.
Picked a file from my download file in my computer.
The file uploaded. I watched its count down.
Then it said waiting for Marineengine.com. After about 20 seconds it finished no other messages. No picture.
Click to expand...


I just checked on the Reply with Quote then Go Advanced. Then under the Additional Options clicked on Manage Attachments to open the File Upload Manager. Go to the folder that contains the file you want and drag it to the lower section and click the small check box under the photo and then click the Insert Inline button. Voila your photo should show in your post before you even click Submit Reply. I don't know if there is a size limitation but my file is fairly small ...85 KB anti-syphon2.jpg
 
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