Jarretts70
New member
Last year I learned the hard way about the shutters in the exhaust & hydrolocked the 4.3L in my Bayliner....
Water was in the cylinders for less than 24 hours - I locked it up on the water & had to get towed to shore. Loaded it up & had it taken apart by the following morning. At the time I pulled all the plugs & cranked it to try get rid of much water as possible. Then I sprayed the cylinders with wd-40 to displace water & left the plugs out for a few hours to let the cylinders dry out. Replaced the plugs & it fired right up so I thought I had gotten off lucky.
Next I pulled the exhaust manifolds (of the 1 piece type - what a pain it the ass...) & discovered the shutters were completely gone. Ordered replacements but by the time they came & I got it all put back together boating season was over. Winterized it & put it away.
Took it out last week for the first time since last year. It started fine but in the water it would barely move under its own power & sounded terrible. Brought it back home & tore it apart again. Discovered I had buggered up one of the exhaust manifold gaskets when re-installing the manifolds causing a major exhaust leak; also had a couple plug wires reversed (doh!). Installed fresh gaskets & corrected plug wires. Figured my problems were solved. & took it out yesterday...and it's still not right.
It starts fine, fires right up. It idles fine in neutral. But it does not like to move at low speed. When I try to idle away from the dock at low speed it sounds "off" & surges. Every so often the idle smooths out, it sounds better & runs as it should, the surging goes away. But within a few seconds it reverts to the issues. It's like its got an intermittent misfire.
It will NOT accelerate at all, either from a dead stop or while in motion. Farts, stumbles, bogs & generally sounds & feels like it's running on 3 cylinders. From a dead stop if I apply throttle VERY slowly I can get it moving, but it's basically undriveable.
Here's what I've done to this point:
This morning I put the earmuffs on it to fire it on land. Warmed it up & checked the timing - it's correct. I also put the timing light on every plug wire & it blinks on all of them, so I should have spark to all cylinders.
The oil on the dipstick looks fine; however I do have a bit of milkshake at the valve cover breathers. Not much, but there definitely was some water in the oil. I chalked this up to a bit of water getting past the rings in the time between locking it up & getting it drained.
So next I fear the worst, that I've hurt it bad - a blown head gasket or internal engine damage. So I moved onto a compression test. Passed with no problems - every cylinder is within 5 pounds of 150.
Prior to the hydrolock the boat ran near perfect, so I can't help but think the issues are related to locking it up. Hoping someone has a thought or two...
Water was in the cylinders for less than 24 hours - I locked it up on the water & had to get towed to shore. Loaded it up & had it taken apart by the following morning. At the time I pulled all the plugs & cranked it to try get rid of much water as possible. Then I sprayed the cylinders with wd-40 to displace water & left the plugs out for a few hours to let the cylinders dry out. Replaced the plugs & it fired right up so I thought I had gotten off lucky.
Next I pulled the exhaust manifolds (of the 1 piece type - what a pain it the ass...) & discovered the shutters were completely gone. Ordered replacements but by the time they came & I got it all put back together boating season was over. Winterized it & put it away.
Took it out last week for the first time since last year. It started fine but in the water it would barely move under its own power & sounded terrible. Brought it back home & tore it apart again. Discovered I had buggered up one of the exhaust manifold gaskets when re-installing the manifolds causing a major exhaust leak; also had a couple plug wires reversed (doh!). Installed fresh gaskets & corrected plug wires. Figured my problems were solved. & took it out yesterday...and it's still not right.
It starts fine, fires right up. It idles fine in neutral. But it does not like to move at low speed. When I try to idle away from the dock at low speed it sounds "off" & surges. Every so often the idle smooths out, it sounds better & runs as it should, the surging goes away. But within a few seconds it reverts to the issues. It's like its got an intermittent misfire.
It will NOT accelerate at all, either from a dead stop or while in motion. Farts, stumbles, bogs & generally sounds & feels like it's running on 3 cylinders. From a dead stop if I apply throttle VERY slowly I can get it moving, but it's basically undriveable.
Here's what I've done to this point:
- The new shutters & associated parts from the original incident.
- Changed the oil at that time.
- New plugs seeing as how I had them out anyway...
- Pulled the distributor cap to check it & the rotor - they look fine, nice & clean.
This morning I put the earmuffs on it to fire it on land. Warmed it up & checked the timing - it's correct. I also put the timing light on every plug wire & it blinks on all of them, so I should have spark to all cylinders.
The oil on the dipstick looks fine; however I do have a bit of milkshake at the valve cover breathers. Not much, but there definitely was some water in the oil. I chalked this up to a bit of water getting past the rings in the time between locking it up & getting it drained.
So next I fear the worst, that I've hurt it bad - a blown head gasket or internal engine damage. So I moved onto a compression test. Passed with no problems - every cylinder is within 5 pounds of 150.
Prior to the hydrolock the boat ran near perfect, so I can't help but think the issues are related to locking it up. Hoping someone has a thought or two...
