infinityron
Contributing Member
I know I'm opening up for some flack, but need to ask opinions anyway.....I have an old 32' sportfisher with twin Crusader 454's, RAW WATER COOLED. Ive been around boats for 50+ years so I know the negatives of this situation. As some of my friends on this forum may recall, I have owned this boat for 4 years and really never in all this time have I opened them up to see what she feels like planing. For fuel conservation and fear of breakdown of these old motors, I have happily cruised around at 9 knts at 1500 rpms on autopilot for all of my ownership. I believe one of these blocks was replaced in late 1990's and it is possible the other one is the original block from 1976. They have Holley carbs, newer electronic distributors and they never run hot. Temps always look good. When I personally installed the Delco electronic distributors 4 years ago, I did my best to correctly time using help from this group and others. I was, and I am able to throttle up both engines in the slip in neutral. They always fire almost instantly when I turn the key. There is no knocking. There is no smoke.
But yesterday, for the very first time, I couldn't resist pushing the throttles up to see what would happen. As I increased up from 1500, there was a faint emission of grayish/whitish smoke or water from the exhausts, but when I got to 2100 on both engines, there was a LOT of smoke (or steam) , not black, but darker gray mixed with white I would say. And the engines seemed to stop responding to higher rpm request. The temps remained steady with no rise in temp. There was a lot of station wagon over the transom, so I brought them back down to 1500. Ran fine as always in every regard at 1500. When I returned to slip, I checked the oils to see if evidence of water. They both looked great. Good level and pure looking.
So whatcha think? Is this a fuel issue, timing issue? ??? I ran them back up in the slip with no load and up they went,, no weird sounds or smoke.
But yesterday, for the very first time, I couldn't resist pushing the throttles up to see what would happen. As I increased up from 1500, there was a faint emission of grayish/whitish smoke or water from the exhausts, but when I got to 2100 on both engines, there was a LOT of smoke (or steam) , not black, but darker gray mixed with white I would say. And the engines seemed to stop responding to higher rpm request. The temps remained steady with no rise in temp. There was a lot of station wagon over the transom, so I brought them back down to 1500. Ran fine as always in every regard at 1500. When I returned to slip, I checked the oils to see if evidence of water. They both looked great. Good level and pure looking.
So whatcha think? Is this a fuel issue, timing issue? ??? I ran them back up in the slip with no load and up they went,, no weird sounds or smoke.