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Water in my pistons

S

sheer bliss

New member
Hi I'm new to this. I have a Gobbi with a Volvo Pental 5.7 gls. Serviced this year and was running great. Had a split water hose (I'm in Spain so salt water) which was renewed by my mechanic. Next problem I had was she wouldn't accelerate beyond 10 knots. My mechanic removed and cleaned the carb and after refitting she wouldn't start at all. Changed my mechanic and new guy says I have water in the pistons. Is this possible? Could my previous mechanic have done something wrong to cause this?
 
If you live in Spain I would normally discard a cracked block due to freezing. But if your engine did not have enough cooling at some point you may have a blown head gasket. I would start by running a compression test and if everything looks good then a leak down test; that is, pressurize each cylinder with low pressure compressed air ad see if/where you hear an air leak. The problem could also be caused by a corroded exhaust manifold
 
el_pescador said:
If you live in Spain I would normally discard a cracked block due to freezing. But if your engine did not have enough cooling at some point you may have a blown head gasket. I would start by running a compression test and if everything looks good then a leak down test; that is, pressurize each cylinder with low pressure compressed air ad see if/where you hear an air leak. The problem could also be caused by a corroded exhaust manifold
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Hi, thanks for that. My new mechanic is here tonight to show me the problem. He tells me that after removing the spark plugs and cranking the engine, sea water blows up through the engine and out of the spark plug holes. I've had sea water in there for a couple of weeks at least but he tells me once he has identified "one of three problems it can be" it can be repaired whilst in the water and the salt water won't have done terminal damage. Is that right? I was worried that I would need a new engine because of the damage the salt water will have done.
 
Protocol, IMO, would have been to fire this up ASAP...... even if that meant pulling the sea water pump impeller, and doing a quick 8-10 second "Dry Start"!

You may have an exhaust maniold/riser issue, in that your engine underwent water reversion, of which may explain the sea water in the engine.
This needs to be determinded before putting it back together, only to repeat the same problem.

I would perform the leak-down test that Eduardo suggests.

.
 
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