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Water in Oil - HELP

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lilbigman81

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He everyone! This year my dad purchased an '88 Four Winns 160 Freedom with a 3.0L OMC Cobra. Before he bought it, the engine was started and ran using muffs. At that time everything looked great. The interior of the boat needs work, but engine wise, it sounded and ran smooth. Before it ever saw water we ran it again at home on muffs, checked oils and lubes, everything looked ok. This last Tuesday we finally got it in the water and the boat ran across the water well and didn't take on any water (bilge was dry). On Saturday we went to change the engine oil and filter, and the lower unit oil. Once we pulled the dipstick we found the oil to be milky. Drained the oil and had more than the supposed to be 4 quarts and it was like a milkshake. Changed the filter, added 4 fresh quarts of oil and started the engine on muffs. Within seconds we saw that we had water running down the port side engine. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what this could mean? Cracked block, gaskets? Didn't have this problem any other time we ran the engine and this is the first we've seen visible water and the water in the oil. Could running is on the lake Tuesday have loosened something up? I'm also wondering if the solution to this problem is something a fairly mechanical person is capable of taking on. Any and all suggestions and help would be awesome!!! Thanks!!!
 
they like to freeze-crack on the port side, up under the manifold - get a bright light and a mirror or crank your head in there upside down and look about an inch below the block to head seam.
 
So I looked under the manifold and am 99.99% positive there is a crack, may e six inches in length. Where should I go from here? Try to find a new block, complete motor or dump the boat? I'm definitely not happy. I think the PO must have done something to help conceal it when we bought it. I feel really bad for my dad since it's really his, he's just storing it at my house and I'll do the majority of the maintenance on it. Thanks again for your help so far.
 
you and about 300 others are looking for those blocks. They are one of the most common boat engines, weren't used in cars and are commonly found in entry level boats that are among the least likely to get winterized right.

That said... there is the odd used motor for sale and now you know what to look for...
and Michigan Motorz and other places sell a lot of new ones each year. The new one from GM generally costs about $2000- about the same as a rebuilt one - especially when you don't have a core - rebuilders don't have any use for cracked blocks.
DSCN0636.jpg


While you are under there looking at cracked things, have a look along the bottom of the exh manifold -might be cracked too.... what are the chances someone drained the manifold but not the block....
 
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Twenty seconds removing the block drain would have saved many thousands of dollars. A couple hundred spent having it checked by a marine mechanic before you handed over the money would have saved many thousands of dollars. At this point the boat may be a write off. Repowering an 80s or 90s vintage runabout just isn't worth it unless you just LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Reasonably expect to spend 2-2500 on the long block, plus the consumables to switch over the old components onto the new engine, plus the labor to do all that and install. That's what you call a big bill. Easily 4 grand. Maybe, probably more. Can you afford that many boat-dollars?
Expensive lesson. Sorry man.
 
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