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white smoke exhaust

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bleeg

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I have a marine power 350 vortex engine. I get white smoke from the exhaust at 3000 rpm and above. Changed risers, manifolds, and new carb. New plugs, wires, distributor, clean and tested heat exchanger, raw water pump and impeller, and thermostat. The only thing I haven't changed is the muffler. the engine seems louder than before. Could the muffler be the problem where water is gathered and heated, creating steam?

My mechanic wants to bring the manifolds to his bench to test for cracks. Not losing much antifreeze is any.

Bleeg
 
White smoke and steam are two different entities....

the water should enter the exhaust at the elbows so the muffler should not be a contributor.

If the FWC is a 'full system', and that was pressure tested OK, there's not much benefit to paying the labor to bench test the exhaust manifolds...especially if they are new.

I'd be inclined to figure out what you are seeing in the exhaust first...if not, you are gonna throw even more money into it...
 
Thank you for your reply. I would say Steam; obviously, the higher the RPM, the more steam. The engine is FWC

Bleeg
 
I did put a new raw water pump in this season, with no difference in results
 

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I read that earlier...I was suggesting you measure its product to make sure everything else on the supply side of the raw water system is performing as needed.
 
MY mechanic looked at the water flow. He thought it was good. A salesperson from Soudnown thought that if the engine got louder and the steam began simultaneously, he thought there was an issue. The engine is not receiving enough salt water to go through. My mechanic thinks we should put a new and larger strainer in. I'm hesitant because of the expense of fiberglass hull work, etc. During the first few years I had the boat, there wasn't a problem. I'm at the end of this. I want to buy a new boat, but I don't feel I should make this somebody else's problem.
 
I'd be incline to get a mechanic with a better thought process...I believe your conclusion on the raw water flow is accurate. thinking that the flow is adequate is fine but actually measuring it lets you put a real check in the box....

changing to a larger strainer says the originator has no real handle on the situation, especially given that the strainer size wasn't an issue previously. It could be the strainer lid isn't tight/gasket is flawed, a loose hose clamp (or two), or a hose that has gone bad (they have been known to delaminate on the inside. Oil coolers using the raw water are also known to accumulate crud due to their 'restrictions' intrinsic to their designs...

Another 'aid' to debugging water flow problems (at least on the pressure side) is a piece of clear hose....is can be inserted where a hose goes enabling one to assess the water flow at that point....aerated water doesn't cool very well...
 
I am thinking of getting a second opinion. We did put new hoses in from the hull to the onboard strainer, the old-fashioned brass raw water type. The lid seems fine, and I think the intake strainer from the hull I cut offers better internal water flow as a scoop. There are still a couple of hoses I could replace. The only thing I haven't looked into is the oil cooler, which, 5 years ago, I had to have the entrance welded back on. I am not sure if the oil cooler could cause such a problem.
 
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