broken piston

[brussell]

Howdy Folks,
I got an 88 spl with 120 in 3 cylinders and 90 in the 4th. Boat ran pretty good before I took it to my shop to have the foot fixed. Long story short, new foot(rebuilt), water pump, and they cranked it...Said it was runnin a bit funny so they pressure tested...said it had a broken piston. $1000 for the rebuild worst case..

I paid $1500 for the boat 8 years ago and ran the heck out of it but there was time where it sat up..Mechanic said it may have had a malfunctioning carb on that side and it was slowly burning the piston.

What do y'all think?

The trailer is good but the boat is in need of paint seats, etc

Is it worth fixin or maybe selling or parting out? The boast is 27 years old.

 

[flabum]

Re: broken piston

you won't be able to find a replacement for $1000

 

[brussell]

Re: broken piston

Boat, engine or both?

 

[Lakester]

Re: broken piston

hello,

broken pistons aside..." beauty is in the eye of the beholder!"

one man's ceiling is another man's floor.

guess, what i am saying is what is it worth to you? given u prob wont get the rebuild $ out of it, but then... u have had it for 8 years.

so if u cant do the engine work, tear down, etc ur self... it would be worth it if u want to keep " this " boat/engine combo.

personally, while holes in pistons can and do happen, usually low cr is not a piston hole. piston crowns are brutally strong!! have seen m/c's eat thru a piston crown on long x-country run. if it was mine id pull the plug and put a light in there and look. a hole in piston is usually -0- CR in that hole. course... depends on when discovered. an erroded piston crown area could be size of a dime, with a pin hole a pin size to-date. but u can see that see that usually with the naked eye and a bore light.

a stuck ring could cost you 30 psi on a CR test, for example, too.

or a weak head gasket.

if it were my engine, and i was not a mechanic type... i would consider becoming one. i can tell u this... while i am a very expd mechanical kinda guy... i am not an outboard mechanic. this is a new game to the uninitiated. but some of the stuff is... the same. and u can get exp doing that.

u can get a dremel and emory and dielectric grease and go over all ur elec connections. u learn a lot if u do it with an oe sevice manual, too. many bolts are 1/4, 5/16ths, and 3/8th thread or similar size metric. removing them, cleaning threads, resetting them is ez to do and u get experience.

with a good set of Mechanics Tools from sears, for example, [$300-500 for all] to include tap n dies set, small files, etc and compressed air/eye goggles... you can soon be popping heads, by-pass plates, starters, ignitions, carbs, crankcases, and then...

rod bolts. and then ez enuff to just change the piston and or rings. if u cant get the piston off the rod, u can always source out that for about $25 is my bet. + parts.

for my $$ [$1,000] i'd get the equipment, tools, ref books and roll up my sleeves. many exp mechanics are greenfoots as soon as they say... "outboard'! and that means, starting almost from square one.

then what ever project area u need to address, start a new thread here and pose questions...

" ask it, and they will follow! " with answers... lol

keep us posted and good luck what ever route u take.

regards,

lakester

 

[Lakester]

Re: broken piston

hello,

dont want to say anything negative about a shop i dont know, but...

"Said it was runnin a bit funny so they pressure tested...said it had a broken piston."

usually one has to do a Leakdown Test to determine the source of any leakage...

a compression test is not a leakdown test, if that is what they did. and short of a visual inspection, to my best exp'd "eye" both a ring and piston could leak same amount under certain conditions. i think if in doubt a tear-down of that hole and inspection would be warranted. u may have scuffed a piston running WOT. and pinched the ring in its lands... in which case, it may be as simple as servicing the parts, and some gaskets. that is, unless a Major is more preferred to $ell the customer on... [sigh]

regards

lakester

 

[brussell]

Re: broken piston

I asked him if it could be seafoamed and how was he sure the thing was busted..He said he did look into that piston and assured me it was gone..He said he would no more once he tore it down but wanted to see what I said. He said you cant get a new engine but the rebuild would start around 1000..

Also,
he said if I decided to fix I should make sure I plan on running it forever cause it'll be ready to go then. He has done work for me before and was highly recommended..I feel I can trust him.

Personally I hate to see it go, but I got another boat and 2 jeeps that need work..Plus a house to fix up and I have very little extra money....

I dunno what I'm gonna do...

On top of all this the lake is down and may not come back until NEXT spring....

In the last talk we had he suggested bringing him my fishing boat(which needs work) and he would see if the motor is still good(it runs). Then I would know which one was worth fixing.. Said I could prolly sell the boat for $100, trailer for 200-300 and the rebuilt lower unit for around 400.

If the fishing boat only needs a water pump and carb rebuild it may be better to fix that one...

I guess I'll have a whiskey tonight and start brainstorming...

 

[Lakester]

Re: broken piston

hello,

why dont u consider going down to the shop and see the broken piston for urself? the least it would be is a learning experience. broken is broken, but where did the broken part go? is it broken on crown side or skirt side?

well, sad but true... boats run on more than just oil n gas.

no doubt u will make the best decision for ur needs.

all the best for a good '08!!

regards

lakester

 

[Silvertip]

Re: broken piston

If the mechanic can "see" a broken piston through the spark plug hole, so can you. If you don't know what a broken piston looks like, look in one of the good cylinders and compare it with the bad one. My bet is the piston is not broken as 90 PSI compression is still high enough to have a fairly decent running engine although perhaps a bit lumpy at idle. The piston probably shows some signs of a lean condition and hence some pitting or loss of metal on the edge of the piston. Never the less, the piston needs to be replaced and the cause of the failure fixed. The cause is probably a carb that needs rebuilding.

 

[patrick4266]

Re: broken piston

I also have no experience with out boards. However i have been a machanic ever since I was a kid. My 1970, 85 hp evinrude runs good but i am looking forward to rebuilding a outboard engine. I been looking for a messed up one locally to tear into.

 

[Lakester]

Re: broken piston

hello,
are you near a good sized town?? there are no shortages of outboards of all kinds offered on Craig's List under Boats.
good luck
lakester

 

[samo_ott]

Re: broken piston

Why look through the spark plug hole when for the price of a gasket you can pull the head and see it all?

 

[brussell]

Re: broken piston

I'm gonna haul the fishing boat to him and see which one of the two is worth putting money into...

Both are old and ugly...

But you cant even begin to buy a new boat these days for less than 15 grand...

anyone in the market for some used boats?

 

[brussell]

Re: broken piston

One thing to mention...the ole Rude always idled rough and spewed what I thought was gas until it warmed up.

 

[Lakester]

Re: broken piston

well, pulling head will sure open it ALL up for a look-see, so long as it is broken on the crown side. but spark plug hole is immediate port hole of opportunity, and no $25 head gasket has to be replaced, if they even would do that then.

cost to pull head gasket? $ 100

cost to rebuild engine? $1000

cost to pull spark plug and look... "Priceless"

sorry, couldnt resist..

lol~

regards

lakester

 

[brussell]

Re: broken piston

It may be time to go with a newer boat..I wish I had found this out before i fixed the lower unit.....but that's the way it goes....