Fishermark
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2003
- Messages
- 5,617
Sorry in advance for the long post, but here goes? I took the boat out for a spin yesterday afternoon - 1988 24? Sportcraft with a 2003 Mercruiser 5.7 crate engine and Alpha clone (SE106) outdrive. The engine serial number is OM657558.
Cruised at around 3200 rpms for 10 miles or so, as I approached our destination - Cayo Costa Island - I came back down to slow speed and noted the engine sounded ?different.? A little ragged and rough, but not terrible.
After sitting at the dock for about 5 hours, we started up for the journey back. It ran very rough and would barely idle at all. It took some doing to get into gear without stalling, but finally were able to. Boat ran very rough - sputtered - coughed - backfired until we got up to our cruising speed of 3,000 rpms - give or take. Any time we would slow down it threatened to die.
Today I pulled the plugs and looked at them - to be honest I half expected them to be wet or show signs of rusty water?. But nothing. I turned the engine over - no water comes out of the cylinders. I pulled off the fuel water separator, gas looks clean with no water at all and no debris.
I put new plugs back in, and want to check more to make sure there is no water getting in the cylinders. Is there any way to check for water in the cylinders other than pulling the risers and manifolds? These have the dry joint risers and the gaskets are expensive - something like $40 a piece! I would like to avoid pulling them off if possible.
The manifolds and risers are original with the engine, so they are five years old. I?ve always flushed the engine after use and neither the engine nor risers get hot. I can put my hand on them. Does that tend to rule out them rusting out and leaking internally?
I took some pictures of the plugs and will post the results. In the meantime, any suggestions?
Cruised at around 3200 rpms for 10 miles or so, as I approached our destination - Cayo Costa Island - I came back down to slow speed and noted the engine sounded ?different.? A little ragged and rough, but not terrible.
After sitting at the dock for about 5 hours, we started up for the journey back. It ran very rough and would barely idle at all. It took some doing to get into gear without stalling, but finally were able to. Boat ran very rough - sputtered - coughed - backfired until we got up to our cruising speed of 3,000 rpms - give or take. Any time we would slow down it threatened to die.
Today I pulled the plugs and looked at them - to be honest I half expected them to be wet or show signs of rusty water?. But nothing. I turned the engine over - no water comes out of the cylinders. I pulled off the fuel water separator, gas looks clean with no water at all and no debris.
I put new plugs back in, and want to check more to make sure there is no water getting in the cylinders. Is there any way to check for water in the cylinders other than pulling the risers and manifolds? These have the dry joint risers and the gaskets are expensive - something like $40 a piece! I would like to avoid pulling them off if possible.
The manifolds and risers are original with the engine, so they are five years old. I?ve always flushed the engine after use and neither the engine nor risers get hot. I can put my hand on them. Does that tend to rule out them rusting out and leaking internally?
I took some pictures of the plugs and will post the results. In the meantime, any suggestions?
