LilBluePill
Cadet
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2005
- Messages
- 10
As you could decipher from the subject, my boat is in bad shape. My question however is fairly simple. We paid to have local boat repair shop replace the gimbal unit as the entire steering column had worn away and been freely moving in the drive. (Bear with me I am learning the terms and how things work as I go through this nightmare.) This was in February at the beginning of the season. We ran the boat this summer about 5-6 times normally a full day or so at a time. We decide to go to Table Rock in MO for vacation and it starts overheating the second day we are on the lake (first day ran great but very short run, maybe 45 minutes pulling a wakeboarder). A mechanic friend helped us to look into the thermostat, the seals on the lower unit and the water pump. All seemed to be fine and the seals and thermostat were replaced to again test the boat on the water. The boat still overheated and we pulled it off the water to take it to a local shop for help. They ran a compression test on #5 cylinder and it was at 25 psi with water visible in the cylinder. For the entire duration of our vacation, the boat was off the lake. We affectionately
nicknamed her "the glorified swim platform" and then on the 900 mile trek home "trailer queen with a full tank of gas". Now we get it back to the shop that orginally did the repair. The damage list includes: a hole in the lower unit housing where the hose clamp (worm clamp) was placed at 6 o'clock rather than the manual specified 3 or 9 o'clock. The hose that they replaced when the Gimbal work was done was kinked and installed that way thus cutting off water supply to the engine. The hose was kinked with the unit all the way down, all the way up and the both to the left and the right. The engine then was opened up and between the 3rd and 5th cylinders the head gasket is burnt completely through. There is also a perfect hole in the casting between these cylinders where if the engine was assembled, a pencil could lie easily in the gap created by the compression or steam.<br /><br />Now onto the questions:<br />Has anyone seen this type of damage to a casting in this type of engine before? Is the cause known and if so what was it? How long do you estimate that it took to do something like this? Would having the engine starved of water create or accelerate this problem?<br />When installing the return water hose should the length be cut? How long should the installed hose be?<br />Does the alignment of the exhaust clamp matter? How, in the real world, should it be aligned? <br /><br />The engine is a 1997 Mercruiser 350 5.7L with 2 barrel carberators. Serial No. K165344. The drive is an Alpha 1. <br /><br />We have owned this boat for 3 years and not had any problem, until now besides the gimbal repair, and not until after this shop worked on it. They, of course, are denying responsibility for everything.<br /><br />Any opinion, answer, or suggestion shall be greatly appreciated. If I have not described something well or if anyone out there reading this has additional questions, please let me know and I will work to get it answered and answered correctly. I also have pictures of all the damage and would be glad to share if that would help. 