At a complete loss...... UNLESS....

Chemdawg

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 31, 2013
Messages
112
Hello everyone again... Well more questions here.... In an earlier post, I commented on the milky color of my oil. So here come my problems and questions..

1: 1987 3.0 Mercruiser with alpha 1 outdrive
2: No water in oil after running
3: Engine overheated during running because of a bad impeller, so I shut it down before it burned up
4: Replaced impeller and thermostat, and it ran great and cooled fine.
5: Checked oil before bringing it to lake, and still nice oil color
6: Checked oil after coming home, and noticed the tan milky color. But it's NOT over filled
7: Did a compression check on each cylinder and had (Left to Right) 110 80 80 110

So. With that being said, I was assuming it was a blown head gasket. No problem. I seen online and someone commented on my last post that you can pull off the valve cover and rotate the engine by hand till the #2 cylinder has both valves closed, and pull the plug out of #3. Introduce air into the cylinder, and you should have air coming out plug 3"s hole. I tried that, and I had light air coming out the far left plug, but nothing really out of #3. So I didn't think that was a very definitive test. So.... Drained all water out of engine and manifold. Blocked off the hose going to the manifold, and pumped air into the hose coming from the impeller. Air went in, and held. Even with the plugs out. When I opened up the water valve on the block, the air rushed out. So that tells me no cracked block.

I read the water in oil sticky posted by Don a while ago, and it the mercury bulletin in that post, stated something about water coming back in through the exhaust during hard deceleration. I'm not sure if this is the case at all. (prop exhaust, not through hull)

So with all of this info, does it still sound like there is an issue with my head gasket? I really don't want to pull it off and find out there was nothing wrong there. Should I pull the intake/exhaust off, and check to see that it's holding water?

What are my next steps?

Thank you all so much in advance

Pat Frailing
 
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bonzoscott

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 26, 2008
Messages
745
Re: At a complete loss...... UNLESS....

Those numbers indicate head gasket. Even if its not the gasket, a valve job is in order for those numbers.
 

Chemdawg

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 31, 2013
Messages
112
Re: At a complete loss...... UNLESS....

So I pulled off the manifold, and cleaned it up. Filled it with water, and I can see the level at the ports by the exhaust side, and at the fill point. I'm going to let it sit over night and see if the level goes down. I doubt it, cause it's been sitting over an hour full and when I checked it a few minutes ago, it was still full.

So next step, is to pull the head off. Not sure what a full valve job will cost. But I may just take it in to have that done.
 

stonyloam

Vice Admiral
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Mar 13, 2009
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5,827
Re: At a complete loss...... UNLESS....

I seen online and someone commented on my last post that you can pull off the valve cover and rotate the engine by hand till the #2 cylinder has both valves closed, and pull the plug out of #3. Introduce air into the cylinder, and you should have air coming out plug 3"s hole. I tried that, and I had light air coming out the far left plug, but nothing really out of #3.

If you put air into #2 and it came out of #1 you may not have a leak into #3, but you do have a problem. With both #2 valves closed you shouldn't have air coming out anywhere. With the valves closed the only way for air to get into #1 is past a leaky valve. See what happens when you test #3 with the valves closed.
 

Chemdawg

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Aug 31, 2013
Messages
112
Re: At a complete loss...... UNLESS....

So no leakage on manifold. I took the head off today, and could see the black trace between 2 and 3 on the head gasket where it blew. I also see a trace between one of the other cylinders. So. Head gasket time. Now a couple of questions about this. I'm going to clean up the head and replace the valve seals while I have it out. Looking at the valves, they look VERY clean. Not sure it's necessary to pull valves, clean them, and relap them.

However, looking at the head bolts, I'm not sure if I should just replace them, or reuse them. They don't look bad, but I dont know if you can reuse them or not. If I need to get new ones, where can I find them. I can't seem to locate them here on the forum store.
 

Chemdawg

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 31, 2013
Messages
112
Re: At a complete loss...... UNLESS....

Hmmm... Link doesn't work.
 

stonyloam

Vice Admiral
Joined
Mar 13, 2009
Messages
5,827
Re: At a complete loss...... UNLESS....

Hmm, OK do a search on "draw filing"
 

Chemdawg

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 31, 2013
Messages
112
Re: At a complete loss...... UNLESS....

Just an update here. Took head off, can see the burned spots where the gasket blew. Cleaned up head, relapped valves, replaced seals, cleaned block, and replaced gasket. Got the rockers set, and checked compression. 120lbs per cylinder now. The mercruiser manual says that it's 140psi per cylinder. However, I'm thinking this boat being 26 years old, will probably have some compression loss due to the rings being worn a bit. I'm happy with the 120psi.

Going to finish assembling, test it out, then on to winterizing.

Pretty psyched.
 

Fishermark

Vice Admiral
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Messages
5,617
Re: At a complete loss...... UNLESS....

You're fine with the compression numbers. When you had the manifold off, how did the riser look?
 

Chemdawg

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 31, 2013
Messages
112
Re: At a complete loss...... UNLESS....

did you have the head checked for true?

Once I had everything cleaned up, I used my granite surface table at work to check the flatness of the head. I was able to get .002 shim stock in one spot but nothing more than that. Talking to my merc guy, I was told that's pretty good.

Got the motor completely together, everything filled up again. Fired it up, and it ran GREAT. Let it run for a little bit It did not get hot at all, and now no more water in the oil. The Riser looked ok. Some rust inside the manifold where the water passages are. But nothing beyond normal.

I'm pretty happy everything is running normal, no over heating. Good compression, no smoking, and no water/oil mixing.
 
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