Help, Help, water in engine

[MSmith3615]

I need all the help I can, I recently had my boat in for service for a tune up and to check the cooling system. The boat was overheating alittle, I dropped it off a few days went by and they called me and said everything was ok. When I went to pick the boat up I was told is was not Idleing right, when I heard that I was suprised because when I took it in it was running great minus alittle overheating. So me and a tech went to the river and tried to run it, It would not start. We took it back to the shop and after some trouble shooting we determined it was just flooded. So once we got it running something just did not seem right, it just did not sound right, sounded like it was running on 6 cylinders instead of 8. They pulled the plugs and water just came dripping off them, otherwise water was in the engine. Wow I was shocked the boat only had 300 hours on it and I know that water had never gotten in the engine before, I checked the plugs before the tune-up, they never have gotten wet. So I was freaked out, I asked them what all they did and they said a tune-up and replaced the impeller. So I wonder what caused this? They told me that they are not responsible but I know for sure that before I had it serviced water was not getting in the motor, I'm a certifed mercruiser tech and have been to school and everything which does not mean much but I know water wasn't getting in the engine. I checked the boat out 100% before took it in. I almost sure it has somthing to do with the new impeller. All I know is they messed with the cooling system and now water is getting into the block and I mean alot of water. Checked compression and it was 170-180 and all cylinders. What could cause this?Please help, any suggestions to what might of happened please advise. 1985 260/mercrusier/5.7/v-8/300hrs.

 

[Laddies]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

You could have a cracked manifold or exhaust elbow

 

[DHPMARINE]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

3615,I'm not calling you out,but if you are a certified tech,and all they did was replace the impeller in tbe outdrive,how can you substantiate it is their fault ?<br /><br />Maybe a little over heating went a long way ?<br /><br />When you checked the plugs the first time and they were not wet,maybe you should have put the new ones in yourself.And not asked for the tune up.<br /><br />If you want to level with me,and the rest of us,you'll get honest responses.<br /><br />DHP

 

[RubberFrog]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

Are you serious? Why did you bring it in if you're a certified tech? If you're a tech, you should be able to run down the list of possible sources of water. And if you're a tech, you know it has absolutely nothing to do with the impeller.

 

[tommays]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

this has to be some type of miss typeing because it makes no sense (I'm a certifed mercruiser tech )<br /><br /><br />tommays

 

[RubberFrog]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

Originally posted by 3615:<br />The boat was overheating alittle....

Famous last words.<br />

Originally posted by 3615:<br /> All I know is they messed with the cooling system and now water is getting into the block and I mean alot of water.

Is this for real????<br />

Originally posted by 3615:<br /> I'm a certifed mercruiser tech and have been to school and everything which does not mean much

apparently not....<br />Sorry none of this makes sense. Either you're not really a tech, or.... I dunno. I'm not a tech either. Hang out around here for a while and you will learn a lot. For example, you'll learn that impellers can't let water into your engine. What does your exhaust manifold look like? You said compression was ok? Head gasket is ok? Any noise from the valves? Maybe a bad valve?

 

[MSmith3615]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

Sorry to let everyone down but I was certified a tech at one time, My family and I owned a marina for 45 years and a certified Mercruiser and OMC engine shop,which we sold about 12 years ago. Which when OMC went down we stuck with mercruiser. I can assure you I know how to change plugs but I needed a some work on my outdrive "yoke seal replaced", and I did not have the place, tools, our time to do it myself. I haven't messed around with a boat engine in about 12 years, maybe more. I can assure you that from the age 10 until 25 all i did was live in the engine shop,which I'm almost 40, and when was out of high school my family made sure I was cerrtified to work on every engine we worked on. That was 18 years ago! Sure over 18 years I've forgotten alot of things that is why I'm asking for help. Here is what was done to the boat, replaced yoke seal, thermostat, and impeller. Compression test showed ok. There is no cracked manifold and bellows are ok. I'm not saying the impeller caused this! I'm saying it showed the problem. Which I don't know what it is? All i know is before the old impeller was dead and I had no water in engine now that it has been replaced I have water in engine. Some how it is related. Maybe the old impeller wasn't pumping enough water pressure to push water in engine. Like I said I don't know and 5 techs who had about 50 years on the job where just a clueless. I ran down every water source problem, and with out breaking down engine I'm lost. Look I'm not saying I'm a merc tech genuis far from it.

 

[MSmith3615]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

the source of the water is from the cooling system, I'm not saying its the cause it just that the old impeller was not pumping enough water to bring the problem to light. I had a water intake problem with the impeller and it was replaced. and know water is in my engine within 2 min of starting and fouling new plugs within about 5 min. I had the boat out on the water about40 hours already this year, and If water was getting in engine then the plugs would have fouled many hours ago. The reason i say this is because at the shop they replaced the plugs twice while I was there in a 10 min period.

 

[RubberFrog]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

If you're certain the manifold is OK, then I would be looking at the head/gasket. A crack is possible, but I would check out the head first. Don or Rodbolt or someone can tell you how to do a leakdown test.<br />I didn't mean to sound like a jerk. I had a few Baileys and maybe the buzz got to me....<br />George

 

[Don S]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

I was with DHP when I first read this, and if it's on the up & up, my first questions would be:<br />1. Do you have freshwater or raw water cooling?<br />2. How old are the exhaust manifolds and risers?<br />3. How hot did the "Overheat" get to?

 

[MSmith3615]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

Wow!!!! Overheating alittle, engine never got above 160 and on a 1985 merc 260/v8 143 is normal engine temp. This is why I'm drinking alot of whiskey tonight, I and everyone else can't make any sense of this. Here we go again, last sunday I noticed gear oil coming through weep hole, which came through bellows. Bad Yoke seal! I needed it fixed so I made appt and since it was in the shop and it was a 1985 motor I though I should get a tune-up. Since I had already checked plugs and even though they looked ok I thought to be on safe side I would get a tune up. Even though the boat was running great, and since I noticed the temp getting up around and sometimes above 160 I figured it would not hurt to have the cooling system checked out too. the boat is 20 years old, and its been ten years since tune-up. I checked the impeller and found the water stream to be alittle weak. So I told the certified mercruiser shop which has been around for 65 years. That I believe I needed a new yoke seal and a tune-up and to check the cooling system. Well they did all that and called me and said boat was running strong and ready to be picked up. When i went and picked up they wanted to do water test with me in the boat to show me it was running ok. well got down to water and it would not start. Even though the tech just did a water test 1 hour before and it ran according to him strong. We went back to shop and got it runnig but noticed it did not seem to be firing on all cylinders. We then decieded to pull plugs and when we did water ran off them, and when doing compression test cylinders 6 and 8 where spitting water out real bad. Did compression test showed a consistint 180 on every cylinder. we decieded to replace plugs and unhook cooling system and ran engine for no more that 2min and it fired on all eight cylinders, we then hooked up cooling system and it went down to 6 cylinders and water was getting in engine. I'm totally lost the reason I want to blame the shop is because I know for sure water was not getting in the engine because the old plugs showed no signs of water and they would have fouled since the new plugs fouled in 5-10m min. Someone said maybe valve overlap? I don't think it could of would be that but I don't know.

 

[Don S]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

Good, you answered 1 out of 3 questions, and of course it was the one I was least concerned about.<br />Put down the whisky bottle and come back in the morning and we can discuss the problem.

 

[MSmith3615]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

fresh closed water cooling system, don't know how old risers are or exhaust manifolds. I assume techs would have checked. Don't drink but i'm contemplating starting

 

[MSmith3615]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

All I know is when we changed plugs the last time we decieded to see if by disconnecting cooling system we could get engine to fire on all 8 cylinders and it did. But when reconnected cooling system water got in engine and plugs fouled.

 

[MSmith3615]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

I was told it was ok to run engine for no more than 2 min with cooling system disconnected. I was kind of a test to see it engine would fire on all 8 and it did. With cooling system connected water, water, water , everywhere. Engine went down to 7 cylinders then 6 cylinders than stalled and pulled wet plugs and some were fouled and some weren't. Not really sure about how many cylinders weren't firing just know it was not 8

 

[MSmith3615]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

The tech was was very old and had been working on mercruisers for a long time told me he was lost, but all he knew was it was not getting water in engine before and now it is, and the only thing they did was yoke seal, tune-up, and a new impeller. They ran boat after replacing yoke seal and before tune-up with old impeller and old plugs and water did not get in engine. It was only after a very young tech replaced the impeller and did the tune-up. This problem occured, they admit when I brought the boat in water was not getting in engine. They replaced yoke seal and called me to see it I wanted anything else down, that is when I said something about cooling issue and tune-up.

 

[MSmith3615]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

Don't give up on me please!

 

[wake5150]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

I'm suspect of the manifold also. How do you know it's good? Was it pressure tested? By who?<br /><br />My Guess: New Tech forgot to turn water on, overheated engine, cracked manifold.

 

[MSmith3615]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

Pressure test being done tommorrow on manifold, if it is cracked wouldn't water have already been getting in engine? If is manifold than what am I looking at as far as price and labor hours?

 

[MSmith3615]

Re: Help, Help, water in engine

I did notice that twice when young tech hooked up flusher he did not lower the outdrive and I thought that it was supposed to be in the down positon. When the older seasoned tech came over to see how he was doing he jumped in boat and turned the key off and lowered the outdrive and then restarted the boat.The out drive was in the trailored positon or all the way up. Does that matter?