propbuster
Cadet
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2002
- Messages
- 12
Bad news from Texas....First time out on the lake this season was a couple of weeks ago (thats the good news). Bad news is that after running the motor for awhile, my wife smelled oil. I opened up the engine compartment and saw a brown, slimy mixture of oil/water on the top and sides of the engine. Obviously, this was not a good way to start the summer!<br /><br />My first thought was maybe water froze in the engine over the winter. But, I had removed the water hoses, brass plugs, etc. and drained it last fall, so that didn't make sense. I went through the same process as the 3 previous years.<br /><br />I took the boat back to my house and pumped the oil out. When I say "oil", it was really about 80% water and 20% oil. So, I put new oil in the engine, but did not start it. I did hand-crank the engine a little by taking off the water pump and putting a wrench on the crank. Mainly, I wanted to get some oil in the engine, if possible, to avoid rust. Not sure if handcranking did any good, but that was better than nothing. I also turned the key for a few seconds, but it sounded terrible when trying to dry-start, so I quit.<br /><br />I couldn't see anything obviously wrong, so I took it to the local dealer. Turns out the manifold on top of the engine has a crack, which is maybe 3 inches long and linear. The strange part was that he currently has 7 boats in his shop with the exact problem. This appears to be a cast aluminum manifold. I have a picture, but can't figure out how to post it on here.<br /><br />The dealer had personally winterized one of the boats with a cracked manifold, so he is sure that was done correctly, i.e. not a freezing problem.<br /><br />The part is on back-order for 2 to 3 months from Volvo. So the dealer arranged for an experienced welder to fix the crack. I am guessing that welding aluminum takes a highly experienced welder, but the dealer seems to have a lot of confidence that this will work.<br /><br />Has anyone else had a similar experience? It seems too coincidental to have 7 boats all with the same problem on the same engine all in the same local area. According to the dealer, Volvo does not acknowledge a problem.
