There is oil in my bilge! :eek:

[mrdopes]

Man-oh-man,

I have a 1985 Merc 260 in a 26 sundancer.

I feel like i opened up a big can of worms with this boat in the last 3-4 weeks.

and the story continues...

We are expecting a 3 day freeze here, so I went and pulled my block plugs, and noticed a good, and I mean 'good', as in "what the hell is this doing here", amount of oil in my bilge. So, I checked my oil dipstick, and it was barely registering any oil....

I changed the oil a month ago, and i brought the oil level in the engine up to full, so I cant imagine that much oil going anywhere else...

My compression is very good in all cylinders, so i am not burning it....and like I said, that much oil was not in that bilge last time i was down there looking around.

I smelled a little oil burning last time I was out, but figured it was something dripping off a valve cover and hitting the head. I ordered the valve cover gaskets last week.

If this were one of your boats, where would you be looking? Oil pan?

 

[444]

Re: There is oil in my bilge!

I'd be looking at the oil pan. Either your drain plug is not sealing correctly or the pan is rusted through. On my buddy's truck the pan was rusted so thin it developed a pinhole in the bottom of the pan, and that being the lowest point on his motor, he would lose all his oil as the truck sat. Alternatively it could be you screwed something up with the drain plug last time you changed oil. Don't rule anything out until you check it. I don't think you could have lost that much oil through the valve cover gaskets in one outing.

 

[ziggy]

Re: There is oil in my bilge!

If this were one of your boats, where would you be looking?

i had me a leak on my L6 over the last year. not as bad as yours as it'd never change my dip stick reading. but a leak non the less.
clean up yer engine best ya can and start looking for the leak. with that much oil loss, surely it'll show up as a drip somewhere. follow the drip up. leaks always run down hill.
i used a digital camera for many inspections of places i thought the leak was. all to no avail. in the end. it was my oil pan that had a pin hole in it.

that leak was miserable to find. so close to the drain plug (ya can see the bolt head just behind the drip. the pic is aft. looking fwd though), i thought it was that seal. nope. thats backing soda i smashed on the pan. ya can see the wet spot. this helped me decide that it was most likely a rusty pan. only way to find out for sure was to R&R the pan. it was a rusty pan.

that said. on my previous L6 engine i had an oil leak too. that one turned out to be a valve cover gasket at the very back of the engine. it had been install improper and had never made a seal.. that one was easier to find as i just followed the drip up till it terminated at the valve cover.

a digital camera can really be your friend. you'll be able to stick it into places you can't see.

 

[Fishermark]

Re: There is oil in my bilge!

Another place to look for rust is the timing cover. That's salt water for ya!

 

[zbnutcase]

Re: There is oil in my bilge!

Or block adapter and hoses if you have a remote mounted oil filter...

 

[NHGuy]

Re: There is oil in my bilge!

Look at the easy stuff too, is there any oil around the filter? You might have double gasketted it if the old gasket stayed with the filter fixture when you took off the old filter. If you just need to fix a leak at the filter that's the smallest fix you could need.
Did you change the oil by pumping it out the dipstick hole? Or did it drain out the oil pan hole, check the pan plug if it was open.

 

[mrdopes]

Re: There is oil in my bilge!

This boat is new to me, only had it for about 6 weeks, so i never touched the oil pan drain, but I did change the oil through the dipstick.

How much would you fellas suppose I lost with the oil dipstick going from 'full' to a almost nothing? about a quart?

Anyways, the weather is turning for the worst for the next couple days, so I am going to have sit and wait till outdoor conditions improve a little.

You guys gave me plenty of places to look, and lots of ideas, so will have my hands full trying to chase that leak.

I will keep you all posted.

thanks

 

[littlebookworm]

Re: There is oil in my bilge!

NHGuy has the right idea. You recently changed the oil, so check what you might have done wrong. Is the oil filter tight? Did you possibly leave in the old gasket, causing a "double gasket"? Is a hose to the remote oil filter loose? Is a valve cover leaking? Clean up the engine and the engine bay. Then put some oil absorbant toweling on the bilge floor. Run your engine and look for leaks. Good luck. Hy

 

[GLENN M]

Re: There is oil in my bilge!

2-litres or should i say quarts.if you have 5 quart total capacity

 

[mrdopes]

Re: There is oil in my bilge!

the oil filter is seated well and there is no double gasket... the oil pan drain plug is snug. There were not any obvious leaks or signs of dripping from anywhere around the rear of the motor or the valve cover gaskets.

However, the left (if you are standing toward the bow) engine mount has a nice little pool of fresh oil sitting around the head of the bolt that holds it to the stringer. This is the only oil anywhere that was not in the bilge, so I am assuming that the source of the leak is around here somewhere.

This engine mount is closest the power steering pump (is that what that is?) and the timing cover.

You fellas have any other ideas?? The front of that motor is so cramped I'm not looking forward to pulling that timing chain cover...