Volvo Penta 4.3 GL Water In Cylinders After Running

[mckaras]

Hi everyone, just looking for some insight as to what could cause water in cylinders after running an engine. I ran the engine on the hose for about 4/5 minutes and turned it off, then turned off the water. I went to go start it again and this time it didn't start and pulled all the plugs and cranked over the engine. Water misted out of the sparkplug holes on every single except one.

I've read the cause of this could be blocked up risers, I'm not sure what else it could be. All cylinders were 180 PSI prior to me running any water thru the engine and I checked again and some were higher around the 210-220 range from water being in the cylinders. I bought the boat knowing the owner had run the engine a bit hot due to a shredded water pump impeller and changed that out.

Engine oil is completely clean.

Any insight as to what all it could be?

 

[Scott Danforth]

Pressure test the cooling water jacket. If it doesn't hold 15psi, you have a cracked block or heads

 

[mckaras]

Pressure test the cooling water jacket. If it doesn't hold 15psi, you have a cracked block or heads

It was winterized by a shop and all the water was drained out, I don't see how that could be possible but I will do so. I did remove the risers and you can see that the gasket was leaking water in. It's one of those paper gaskets not the metal ones.

 

[Scott Danforth]

It was winterized by a shop and all the water was drained out, I don't see how that could be possible but I will do so.

Trust no one but your own wrench turning

 

[mckaras]

Pressure test the cooling water jacket. If it doesn't hold 15psi, you have a cracked block or heads

What would I need to pressure test the cooling system?

 

[Scott Danforth]

What would I need to pressure test the cooling system?

Block off the hoses to the manifolds and the one from the PS cooler. Pressurize to 15 psi, shut off pressure supply.

Should hold pressure forever

 

[Lou C]

When the previous owner said, it got a BIT hot, what exactly does that mean?
Because overheats on these engines, can result in blown head gaskets and cracked cyl heads. Had both on mine some years back. A worn impeller can cause a mild overheat (180-200) but a shredded one, that could be like 220-240*F. Depending on how fast they noticed it.
Come back after you do your testing. BTW, you can have normal or close to normal compression test results and still have a blown HG and cracked heads. I saw that on mine.
If that's the case you might be in for doing this soon, hopefully not!
When I had my problem I had water in a couple of cyls, water in the oil and rough running. I would up replacing the heads with a pair of reman heads, new Fel Pro marine head gaskets and new ARP cylinder head bolts.

 

[mckaras]

When the previous owner said, it got a BIT hot, what exactly does that mean?
Because overheats on these engines, can result in blown head gaskets and cracked cyl heads. Had both on mine some years back. A worn impeller can cause a mild overheat (180-200) but a shredded one, that could be like 220-240*F. Depending on how fast they noticed it.
Come back after you do your testing. BTW, you can have normal or close to normal compression test results and still have a blown HG and cracked heads. I saw that on mine.
If that's the case you might be in for doing this soon, hopefully not!
When I had my problem I had water in a couple of cyls, water in the oil and rough running. I would up replacing the heads with a pair of reman heads, new Fel Pro marine head gaskets and new ARP cylinder head bolts.

He turned off the boat when the alarm sounded and got towed to the dock by another boat. The impeller was completely shredded so it would have climbed fairly quickly in temperature. He's had it out on the water before from what he told me and had no issues. Then a few months ago he took it out and it started overheating in a couple minutes. He wasn't driving around on it and then the impeller got shredded. It's a cheap 18 ft Four Winns that the entire interior was shot and in addition to all the fun one of the starter bolts broke so I can see why he sold it. I had to pull the engine to remove the broken bolt, impossible to get to it any other way.

So far all I see is the bad riser gaskets and I have a new set of metal riser and manifold gaskets I'll be putting on. There's no water in oil at all, oil is clean. I checked it after running it on a hose. Only place there was water was the combustion chambers from where it was leaking from the riser gaskets. I already pulled plugs, turned it over, and fogged the engine a couple times. I'll be changing out oil regardless so it's fresh and likely a little water got inside from being in the combustion chambers however the oil level did not change at all.