Volvo Penta 5.7 GS Refuses To Start With Spark

[kona-surf]

About 4 months ago, I had a leaking exhaust manifold and ended up with water in cylinder #5 on my Volvo Penta 5.7GS engine. Fortunately I had fresh water flushed the engine so at least it was not salt water in the cylinder. Upon trying to start the engine I heard a hard clack noise and we thought the engine might be frozen. To make a long story short, I said a prayer and dumped in some Marvel Mystery Oil to help prevent seizing, I pulled the port side head and one of the valves in Cylinder #5 had broken off and was laying on top of the piston. I had the valve replaced for about $120 (in West Palm Beach, FL) and after putting everything back together (with new exhaust manifolds) we started the boat on just the 2nd try.

Amazing, now he thinks he's a mechanic... well, not really... I've got a lot to learn (this forum has been great). Fast foward a month later and the boat is tied up in our slip in Boca Raton, FL with an engine that runs fine but rocker arms were clacking a bit. After taking off the valve cover and re-adjusting the rocker arms, I tried to start the boat a week ago and the starter was bad. Replaced the starter, first with the wrong one from West Marine (high performance model which does not work with my engine) and got the correct one from a local shop (Cable Marine in Ft. Laud). The new starter works great (what a nightmare changing it though)... now the starter engages and turns the engine but it will not fire the engine.

A friend unsuccessfully tried adjusting the timing and even spraying starter fluid in the engine but it refuses to start. We do get spark, not sure if it is "good spark" as my marina mentioned this morning (blue color = good spark, orange/yellow = bad/weak spark). I'll check the spark condition and report back tomorrow. We suspect the issue now may be a flakey starter coil. Not sure if there is a resister on the coil but I get an 8Volt reading across the coil vs 12 at the battery. We also bypassed the ignition keyswitch with a jumper to the battery and that did not start it either.

Any other ideas why it might not be even firing with the starter fluid being sprayed into the intake? Given a new coil is about $50 I will probably just change it and see if that fixes the problem but given I do have spark (good/bad to be determined later), it seems the engine should at least fire up with the starter fluid.

For reference, the following are the details about my engine, etc.:
Motor: 5.7 PEFS sn 4012003534
Engine Number: DPSM1
Outdrive SN=4112090879
Transom Assembly=TSKSX-M3868844

Does anybody out there have the procedure to adjust the timing properly for this engine?

Thanks for any ideas and for all the tips and advice on this forum!

-Mike

 

[freelancer]

Re: Volvo Penta 5.7 GS Refuses To Start With Spark

Amazing, now he thinks he's a mechanic... well, not really... I've got a lot to learn (this forum has been great).

Any other ideas why it might not be even firing with the starter fluid being sprayed into the intake? Given a new coil is about $50 I will probably just change it and see if that fixes the problem but given I do have spark (good/bad to be determined later), it seems the engine should at least fire up with the starter fluid.

Careful with the starting fluid that stuff can be like CRACK on engines, they get hooked on it.
And as far as my mechanical ability "yesterday I heard the word engineer, today I are one":redface: Good luck.

 

[kona-surf]

Re: Volvo Penta 5.7 GS Refuses To Start With Spark

Yea, the last thing I want to hear is my boat is addicted to CRACK that results in a $10k engine pull. Too late on the engineer thing... that curriculum did a great job telling me how much I didn't know. Fortunately there are some folks with a clue on this forum!

 

[Bondo]

Re: Volvo Penta 5.7 GS Refuses To Start With Spark

Ayuh,... My WAGuess is,... You Over-tightened the Valves,+ now have No compression....

 

[Don S]

Re: Volvo Penta 5.7 GS Refuses To Start With Spark

Do a compression test first. Report back with results.

 

[kona-surf]

Re: Volvo Penta 5.7 GS Refuses To Start With Spark

Thanks for the feedback. I actually ran a compression test after re-installing the head on the port side. I don't remember the exact numbers but each of the cylinders did have compression. I'll re-run the test and report back the numbers.

Tonight I was just going to pull the ignition coil and figured I would go back to basics. I removed all the spark plugs which revealed some interesting results. The port side plugs were a little damp and starting to slightly corrode. These plugs are only about 3 months old. One of the plug's ceramic part was cracked from one of the starboard cylinders... not sure if it was that way or if I may have cracked it with my ratchet which was skipping and caused me to slip when loosening the plug.

I'm a bit (very) concerned about the dampness in the port side. Other than a cracked engine or leaking exhaust manifold, any ideas how it could get damp in there? I did change the exhaust manifolds only a month or so ago and haven't run the boat other than using earmuffs to keep things moving around inside and 2 times in salt water where I fresh water flushed the engine both times. Is there any chance the fresh water flush could have dumped some water in the cylinders?

Tomorrow I'll re-run the compression test and put some new plugs to test run the engine again before changing the ignition coil. Attached is a photo of the plugs which are marked based on which cylinder they came from.

Thanks for your help.

-Mike

 

[kona-surf]

Re: Volvo Penta 5.7 GS Refuses To Start With Spark

A few more thoughts for today:

I noticed in the photo (amazing what you see in a photo vs the actual plugs) that the plugs from cylinders 3 and 5 are significantly more corroded (lighter orange color) than the ones from 1 and 7. I remember that cylinder 5 was the one with the broken exhaust valve.

Is there any chance if the rocker arm adjustment was incorrect water could possibly back up through the exhaust valve and get into the cylinder(s)?

Might be time for the Marvel Mystery Oil again. I may just dump a little in those cylinders tomorrow as a preventative measure against locking up the engine.

 

[kona-surf]

Re: Volvo Penta 5.7 GS Refuses To Start With Spark

I checked compression on cylinders 1 and 3... result ZERO. I think the valve rocker arms are incorrectly adjusted on the port side of the engine which is resulting in a loss of compresion and maybe water getting into one or more of the port side cylinders.

I rapidly went from an adjustment that I think was 180 degrees out of phase with an engine turning over fine (not firing) using the starter. Now the starter has burned up which I replaced, engine turns using the starter but there is water getting into the port cylinders resulting in corrosion on the spark plugs.

Now when I try to turn the engine manually using a long ratchet at the shaft where the water pump impeller is, the shaft rotates but the the crankshaft balancer does not. It seems like the shaft is rotating but not turning the engine... I'm totally confused. Any ideas what this might indicate?

Could the shaft be turning and the crankshaft balancer be not rotating due to one or more of the cylinders being frozen?

Thanks for any ideas?

-Mike