ckgreenman
Seaman
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2009
- Messages
- 74
So a few years back I had a major problem with the engine in my powerboat leaving me dead on the lake on a Sunday afternoon. I was towed to a nearby marina where I left the boat to be checked out. The next day the mechanic called and asked I come down and see something. The engine had a severe knock in the lower end so I decided to have him replace the engine. Thus began a long line of mishaps which has landed me to my current situation. More on this later.... After 2 months in the shop I get my boat back with a new(ly rebuilt) "engine" ready to hit the water. I follow the normal break-in steps as prescribed by the mechanic but by this time it's winter and time to winterize.
I winterize everything properly and when spring comes I'm ready to hit the lake. I completed the remainder of the break in procedure and then begin to really start putting the engine through it's paces. Well as luck would have it, my first jaunt in the "WOT" land ends with us, yet again, stuck in the middle of the lake dead in the water on a Sunday. Luckily it's early in the day (and the boating season) and my trusty mechanic is on duty. I give him a call and tell him what has happened. He says he'll be right there to tow us back to the shop. After another month or so of him hassling with the motor supplier they ship another new(ly rebuilt) engine. The engine is installed, the boat is launched, and again I start the break in. The engine performs ok; I say "ok" because quite frankly I haven't had anywhere near the performance the original boat had.
Along comes November and some friends have come out from California to visit. The air is still pleasant so we decide to treat them to one of the little pleasures of living on the lake. Driving the boat to dinner. We all hop on and enjoy a pleasant cruise to the restaurant. After diner we climb back aboard and head towards home. Since I had completed my break in I decided to show off a bit. Our friends had been on our boat before we moved but in California almost all of the lakes are governed by a 35 mph speed limit. So I decided to show then just what the boat can do WOT. Everything is fine up until I start making the turn off the main channel towards our marina. Suddenly that old familiar sputter sputter and yet again the engine dies leaving us stranded, dead in the water, at 11 PM, and everyone I know has winterized their boat. One thing I will say about paddling a 20ft power boat several hundred yards is that you never want to do it. We get back to our slip after an hour of paddling (rotating out as people tire out) and the next day I call again to my trusty mechanic who comes and retrieves the boat. This time instead of replacing he decided to crack into it and see what happened. The first thing he noticed is that all the head bolts are loose. then he finds that the head gasket has blown. Figuring this is the extent of the problem he puts everything back together properly and assures me that the engine will not give us any more troubles now that HE has fixed it. And he was right until.....
July of this year we dropped the boat off to a local boat shop for some upholstery work. Some friends of ours took their boat to this same boat shop for an engine replacement (improper winterization) and were extremely happy with the service even though the replacement ran him $8000. The shop is run by a husband and wife team. The husband is the mechanic and the wife does the upholstery so I figured I'd kill 2 birds and while the boat was in for the upholstery I'd have the engine checked out as well because I had never been that impressed with the performance and I had been noticing an increased fuel smell as if it were running rich. It was also a perfect time to have the work done as we were getting ready to visit Portugal for a couple weeks. Upon our return I was greeted with a phone call from the mechanic wanting me to call him before he does any more work. "Oh Great. Now what?" I think. I call the mechanic and he informs me that while testing the compression he noticed 2 things.
1. The #3 cylinder was at 50PSI (the rest were around 150)
2. There was water in the #5 cylinder.
He decided at that point to stop all work (including upholstery) until after talking with me. We ended up having the upholstery work done and I decided that this winter I would tear into the engine myself and see what is going on. Perhaps it would be an easy fix.
So, the week between Christmas and New Years I was off work. Perfect time to tear into it. I enlisted a friend to help out and we got all they way down to the head that had the initial problem. We pulled it off and took it down to the boat shop. Turns out there are at least 3 warped exhaust valves and who knows what else. On the advice of the mechanic I pull the other head and take both down to a local race shop to have the heads tested. Here's the results:
1. Both heads are the same casting but different years
2. Both heads are vortec heads but the original ones weren't
3. Both heads were built for flat tappets and the enging uses rollers
4. And to top it off, one head is cracked (hence water in #5 cylinder)
So now I'm left pondering my options. It's pretty clear I'm in the market for new heads but now I wonder what I should do about the rest of the engine. Do I pull it and tear it apart as well? How hard is it to pull the drive? What all do I need?
I winterize everything properly and when spring comes I'm ready to hit the lake. I completed the remainder of the break in procedure and then begin to really start putting the engine through it's paces. Well as luck would have it, my first jaunt in the "WOT" land ends with us, yet again, stuck in the middle of the lake dead in the water on a Sunday. Luckily it's early in the day (and the boating season) and my trusty mechanic is on duty. I give him a call and tell him what has happened. He says he'll be right there to tow us back to the shop. After another month or so of him hassling with the motor supplier they ship another new(ly rebuilt) engine. The engine is installed, the boat is launched, and again I start the break in. The engine performs ok; I say "ok" because quite frankly I haven't had anywhere near the performance the original boat had.
Along comes November and some friends have come out from California to visit. The air is still pleasant so we decide to treat them to one of the little pleasures of living on the lake. Driving the boat to dinner. We all hop on and enjoy a pleasant cruise to the restaurant. After diner we climb back aboard and head towards home. Since I had completed my break in I decided to show off a bit. Our friends had been on our boat before we moved but in California almost all of the lakes are governed by a 35 mph speed limit. So I decided to show then just what the boat can do WOT. Everything is fine up until I start making the turn off the main channel towards our marina. Suddenly that old familiar sputter sputter and yet again the engine dies leaving us stranded, dead in the water, at 11 PM, and everyone I know has winterized their boat. One thing I will say about paddling a 20ft power boat several hundred yards is that you never want to do it. We get back to our slip after an hour of paddling (rotating out as people tire out) and the next day I call again to my trusty mechanic who comes and retrieves the boat. This time instead of replacing he decided to crack into it and see what happened. The first thing he noticed is that all the head bolts are loose. then he finds that the head gasket has blown. Figuring this is the extent of the problem he puts everything back together properly and assures me that the engine will not give us any more troubles now that HE has fixed it. And he was right until.....
July of this year we dropped the boat off to a local boat shop for some upholstery work. Some friends of ours took their boat to this same boat shop for an engine replacement (improper winterization) and were extremely happy with the service even though the replacement ran him $8000. The shop is run by a husband and wife team. The husband is the mechanic and the wife does the upholstery so I figured I'd kill 2 birds and while the boat was in for the upholstery I'd have the engine checked out as well because I had never been that impressed with the performance and I had been noticing an increased fuel smell as if it were running rich. It was also a perfect time to have the work done as we were getting ready to visit Portugal for a couple weeks. Upon our return I was greeted with a phone call from the mechanic wanting me to call him before he does any more work. "Oh Great. Now what?" I think. I call the mechanic and he informs me that while testing the compression he noticed 2 things.
1. The #3 cylinder was at 50PSI (the rest were around 150)
2. There was water in the #5 cylinder.
He decided at that point to stop all work (including upholstery) until after talking with me. We ended up having the upholstery work done and I decided that this winter I would tear into the engine myself and see what is going on. Perhaps it would be an easy fix.
So, the week between Christmas and New Years I was off work. Perfect time to tear into it. I enlisted a friend to help out and we got all they way down to the head that had the initial problem. We pulled it off and took it down to the boat shop. Turns out there are at least 3 warped exhaust valves and who knows what else. On the advice of the mechanic I pull the other head and take both down to a local race shop to have the heads tested. Here's the results:
1. Both heads are the same casting but different years
2. Both heads are vortec heads but the original ones weren't
3. Both heads were built for flat tappets and the enging uses rollers
4. And to top it off, one head is cracked (hence water in #5 cylinder)
So now I'm left pondering my options. It's pretty clear I'm in the market for new heads but now I wonder what I should do about the rest of the engine. Do I pull it and tear it apart as well? How hard is it to pull the drive? What all do I need?
