Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

[thull]

I have continuous white smoke pouring out of this motor. It's not steam. The smoke lingers in the air for at least 5 minutes after the motor dies. It'd make a great Halloween fog machine! I had poured Marvel oil in the cylinders to free the pistons when I got this motor this summer. Worked great. Now that I got it running though, I'm wondering if this smoke is from the Marvel oil or from water in the cylinders. Doesn't burning oil make blue smoke? Also, the test barrel water looked like the Exxon Valdez had run aground in there. When I pulled the motor out of the tank I had all this brown water/oil residue gunk running down the sides like pancake syrup. Took 5 minutes to wipe it all off. Thanks for any help, you guys are terrific!

One more thing to note, somebody said in another forum post that a missing thermostat would make it smoke from incomplete combustion due to cooler temps in the cylinders. I have removed the thermostat, but I have so much smoke I can't believe it's just from that. It's enough smoke to make the neighbors think our house is on fire! I'll be replacing the thermostat and gasket soon regardless. I'll also post a video soon, as long as noone thinks running it again would damage the motor. Thanks again!

Edit: I realized I didn't really ask a question here. So, is tons of white smoke to be expected from pouring oil in the cylinders or do I have a water intrusion issue? How would I proceed if it's likely water in the cylinder? Thanks!

 

[F_R]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

In the first place, of course it smokes after pouring that mystery oil in it. Burning oil smokes. OK, having said that, the next thing is it is SUPPOSED to smoke. You put oil in the gas. Every last drop of that oil goes through the engine. Some of it burns, and makes smoke. What doesn't burn goes out the exhaust. Guess where the exhaust goes? Right into your barrel. The motor churns it up and emulsifies it into a gloppy, black mess floating on the water.

Get that thing out of that barrel and onto a boat, on the lake, run it wide open awhile to burn all that mystery oil out of the exhaust housing, get the carburetor adjusted properly so it isn't consuming too much gas & oil mix, and you will find that it will run much cleaner. But it WILL smoke some for the reason I just said. And there WILL be some oil discharge. You can lessen the smoke some by using 100% Synthetic TC-W3 outboard oil, which at least is bio-degradeable so you won't feel so guilty about what goes on through.

Don't be tempted to cheat on the oil amount.

And it WILL smoke up the neighborhood if you put it back in that barrel.

 

[thull]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

Thanks for the info FR. I don't have the boat trailer ready for the road yet so I won't be able to get into the lake. I'll just run it in the barrel to get my mix roughly adjusted then fine tune on the boat down the road. So you don't think water in the cylinders is likely?

 

[Rick.]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

Water in the cylinders would make a white vapor cloud but it would not linger like smoke. Best of luck. Rick.

 

[iggyw1]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

Thull,
As for running your motor without a thermostat in place. I did that one time about a month ago. I had a way better water discharge coming from the engine, but the engine did not warm up properly to a good running temperature. Had a "rainbow" around me on the water while anchored up fishing and while at the dock. Was from unburned fuel or oil. I replaced the thermostat, and the colorful rainbow is no longer present, and at the same time, while the thermostat was out, the oil globbed up in little balls all over the lake too, like if you would pour cooking oil into ice cold water. Once I replaced the stat, evrything was back to normal.
By the way, the motor ran great without the stat in place, but I don't know how long it would have ran that good without replacing the thermostat and putting one back into the motor. I would not run it long without a stat in it. Just my opinion on this as I am a beginner on outboards.

 

[kfa4303]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

+1. You'll want/need to get the motor out on the open water and get her up to speed and temp to burn off the excess Mystery Oil you added, but it will always make a small amount of blue smoke. They don't call them "2-smokes" for nothing. Here are some great links that will you give you an idea of what to expect once she's tuned up as well as how to get her in tip top shape. Be sure to use a thermostat, if your motor came with one too. You can get any routine parts you may need right here at iboats.

Johnson

Vintage Evinrude Johnson Outboard Parts & Diagrams - Catalog 377806

1957 Johnson 10hp Outboard Motor - YouTube

 

[thull]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

Thanks for the info guys. I bought a thermostat, with gasket, and I made my own cover gasket (first time doing a gasket). Which way is up on the round rubber gasket? Also, someone said I needed a spring, but the parts diagram doesn't indicate that (part nos 1-6). Anyone have a similar motor that requires a spring in the t-stat housing but it didn't show up in the parts diagram? Thanks.

 

[kfa4303]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

Hi thull. Glad you got the t-stat. You put the grommet in first, then drop the t-stat through it. In other words, you just reverse the order in pic #3 and install the grommet first then the t-stat. They should all sit flush such that the t-stat cover can simply be placed back on top and bolted into place. Nice homemade gasket btw If you should ever need more in the future, you can find them on ebay for a couple bucks too. You're getting there..........

 

[HighTrim]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

Looks like you have 2 grommets there? You only need 1

 

[thull]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

HighTrim - yes, there's 2 gaskets. the kit came with one alreay installed on the tstat and another in the bag. i assumed i needed both since the parts diagram shows one below the tstat. I guess the tstat in the diagram doesn't yet have a gasket already on it. i'll use just the one. Thanks.

 

[dockrat100]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

Make sure the gasket you made is thick enough, I made one that wasn't as thick as the original, so I had some water leakage around the housing. doubling the gasket material would probably fix the problem.

 

[thull]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

dockrat - thanks for the tip.
All - I attempted to start the motor yesterday in hopes of posting a video of all the smoke coming out of this motor. Not that I don't understand that it's normal, I just thought you guys would appreciate an excessively smoking motor video...who doesn't like that, right?
The problem was that I don't have spark anymore. Not with a gap jump type tester or even just grounding the plug out of the motor. So, I took apart the ignition to do some tests. The points gap was still 0.20". Everything looks good. The coils primary winding tested at ~960ohms resistance and the secondary winding tested at 7ohms resistance (I might have these scales wrong but I still think these are good numbers). So, I'm left with either bad, NEW condensers or bad plug wires (plugs are new). I will replace the plug wires. Anyone know how to test condensers with a digital multimeter? I saw a guy on youtube test a lawnmower condenser by adding current to it while testing for resistance, then he switched over to DC voltage to check that the voltage was decreasing when test leads were connected to it. I tried his method but could never get my meter to add voltage to the condenser. I don't know if my meter just doesn't do that or if my condenser is bad and won't take a charge.
I also took off the stator plate and have a loose ring under it. Is that normal? Also, in the video does that look like an OEM fuel pump? In the other video, how can i fix a drippy hi speed needle and a dripply fuel connector? Thanks for your help.

Loose retaining ring under stator on 1959 10hp Johnson - YouTube
Leaky fuel connector and leaky hi-speed needle - 1959 10hp Johnson - YouTube
Testing coils off motor 1959 10hp Johnson - YouTube
Fuel pump question - 1959 10hp Johnson - YouTube

 

[HighTrim]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

Ok in response to your first video, that ring in normal, it should move.

The leaky fuel connector is also normal. The o ring is in the tank side connector, not the motor side. The fuel that is dripping out is from the connector to the carb bowl, and gravity is working against you.

You may need another packing washer behind that packing nut that tightens the high speed needle. Then once you get it set, tighten that packing nut up. You shouldnt need to really adjust the needle again anyways.

For testing coils, Ill simply post a link that will help instead of typing it out.

Testing an Outboard Coil with a Multimeter using an ignition coil from the Johnson H or T

That is likely a Sierra pump from what I can see. Fuel filter is generic aftermarket as well.

Regarding the no spark, is your kill button shorting out?

 

[nwcove]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

also, clean the points . just from experience ive noticed extended barrel running of the oldies can result in the oily smoke residue getting on the contacts and reducing spark or even causing no spark. but as high trim stated....check the kill switch first....just so you're not chasing gremlins.

 

[thull]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

I tested the kill switch and coils. On the coils I get 8600 and 7200 ohms on the secondary windings and 0 ohms on the primaries. On the kill switch I had infinite resistance when open (normally open) and 0 ohms when closed. I'm betting nwcove is right, smoke residue fouled the points, so my efforts to replace the spark wires amount to just a learning experience for me. I'm still waiting on spark plug wires to arrive but I'll let you know when I make some more progress.

Anyone know where I can get drain and vent plug gaskets for the LU for this motor? The parts diagram # is 27-284 but that number doesn't come up here on iboats or the online diagram from the other vendor everybody uses (Are we allowed to mention them here or is that a no-no?). Thanks.

 

[HighTrim]

Re: Excessive white smoke - 1959 Johnson 10hp

Do you not have a dealer near you? I buy them by the bagful there.

The superseeded part number is 307552