5 cylinder the whole season!!!!

[seilings]

Today I did winterize my boat and it is sad to put it aside for another half year.
It is a Mercruiser 4.3L TKS two barrels engine. As usual I change engine oil, filters, and run it to put fogging oil.
After engine was shut off, I also remove the spark plugs to spray fogging oil for double warranty, and BTW I can check the spark plugs.
They looks perfectly fine until I got to the #5 spark plugs, and I could see the wire was hanging beside and not pug on the spark plug at all.
I think I forgot to plug it on last time when I did winterize. So this whole season, my boat was running with only 5 cylinders !!!! :blue:

Any damage could happened with only 5 cylinders running the whole season? (About 30 hours running)

 

[Bob_VT]

Well the primary problem I would think is the unburned fuel sneaking past the rings and contaminating your oil. Did the oil smell like fuel? Obviously your motor is running fine and the 5 working cylinders carried it along. Next season (if you remember all 6 plug wires ) you will feel a 16.6% power increase!

 

[superbenk]

Surprised that wasn't really noticeable during the season.

 

[alldodge]

Finding more power for next season without spending a dime, cool. You should be fine, and when your engine is wearing out years from now, No 5 will have one more season left in it

 

[smokeonthewater]

Yes there COULD be damage.... probably not much in 30 hours but constant unburned fuel washing the oil from the cylinder wall ain't a good thing.... Compression test will tell the tale.

 

[roffey]

Today I did winterize my boat and it is sad to put it aside for another half year.
It is a Mercruiser 4.3L TKS two barrels engine. As usual I change engine oil, filters, and run it to put fogging oil.

Quick question for you, how many drain plugs do you have on the motor? I believe mine has three

 

[seilings]

Well the primary problem I would think is the unburned fuel sneaking past the rings and contaminating your oil. Did the oil smell like fuel? Obviously your motor is running fine and the 5 working cylinders carried it along. Next season (if you remember all 6 plug wires ) you will feel a 16.6% power increase!

Ah, I didn't get a chance to smell it, cause I pump the oil out using a oil pump,but the oil looked black comparing to last time when I did the same thing.
I guess this is the result of unburned fuel mix.

 

[seilings]

Surprised that wasn't really noticeable during the season.

I did notice some lack of power, but I thought it was because of the new to the season of 23 pitch propeller. So I switched back to 19 pitch, and it got better, and I didn't investigate further

 

[seilings]

Finding more power for next season without spending a dime, cool. You should be fine, and when your engine is wearing out years from now, No 5 will have one more season left in it

LOL :frusty:

 

[seilings]

Yes there COULD be damage.... probably not much in 30 hours but constant unburned fuel washing the oil from the cylinder wall ain't a good thing.... Compression test will tell the tale.

Thanks for the suggestion, will do the test next spring.

 

[seilings]

Quick question for you, how many drain plugs do you have on the motor? I believe mine has three

I have 5 plugs on the engine.
Each side of the engine has a plug for block and a plug for the manifold, and at the front of the engine there is one plug just on the water pump.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Yes there COULD be damage.... probably not much in 30 hours but constant unburned fuel washing the oil from the cylinder wall ain't a good thing.... Compression test will tell the tale.

WASHING? That's really a sort of an exaggeration though isn't it? The fuel is atomised (Correct spelling AChris? My Kiwi future Son-in-law is always slapping me around about my spelling!!)

The actual amount fuel in the cyl is SMALL, vapourised AND/or atomised, AND once compressed, (but NOT burned) is mostly EXHAUSTED during the exhaust stroke!!

And, that SAME amount of fuel/air mixture is injected/or inducted AND compressed (as it were), every time whether or not the spark plug fires OR NOT!!

SO I would submit the amount of fuel /air mixture leaking by the rings during EVERY compression stroke is essentially the same on all 6 cylinders regardless of whether the plugs fire or not.........because, the fire is NOT burning during compression.........so fuel/air leaking past the rings happens on EVERY compression stroke !

I would say that there was NO adverse effects at all.

Just change the oil like you always do, check/clean the plugs like you would normally, change the filters, Siphon as much of the gasoline out as you can, and run in the car, and change the drive oil, and drain the block/manifolds yada yada yada...........


Cheers,


Rick
....