During a recent spark plug change out, I broke one of the plugs. When I was taking the old one out, I think I may have knocked a small piece of the ceramic plug material into the cylinder (?). The one chip that is unaccounted for was small...about .060" thick x about .090" long. I finished switching them out, and then started up the motor. I did get a little bit of white smoke at first (which hopefully was just due to the boat sitting for a few weeks), but the boat ran fine afterwards. There was I now realize that it was probably a pretty dumb thing to do, to startup the boat without fishing the little piece out of there somehow.
The boat is a '97 sea pro with a 3.0 LX mercruiser (this is a 4 cylinder engine).
So - what are the chances that I've done something bad to the engine? Is there a chance that the chip could have been kicked out thru the exhaust? Or, is it a certainty that I'll have to remove the head now?
Thanks as always for the great advice. One day I'll learn...I promise...
The boat is a '97 sea pro with a 3.0 LX mercruiser (this is a 4 cylinder engine).
So - what are the chances that I've done something bad to the engine? Is there a chance that the chip could have been kicked out thru the exhaust? Or, is it a certainty that I'll have to remove the head now?
Thanks as always for the great advice. One day I'll learn...I promise...
