1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

[Wingeier]

Hello everybody! I have a 1982 Renken with a GM 2.5 OMC I/O. I took it to the lake today and when it runs, water comes through the starter mounting location, it is coming in real good to! From what I read on this site maybe a possible soft plug? Also do I have to pull the motor to replace?
If I have to pull the motor is this a big ordeal? Thanks! Denton

 

[Wingeier]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

Anybody, please any information is greatlty appreciated!

 

[Coors]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

Don't know your engine, but a freeze plug or a huge crack is involved. hold own until somebody with the same engine comes in.

 

[Wingeier]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

Don't know your engine, but a freeze plug or a huge crack is involved. hold own until somebody with the same engine comes in.

Ok thanks. I am waiting patiently

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

I would get the starter off and get in there and look for cracks..Then again i don't think any water passages are anywhere near the starter.It is running down on the starter from somewhere...

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

yes - rear core plug, yes you have to pull the engine, no it's not hard, but it is time consuming and you might have to stand on your head to get some of the bolts. If one of your arms happens to have 4 or 5 elbows that will help.
You do, however, have the ONLY drive system where the out drive does NOT have to be removed to pull the engine.
Depending on accessability of some of the lower bolts, you might want to pull the outdrive anyways, then remove transom boot seal and such and then lift the whole engine and intermediate housing out and then separate the intermediate from the engine on the shop floor.
You need a manual for sure if you are going that route to show you how to remove shift cables properly and such, and you should have a manual regardless. OMC manual best, Seloc 64-86 OMC manual OK, Clymer not very good.

 

[Wingeier]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

Thank you for the information!

 

[Manipulator]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

Interesting, I didn't know there is a plug back there. I was thinking of possibly a lose hose. There is a hose that comes off the intermediate housing that goes to the thermostat housing. Thought it may be leaking at the intermediate attachment and then running down near the starter. Also, if you have an oil cooler for the power steering it sits right there in the back under the shift converter box on the intermediate housing. It has water hoses that go in it. I have one on my boat. A leak here could cause water to run down but you would probably see it spraying all over when the motor is running. Then again maybe not as its hidden back there. My dad was getting water in the same area but he has a different drive (cobra) and we found the little cooler cracked due to water being in it and freezing over ther winter. The water was running down the intermediate and coming out around where his starter was too, took a while to diagnose it. It's a possiblity.

 

[Wingeier]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

Thanks for the info. I do not believe I have power steering. I am not real famliar with this boat seems I just bought it. The water comes in real good and increases with engine rpm. It must be a soft plug. I guess I will be pulling the engine

 

[Manipulator]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

Man that sucks. KJD knows his stuff, probably right. Since you're going to the trouble, might want to go through the drive while you're at it.

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

there's the back end of your block - that big hole up there is a water passage - take the leaky plug to the autoparts store and get a brass one - don't use steel - steel rusts out

 

[Coors]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

What do you do, cut your blocks in pieces?

 

[Wingeier]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

there's the back end of your block - that big hole up there is a water passage - take the leaky plug to the autoparts store and get a brass one - don't use steel - steel rusts out

Thank you for the picture! Clears it up. I am going to star pulling the motor tommorrow. It doesnt look to complicated. I am very familiar with auto, but not marine. It looks like just engine mounts, and the rear (refered to as bell housing in auto, I am not sure here). Any tips?

 

[Bondo]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

What do you do, cut your blocks in pieces?

That was My 1st thought,.......
But,......
I believe it's a Complete Block,..... It's just the angle of the photo that makes it Appear to be a Slice of a block.......

 

[Coors]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

Yeah, looking closer, I can see the other main bearing journals in there.

 

[Wingeier]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

I took the motor out today. It was the soft plug. (thanks kjdkjd) Replaced that. Now I cannot seem to get the motor to line back up. It will act like it goes on the shaft, and the dowel pins are in line, but there is a gap about 2 inches all the way around. I pushed and tried eveything . Is there only one way the motor and shaft align? Am I overloking something. Thanks agin , hopefully I will get a fast reply so I can be on the water this weekend!

 

[Wingeier]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

I got the motor in finally! Only to realize when I took it down to the water it was leaking water right by another freeze plug that did not pop out when it was supposed to. Cracked block!!! I am so done with this boat. Going up 4-sale for first $500. Thanks everybody for the help!

 

[Manipulator]

Re: 1982 renken with 2.5 omc water leaking from starter! Help please

Man that just sucks! Sorry to hear that.