Ahhh! Stumped! Water in oil/cyls!

[Phatty5BMW]

Long time lurker, first time poster! You guys/gals are amazing but I am completely stumped. Help!
I'll try and be as descriptive as I can, sorry for the long post!
boat= 79 Sea ray srv207 bowrider.
I've had this issue for 3 years now but uncommonly similar in ways.
It had a merc 228 with logs. I started getting water in my cylinders at about 1500 hours on the engine. Compression test was fair but the boat was under powered anyway. I did the acetone test on the logs and came up within range but a little weak. I figured the headgasket was toasted so I decided to empower anyways. (Tore that engine apart besides normal wear and tear still didnt see an issue)
Bought a marine 350 with vortec heads, brand new reman, edelbrock marine intake and edelbrock 1409 carb.
Swapped everything over and broke it in, with the old log manis, seemed to be fine, no water intrusion. About 2 hours or so into actually being on the water my outdrive took a turn for the worst (irrelevant to my issue)
I got a different drive (got stiffed because the new one was for a 6 cylinder so the ratio was wrong) so anyways back to the water I went, engine got a little warmer than normal (obviously)but nothing concerning, never went past 190 but I went and pulled it out.
then that's where it all started.
water in the cyls.
pulled the logs, still leaking from the one side, and a little from the other, primarily the center cyls.
bought a parts boat for cheap so I had enough parts for a center rise conversion.
center rise conversion completed all buttoned up. Ran it on muffs, kept checking the dipstick, all "looked" good and well. Took it out to our campsite right on the river, fired it up again for good measures when we got there, all was fine.
took it to the ramp and wouldn't turn over for crap.
back to the site I went, trying to figure that out, pulled plugs and low and behold cyl 3&5 water. Engine was hydrolocked. "Oil" was drained, with more chocolate milk/water than oil.
got it all freed back up without plugs and fogging oil, fresh oil and seafoam and cranked it over a while to get some fresh dispersed with the seafoam.
purchased brand new mercruiser manis/risers. Just put them on today, ran for a few on muffs to get it warm to do yet another oil change. Drained, and milk.
went and got 2 new filters do so another 2 changes for good insurance and low and behold MORE WATER! All on muffs!
cyl 3&5 primarily.
I've literally replaced EVERYTHING! I honestly dont even know where to look anymore!?
will be doing a compression and leak down test tomorrow but honestly I'm completely stumped and about 4k into this damn engine! Should have just bought another boat!

 

[Bondo]

will be doing a compression and leak down test tomorrow

Ayuh,..... Welcome Aboard,... Pressure test the blocks coolin' passages, it'll tell ya more than a compression test, in yer case,.....

 

[Phatty5BMW]

Bondo, plan on doing that tomorrow when my brother gets off work. Thank you so much for the reply!

 

[Phatty5BMW]

I dont know if I mentioned it or not but when I took off the old center rise manifolds, water came out of the exhaust ports on 1 side of the engine. Do you still think a coolant pressure test would be revelant?

 

[thumpar]

I this closed cooling? If not than any water is the coolant so pressure testing the coolant side would tell you where the water (coolant) is getting into the engine.

 

[Rick Stephens]

I dont know if I mentioned it or not but when I took off the old center rise manifolds, water came out of the exhaust ports on 1 side of the engine. Do you still think a coolant pressure test would be revelant?

You replaced the manifolds, so yeah, first step is pressure test the block.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Acetone youre used manifolds. Pretty sure your new to you manifolds may be leaking

Pressure test everything

Also, check riser static height. Should be over 13"

 

[Phatty5BMW]

Raw water cooled, boat hasn't been in water yet after old new and new new manifolds.
To test the block just take off the 2 upper riser lines and plug them and use the main water intake as the air supply right?

 

[Phatty5BMW]

I have brand new mercruiser risers and manifolds on it. Where do you measure the static height? Beings its just running on muffs I think the reversion from the y pipe can be eliminated.
I'm 99.99% sure the water in the oil is going passed the rings but I will try and test everything

 

[Phatty5BMW]

Motor is junk. Headgasket is blown and cyl 3 is fried! Yey!

 

[Rick Stephens]

What does 'fried' mean? Detonating damage? Broken piston?

 

[FreeBeeTony]

Where did you get the engine?
It was a reman? Does it have a warranty?

 

[Phatty5BMW]

I'm trying to upload a photo but it isnt working. Headgasket is blown in multiple places and part of the piston is broken off and re-melted into the piston in another location. It was a reman engine with a so called "warranty" I know I'm going to get screwed on according to reviews I've read on them. I wont blast them just yet but in the meantime stay away from xtrememachine on Ebay aka cal engines aka us precision machine.

 

[Phatty5BMW]

It's not letting me upload because they're too large

 

[TurtleTamer]

Maybe I missed something but it sounds to me like the motor was, at one point, good. Why bash a company just yet? I don't have a dog in this fight, just trying to gain understanding since it seems to be there's been so much swapping of parts and at times having faulty parts on it that it seems the engine damage occurred after installation?

 

[Rick Stephens]

I'm with TurtleTamer. Fastest way to break a piston is to hydrolock it.

 

[Phatty5BMW]

The problem is, that within not even 2 hours or runtime the engine failed and I swapped parts hoping it wasn't what it ended up being like I was told it probably was. Whether the problem was the logs to the old new center rise or the new manifolds, the headgasket was failed due to a crap built motor verified by my buddy a shop owner and avid boater also. I'll update once I know more. If you could see the lice you'd understand a little better lol

 

[Phatty5BMW]

I wish I could upload the pictures. If the headgasket didnt blow there wouldn't have been hydrolock. The piston destruction wasnt because of hydrolock. The headgasket was failed in 5 places including a complete separation between 3 and 5. One head bolt is almost severed on an angle, where that came from I'm clueless like it was a reused bolt and something internal caused it. Really odd beings the problems and the solutions when it was the headgasket the entire time. Once I work something out with the engine builder I'll tell more of the story on the reputation and the backlog of me even getting this engine. Until then look them up for yourselves!

 

[thumpar]

Resize the pictures.

 

[TurtleTamer]

If I'm not mistaken, you had leaky logs to begin with on the original motor. You had water intrusion without a discovered internal cause to the engine. The original logs were thought to be the issue. You then changed the engine and re-installed the original suspect logs, not having issues until you put it in the water, and when you did, it got hot and you discovered you still had water intrusion. You changed the logs to center riser manifolds hoping to fix the water intrusion but continued to have issues. Upon inspection you discovered a bad head gasket and damaged piston in the new engine.

That is my understanding of the situation. Given that, it would seem the cause and effect would be revealed as the cause of water intrusion was old/faulty logs with the effect of the bad engines. You say there's more, like a sheared head bolt and hint at other evidence of poor quality in workmanship and/or materials. I would venture to suspect that they are separate issues, as in your water intrusion problem is still your original log manifolds but you may also have a replacement engine that is faulty as well. My argument, boiled down, is that even with a good replacement engine, you'd have still had water intrusion and possible damaged that engine as well.

Does that make sense?