Water in crankcase

[kschnebly]

454 Magnum
Bravo one
Regal Ventura 8.3

Last Labor Day we hit a sandbar and experienced some overheating issues. Brought the boat home and winterized after pulling the tstat housing and flushing the motor. Over the winter I replaced all of the bellows and drive hoses. I also cleaned up the tstat housing, it was pretty crusty. Pulled the boat out this weekend and fired it up. Ran fine on muffs. Got to the lake and it was running fine at the dock then bogged down and died. After some quick checking I found the crankcase full of water. Boats been loaded up and put away.

So what's my next move? I'm thinking head warped last season but who knows. When on muffs it did have steamy exhaust but at the time I didn't think anything of it. I have a video of it if that would help. Boat was in a heated shop all winter so acracked block seams unlikely. Should I drain the water oil mix and replace with clean oil and do a compression test? Any help would be great.

 

[Scott Danforth]

You need to find the source of water. I would start by pressure testing your block and heads

 

[Rick Stephens]

If you winterized by pouring antifreeze into tstat housing but didn't drain the block, then you most likely have a cracked block. It is tough to get a good mixture of antifreeze everywhere. All it takes is one area that is mostly water.

 

[kschnebly]

If you winterized by pouring antifreeze into tstat housing but didn't drain the block, then you most likely have a cracked block. It is tough to get a good mixture of antifreeze everywhere. All it takes is one area that is mostly water.

Thanks for the response. We made sure to drain the system then fill it. It also never got below 50 where I keep it anything a possibility though at this point. Thanks

 

[tpenfield]

Could be leaking exhaust manifold. I would pull the spark plugs and see if they are wet/rusty. Also do the cooling system pressure test that Scott suggested.

 

[kschnebly]

I've been reviewing pressure testing procedures and see that when flushing the system this spring I may have really done something stupid. I have an engine flush plug on the the back of the boat. I tried running water through it and nothing happened. I then hooked up an rv blow down plug and hit it with air. I'm wondering if I blew gaskets doing this. Any thoughts on whether this could be the culprit? Also looking for a good link to the procedures for pressure checking the block.

 

[Rick Stephens]

The cooling system is an open system. You can't overpressure it without plugging inlet and outlet.

 

[kschnebly]

No Title

I did the block pressure test at 15 psi. It didn't hold. Air was leaking at the valve cover vent hoses. Pulled the 4 port plugs. There not rusty but are very black. I will pull the starboard side tomorrow and run a compression test. The previous owner let water sit on top of the motor and it has done a number on the intake and gasket.

 

[kschnebly]

Here is a short video link for the block pressure test.

 

[Bondo]

Here is a short video link for the block pressure test.

Ayuh,.... Looks, 'n sounds like a cracked block to Me,.....

The air is easily movin' from the water side to the oil side,....

A compression test is meaningless at this point,....

 

[kschnebly]

I did the cylinder compression test today and here are the results.

1=125
2=115
3=115
4=125
5=000
6=125
7=125
8=125

Tested #5 three times to check I had a good connection and it was 0 eveytime. Compression numbers are likely higher. My gauge has always seemed to read everything low.

would a cracked block cause a zero compression reading in a cylinder?

thanks

 

[kschnebly]

Here is a link to a video of the boat running before heading to the lake last Saturday. Not sure if this helps.

 

[Rick Stephens]

Sure is a lot of steam in that video.

 

[kschnebly]

Sure is a lot of steam in that video.

You're right about that. I've got steam in the exhaust, no rust or water on the plugs, water in the crankcase, a nasty looking intake gasket, and no compression on cylinder #5. It's good I've got other toys to keep me busy this summer.

 

[kschnebly]

Anyone have any added thoughts?

 

[Benny67]

Pull the head off on the side with the #5 dead cylinder..

At this point that motor is going to at least have the head gasket changed on that side at the very minimum....IF you are lucky enough to have just a bad head gasket.

 

[kschnebly]

I'm going to pull the motor and get it on a stand. That's going to make the most sense at this point.

 

[Lou C]

The cyl with 0 compression may have a stuck (open) valve, are you sure there was no water in the cyls? At this point the only other thing you could do is a cyl leak down test, that will tell you exactly where the lost comp is occurring. But you have to take it all apart anyway, to further diagnose it. I just had to do this with my '88 4.3, I had reluctant starting, rough running and investigation showed water in cyl #2 and #1, very little in 1. Water in the oil. Took off the intake and it was mayonnaise in there. Pulled off the heads and both head gaskets were blown, on the front 2 cyls. I took the heads to a machine shop and they found that the center cyls on both heads had cracks in the exhaust seats, but those cyls did not have water in them. Bought two reman heads and am going to put it back together this summer. On mine I had 2 stuck valves, but they loosened up enough during the comp test that the readings were close to normal. I'm trying to figure out how you got water in the crankcase but no water in a cyl. Perhaps the head gasket blew in a location that would let water into one of the drain back holes but not into a cylinder.

 

[kschnebly]

The cyl with 0 compression may have a stuck (open) valve, are you sure there was no water in the cyls? At this point the only other thing you could do is a cyl leak down test, that will tell you exactly where the lost comp is occurring. But you have to take it all apart anyway, to further diagnose it. I just had to do this with my '88 4.3, I had reluctant starting, rough running and investigation showed water in cyl #2 and #1, very little in 1. Water in the oil. Took off the intake and it was mayonnaise in there. Pulled off the heads and both head gaskets were blown, on the front 2 cyls. I took the heads to a machine shop and they found that the center cyls on both heads had cracks in the exhaust seats, but those cyls did not have water in them. Bought two reman heads and am going to put it back together this summer. On mine I had 2 stuck valves, but they loosened up enough during the comp test that the readings were close to normal. I'm trying to figure out how you got water in the crankcase but no water in a cyl. Perhaps the head gasket blew in a location that would let water into one of the drain back holes but not into a cylinder.

Thanks for the response. From the look of the plugs, which you could see in one of the photos I posted, it would be hard to tell if I had water in the cylinder. They were very black. I spent a good part of last season diagnosing a fuel pump and carb issue so the plugs probably got that way from all of that. If I pull the motor I can address the intake gasket issues, the potential head issues, and generally give it a good once over on the rest of the engine. I don't know much history on the boat but with as crusty as some of the items are on the motor I wonder if it didn't live in salt water at one point in its life. I'm sure the intake manifold bolts will require some finess and even possibly some drilling and tapping. Oh well, I can now officially say it is a "BOAT". It takes up a ton of storage space and doesn't do anything but take my time and money.

 

[smiles16]

I had an old junk 3.0L that had a similar problem. I know a 454 with closed cooling system is a different beast but....

The PO of that 3.0 had overheated the engine and warped the head. He didn't know why it was running so rough and stalling, so he "winterized" it and put it up for the year. The water that had sat in the cylinder during that period completely ruined it as well as putting just enough water into the block to crack it (PO put the block plugs back closed when done).

Long story short, the result was a near exact copy of yours.... compression and all.

...luckily I bought this boat so cheap it wasn't a worry to just swap the motor.