Water in my new 5.7 engine

[tpenfield]

Re: Water in my new 5.7 engine

The engine was a stock marine pre vortec 5.7 roller cam. 12 bolt intake. I purchased a new intake & installed it. I contacted the company today and they suggest it was a matter of idling to long and the water not having enough pressure to push the water through the system, therefore it found a weak spot in the gasket between the elbow and manifold or the manifold & the head. They state that water in the engine always comes from the exhaust At least that's what I got out of the conversation. He suggests that if I don't get the engine heated up enough to heat up any water left in that engine it will be junk by spring. Any thoughts?

Marine Engines in Holliston, MA (right?) They seem like a nice local supplier for anyone in the New England area. I was thinking of getting a 7.4L from them when my previous boat/engine hydro-locked, but ended up selling the boat instead of fixing it.

Water does not always come from the exhaust, but on a new engine, probably.

A couple of things that you could do at this point.

1) Run a compression test and a cylinder leak test on the engine.

2) Check the head bolts to see if any are loose.

3) Do a cooling system pressure test - you might have to block off the hoses to the exhaust manifolds to do this, but it could tell you if there is a leak within the engine

Since it is a new engine, there must be a warranty that you could consider, if you can isolate the problem to the engine itself and not the exhaust or installation/use.

 

[mot]

Re: Water in my new 5.7 engine

Thanks to all for the advise and offers of help. (NH Guy) I am going to try to get my mechanic who has been helping me all along to read the posts and come up with a plan for next week. Hopefully I will be able to get a spot inside to pull the motor The block and cooling system has been drained, oil changed. I was planning to put it off until spring but it sounds like starting it would be the best idea. It didn't surprise me the manufacturer blamed the install, I am a building contractor and the product is never at fault its always the installer. Question. The water sat in the engine for a week, could it have run through the rings into the crank?

 

[NHGuy]

Re: Water in my new 5.7 engine

Not likely, but the compression test will tell something. At least you changed the oil once.
Ted is on a good thought with checking for loose head bolts etc. So pull the valve cover gaskets and check the head torques. IF they are loose stop right there and start a warranty claim. Pull the risers before you bother pulling the valve covers, they get in the way and you need to do the riser gaskets as a precaution. You will not like the looks of the heads when checking the torque, there will be milkshake in there. Clean up what you easily can, when it runs it will happen again, so don't go crazy detailing the heads yet.
Put in new fresh stainless riser-to-exhaust manifold gaskets on cleaned up surfaces.
See how it runs on muffs. It shouldn't ingest any water at any rpms.
One of the earlier references to waterline is also worth understanding. If the riser tops are below your boat's stationary waterline, that can allow water into the motor when it's stopped. They make spacer blocks to increase the riser height.
You are a builder, it's kind of like the reverse of a drain or toilet trap.
So if you got new risers that weren't tall enough that could be your issue. And I don't know for sure, but my logic says yes that MAY allow water by the rings into the crankcase. But again, that only will happen in the water, and over a longer period.
So if your boat had sat too low or had too short of a riser stack, maybe that's what happened. On muffs it won't. Start it and try to run it up to temp for a good long time on the muffs. Run it at idle and 1100 and few pokes at 1800 or 2200 rpms. If it gets nice and warm that's good, you are trying to boil off the water out of the oiled areas.

If the boat got water in the bilge from rain or a leak that could also have pushed your riser height too low. Or if the bilge got water in it above the dipstick that could do it, pretty unlikely scenarios, but worth knowing.

If all of that doesn't solve it check that the motor has a marine cam. This should be your last play, everything else having been checked.
If it has a lumpy idle like a muscle car, they might have put in the wrong cam. To identify the cam you have to remove the belts, crank pulley, harmonic balancer, engine water pump, and timing cover, put the motor at top dead center with the cam and crank dots aligned. Then you can take off the cam sprocket and read the cam information off the front of the cam. When you put it all back together use red locktite on the cam bolts, and use Mercruiser Perfect Seal on the timing cover. Your mechanic buddy will understand that stuff.

 

[NHGuy]

Re: Water in my new 5.7 engine

Not likely, but the compression test will tell something. At least you changed the oil once.
Ted is on a good thought with checking for loose head bolts etc. So pull the valve cover gaskets and check the head torques. IF they are loose stop right there and start addressing that. Pull the risers before you bother pulling the valve covers, they get in the way and you need to do the riser gaskets as a precaution. You will not like the look of oil in the heads when checking the torque, there will be milkshake in there. Clean up what you easily can, when it runs it will happen again, so don't go crazy detailing the heads yet.
Put in new fresh stainless riser-to-exhaust manifold gaskets on cleaned up surfaces.
See how it runs on muffs. It shouldn't ingest any water at any rpms.
One of the earlier references to waterline is also worth understanding. If the riser tops are below your boat's stationary waterline, that can allow water into the motor when it's stopped. They make spacer blocks to increase the riser height.
So if you got new risers that weren't tall enough that could be your issue. And I don't know for sure, but my logic says yes that MAY allow water by the rings into the crankcase. But again, that only will happen in the water, and over a longer period.
So if your boat had sat too low or had too short of a riser stack, maybe that's what happened. On muffs it won't. Start it and try to run it up to temp on the muffs. Run it at idle and 1100 and few pokes at 1800 or 2200 rpms. If it gets nice and warm that's good, you are trying to get the water out of the oiled areas.

If the boat got water in the bilge from rain or a leak that could also have pushed your riser height too low. Or if the bilge got water in it above the dipstick that could do it, pretty unlikely scenarios, but worth knowing.

If all of that doesn't solve it check that the motor has a marine cam. This should be your last play, everything else having been checked.
If it has a lumpy idle like a muscle car, they might have put in the wrong cam. To identify the cam you have to remove the belts, crank pulley, harmonic balancer, engine water pump, and timing cover, put the motor at top dead center with the cam and crank dots aligned. Then you can take off the cam sprocket and read the cam information off the front of the cam. When you put it all back together use red locktite on the cam bolts, and use Mercruiser Perfect Seal on the timing cover. Your mechanic buddy will understand that stuff.