Water Leak into engine over winter.

[VanIsleBoater]

Over the winter it looks like water leaked through the carb into my engine. I have a Sterndrive mercruiser 3.0 (135hp). Boat was winterized with antifreeze into the usual locations. The antifreeze is still in the locations I put it in the fall.

When I went to start it I checked the oil first and there was none on the dipstick. I then decided to change the oil first before starting. Once the drain plug was opened around 10-12 litres of water came out before oil started to show up. Once the oil came out it was the correct amount that should be in there. The amount of water that came out was more than the amount of antifreeze that went in and was perfectly clear. Upon investigating it seems that rain water may of leaked through the tarp through the gap in the where the engine access is, onto the air filter and through the gap where the air filter screw was not quite tight. I pulled the plugs and water came out of one of the cylinders. The other 3 look dry.
I have not started the boat, drained all the oil and flushed it with some clean oil. I sprayed some WD40 into the spark plug holes to minimize corrosion and put the plugs back in place. I am now wondering if I should pull the motor and check for corrosion on the shaft bearings etc and am concerned about corrosion on the rings. It has been sitting in this condition realistically for around 2 months possibly. The oil was floating on the water so I am hoping that it would have been protecting some of the other cylinders. Would this amount of time be enough to cause significant corrosion?

Any advice is much appreciated. Hope you are all staying healthy and sane!

 

[alldodge]

Would this amount of time be enough to cause significant corrosion?

Could be, but you have done everything right to help save the motor. Squirt a little motor oil in the cylinders and crank it over without starting and no plugs. This will help coat any rust and hopefully there will be no ring damage.

After that I would fire it up and see how its doing

 

[Scott Danforth]

Welcome aboard

Over the winter it looks like water leaked through the carb into my engine. I have a Sterndrive mercruiser 3.0 (135hp). Boat was winterized with antifreeze into the usual locations. The antifreeze is still in the locations I put it in the fall.

When I went to start it I checked the oil first and there was none on the dipstick. I then decided to change the oil first before starting. Once the drain plug was opened around 10-12 litres of water came out before oil started to show up. Once the oil came out it was the correct amount that should be in there. The amount of water that came out was more than the amount of antifreeze that went in and was perfectly clear. Upon investigating it seems that rain water may of leaked through the tarp through the gap in the where the engine access is, onto the air filter and through the gap where the air filter screw was not quite tight. I pulled the plugs and water came out of one of the cylinders. The other 3 look dry.
I have not started the boat, drained all the oil and flushed it with some clean oil. I sprayed some WD40 into the spark plug holes to minimize corrosion and put the plugs back in place. I am now wondering if I should pull the motor and check for corrosion on the shaft bearings etc and am concerned about corrosion on the rings. It has been sitting in this condition realistically for around 2 months possibly. The oil was floating on the water so I am hoping that it would have been protecting some of the other cylinders. Would this amount of time be enough to cause significant corrosion?

Any advice is much appreciated. Hope you are all staying healthy and sane!

a few things.

First, welcome aboard

did you drain the water prior to adding antifreeze? if not, that wasnt rain water. its water that was left in the cooling passages that froze, and broke the engine casting on the inside directly above the oil pan on the port side of the motor

while your explaination of how rain water could get into the carb is potentially plausible, its highly unlikely.

However, assuming the cylinder bores are not rusted, putting some oil down the bores and turning it over will help.

 

[Bt Doctur]

you beat me to it,Scott.

 

[VanIsleBoater]

Thanks, I drained every drop of water out of the thing prior to adding antifreeze for sure. I flushed the system with ant freeze to make sure there was no pure water left in the system anywhere. The water that came out of the oil pan also no traces of anti freeze in it and the anti freeze levels are exactly where they were when I put it away.

 

[Rick Stephens]

10-12 liters, between 2.5 and 3 gallons. A lot of water. I wouldn't worry too much about crank bearings, they stay pretty sealed with a coating of oil, but other components may have problems. I have no idea how far up two and a half plus gallons of water would sit.

One question, did you change the engine oil when you winterized? If not, this could have been there then. Freezing temperatures during your winter? What would be damaged by freezing 10-12 liters of water in the engine?

 

[VanIsleBoater]

I had changed the oil just prior to winterizing. I also had a little heater by the engine that would kick on when temps would go below zero. More water came out that the manifolds hold and there were water stains on the air filter housing where it would pool then drain down by the screw in the middle of the housing straight into the carb.

 

[Rick Stephens]

All great news. If mine, I'd get it oiled and fired up soonest. Get it warm enough to cook out some of the moisture. Then do a compression test when warm. Tell you a lot.

 

[VanIsleBoater]

Thanks for all the advice. Sucked all water out of cylinders, took off the carb and sucked out remaining moisture from that area. Did 3 flushes with new oil and filter with plugs out then ran 6 oil changes to clear oil . Compression tests showing 160ish on every cyclinder. So far so good.

 

[Rick Stephens]

Thanks for all the advice. Sucked all water out of cylinders, took off the carb and sucked out remaining moisture from that area. Did 3 flushes with new oil and filter with plugs out then ran 6 oil changes to clear oil . Compression tests showing 160ish on every cyclinder. So far so good.

Couldn't ask for better numbers. Get it out and run it. And buy some lottery tickets. You have sun shining on you right now.