VintageBlueOval
Cadet
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2008
- Messages
- 15
Hey guys,
So I lost my mind today and did something stupid. We had a couple days in the low 30s here in Atlanta last week so I pulled the petcocks on the manifolds and block of my '85 3.8 OMC. Today was 75 and perfect. I took the boat out. Guess what I forgot to tighten back up? The petcocks.
All four were open while I drove for about a little over a minute at about half throttle away from the ramp. I smelled smoke. I stopped, killed the engine and found my mistake below the smoke filled bilge. The risers were obviously pretty hot, the starbord side noticeably hotter than the port. I replaced the petcocks, let things cool down, ran the bilge pump to clear out the dumped water and started it back up. It struggled to start, but ultimately did and ran fine back to the ramp. Temp guage never came up over 120. Water temp is about 55 degrees.
I docked it, then went for a bite to eat for about an hour to let things fully cool down. Once I started it back up to put it on the trailer, it ran fine, but had the classic sound of an exhaust leak on a car. Sounds just like that in fact. No water in the oil that I can see, I figure I cooked the manifold gasket. Am I on the right track here?
Where exactly is the impeller in flow chain? I'm pretty sure it's first in the system and should have had a constant feed of lake water but I'm not positive if it was starved with those petcocks missing. The system should be (and correct me if I'm wrong) Water comes in the intake through the drive, runs through the impeller and into the block, through the water pump and then the manifolds, up the risers and out the intermediate shaft to the lake. So it would make sense that the risers got the hottest as they would have been most starved for cooling water, right? I definitely smoked something in there though. There was plenty of smoke! So what do you guys suppose I'm in for? Manifold/riser gaskets, water pump maybe? Still running perfectly by the way, just slightly louder
Oh, its an 85 Chris Craft with a GM 3.8 and the ever-loved 800 Stringer drive. I love this boat, so keep the OMC hating to a minimum, please.
So I lost my mind today and did something stupid. We had a couple days in the low 30s here in Atlanta last week so I pulled the petcocks on the manifolds and block of my '85 3.8 OMC. Today was 75 and perfect. I took the boat out. Guess what I forgot to tighten back up? The petcocks.
All four were open while I drove for about a little over a minute at about half throttle away from the ramp. I smelled smoke. I stopped, killed the engine and found my mistake below the smoke filled bilge. The risers were obviously pretty hot, the starbord side noticeably hotter than the port. I replaced the petcocks, let things cool down, ran the bilge pump to clear out the dumped water and started it back up. It struggled to start, but ultimately did and ran fine back to the ramp. Temp guage never came up over 120. Water temp is about 55 degrees.
I docked it, then went for a bite to eat for about an hour to let things fully cool down. Once I started it back up to put it on the trailer, it ran fine, but had the classic sound of an exhaust leak on a car. Sounds just like that in fact. No water in the oil that I can see, I figure I cooked the manifold gasket. Am I on the right track here?
Where exactly is the impeller in flow chain? I'm pretty sure it's first in the system and should have had a constant feed of lake water but I'm not positive if it was starved with those petcocks missing. The system should be (and correct me if I'm wrong) Water comes in the intake through the drive, runs through the impeller and into the block, through the water pump and then the manifolds, up the risers and out the intermediate shaft to the lake. So it would make sense that the risers got the hottest as they would have been most starved for cooling water, right? I definitely smoked something in there though. There was plenty of smoke! So what do you guys suppose I'm in for? Manifold/riser gaskets, water pump maybe? Still running perfectly by the way, just slightly louder
Oh, its an 85 Chris Craft with a GM 3.8 and the ever-loved 800 Stringer drive. I love this boat, so keep the OMC hating to a minimum, please.
