06-22-2020 09:48 AM
I have a 2005 Sundeck with 5.0L MPI and Bravo 3 that I bought 2-1/2 years ago and it had new manifolds, risers, and elbows (all Merc parts) installed by the marina where I bought it. About 3 weeks ago I noticed when the bilge pump ran there was a bit of oil in the water and around the same time it started kind of hard - like my old Chevy when I had too much advance on the ignition, but it started. I charged the batteries and then checked the charging system and it was fine. A week later it started hard again and there was some oil in the bilge so I decided to check the engine oil - water for sure in the oilpan. Some milkiness and it was almost a quart over full.
Called a few mechanics and they told me 2 months to even look at it since they're so busy. I'm good with car engines and still learning the weirdness on these boats, but I decided to have a look at this so I pulled off the risers and elbows. Port side fine, nothing odd at all. Starboard side bad, inside of the exhaust parts rusty where the carbon should be and small amount of water visible in the manifold which is still on the engine. Pulled the even side plugs and certainly there was some water in 2 and 4 but all showed an orange hue I think indicating water had been in there. Gaskets looked like they were all sealing fine and it seems really unlikely for water to get into the exhaust due to these gaskets leaking. Really odd thing I want to mention is that on the Port (leaky) side the upper gasket was installed with the restricting hole in the rear and the Starboard side it was in the front - my understanding is that it must be in the front, correct?
My first thought was that the riser or elbow had a leak/crack so I plugged the water holes with wine corks (worked surprisingly well), put them in a position where I could fill them with water and after 24 hours no water in the exhaust areas. I decided to stop removing parts and ask for help before continuing at this point. It seems that it could be a bad manifold, leaking intake, or cracked head. Its hard to say if the oil in the bilge and water in the engine are related - but it did all seem to start over the last 3 weeks more or less.
I also would like to know how likely is catastrophic engine damage at this point? I started it 2 times when I'm guessing there was some water in there but no loud bangs - there was a ping that sounded like spark knock once but it started and sounded normal.
Thx, Ed
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