Water in the oil

I'm joining in quite late, but was this motor properly winterized? if not, there could be a freeze crack somewhere?
 
I had a seasoned marine mechanic come over tonight and he is almost positive my water intrusion is raw water and therefore something to do with the new manifolds/risers. He says you can pressure test them with your garden hose, run water through them but unless they're warm and running leaks won't necessarily show up. I hope he's right.
 
I had a seasoned marine mechanic come over tonight and he is almost positive my water intrusion is raw water and therefore something to do with the new manifolds/risers. He says you can pressure test them with your garden hose, run water through them but unless they're warm and running leaks won't necessarily show up. I hope he's right.


Could you heat the manifold in the oven to a warm temperature than flow the water ?

If your wife/significant other is around I don’t recommend this. Lol
I put a turbocharger I refurbished through the dishwasher to degrease. My wife was not impressed
 
Build yourself a block off plate for the water jackets and then pressure it with a garden hose, or air pressure check it in a bucket of water.
And see if you can borrow a bore scope to see what the cylinder walls look like, look for moon shaped corroded spots on the low side from water sitting or general pitting.
 
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Could you heat the manifold in the oven to a warm temperature than flow the water ?

If your wife/significant other is around I don’t recommend this. Lol
I put a turbocharger I refurbished through the dishwasher to degrease. My wife was not impressed
That's too funny. I already know mine wouldn't be impressed. I think I'll buy new ones before I do that, probably cheaper lol.
 
Build yourself a block off plate for the water jackets and then pressure it with a garden hose, or air pressure check it in a bucket of water.
And see if you can borrow a bore scope to see what the cylinder walls look like, look for moon shaped corroded spots on the low side from water sitting or general pitting.
I did that test where I used a blocking gasket and garden hose and all held, no leaks.
 
You could do the pressure test on the manifolds again where you block off the passage ways and pressurize the manifold with air. Then take a propane torch, the type you would use to soldier copper plumbing pipes and use that to heat up the exhaust manifold and see what happens.

Just an FYI, according to the fellow at the manifold warehouse, he says if there is a crack in the manifold it will show up no matter if the manifold is hot or cold. He says it is like a piece of glass and that once there is a crack, it's cracked and that a leak would show... His words....not mine
 
I sent my manifolds and risers back to the manifold warehouse for testing (they covered half the shipping cost and would have covered the whole cost if they were faulty) and both manifolds and risers were all good. So they are now being sent back to me and i will reinstall.

The manifold warehouse have an excellent water in the oil trouble shooting guide on their site. Here is the link as it may be of some interest to forum members. It's from mercruiser but applies to other as well.
http://www.manifoldwarehouse.com/mes/news/Mercruiser_SB_Water_Ingestion.pdf

I also pressure tested my cooling system with a neighbors tester just to make sure that the marine shop wasn't blowing smoke up my butt. It held 14lbs with out losing any pressure.

Once the manifolds come back I will then be able to start doing some other tests, such as a leakdown test, even though I don't think I have any issue with the closed cooling system.

One of the sections in the above mercruiser link mentioned about making sure that all of the cylinders are firing, which seems obvious. Here is what it says, "If an engine has a spark plug that is not firing, that cylinder will act like an air compressor and it can draw water backward into the exhaust manifold." I noticed at some point that one of my spark plug wires (cyclinder 5, stern port side) had come loose for some reason, not sure when, but it is something to consider once I get things back together again.
 
I sent my manifolds and risers back to the manifold warehouse for testing (they covered half the shipping cost and would have covered the whole cost if they were faulty) and both manifolds and risers were all good. So they are now being sent back to me and i will reinstall.

The manifold warehouse have an excellent water in the oil trouble shooting guide on their site. Here is the link as it may be of some interest to forum members. It's from mercruiser but applies to other as well.
http://www.manifoldwarehouse.com/mes/news/Mercruiser_SB_Water_Ingestion.pdf

I also pressure tested my cooling system with a neighbors tester just to make sure that the marine shop wasn't blowing smoke up my butt. It held 14lbs with out losing any pressure.

Once the manifolds come back I will then be able to start doing some other tests, such as a leakdown test, even though I don't think I have any issue with the closed cooling system.

One of the sections in the above mercruiser link mentioned about making sure that all of the cylinders are firing, which seems obvious. Here is what it says, "If an engine has a spark plug that is not firing, that cylinder will act like an air compressor and it can draw water backward into the exhaust manifold." I noticed at some point that one of my spark plug wires (cyclinder 5, stern port side) had come loose for some reason, not sure when, but it is something to consider once I get things back together again.


after reading this thread, very tiring work..... it could be a loose spark lead? i want my 1/2hr back...
 
after reading this thread, very tiring work..... it could be a loose spark lead? i want my 1/2hr back...
If that turns out to be the problem I will gladly grant you your 1/2 hour back, maybe even drinks on the house lol. I am somewhat doubtful however.
 
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after reading this thread, very tiring work..... it could be a loose spark lead? i want my 1/2hr back...

If that turns out to be the problem I will gladly grant you your 1/2 hour back, maybe even drinks on the house lol. I am somewhat doubtful however.

If it turns out to be a spark plug wire drinks are on MrRWood. If not, drinks are on trophy wife. Either way he still gets the chance to forget about the half hour he is missing.... LOL

Oly
 
So how did it turn out ?
Thanks for asking Mudshark. I'm still battling it. Just took it out for a run on Saturday and ran into a carb issue. Took the carb apart and cleaned it all out, it had water in it and was dirty in the float bowls. I'm hoping I've solved my water in oil issue but still not certain until I can really run well. I am thinking that the bolts that came with the new risers and manifold were too long. I measured them to see how far they went into the manifold and it sure seems they would bottom out in the manifold at about the same time they become tight. So I think when I torqued them it would tell me 35lbs but I don't think it was 35lbs on the gasket. I bought some shorter bolts and installed them and I haven't turned the oil milky yet. Still think there's residual moisture in the system as my valve covers have a light coating of white on the inside. We will see how it works out.
 
Best of luck on the oil issues. Here is to hoping you finally got the gremlins under control. Carb fixed and back to fishing.

Oly
 
Ran the boat last night and no moisture coming from the valve covers that I could detect. I think I've solved the issue, finally. I'll know after some more runs but things are looking better. Motor felt a bit rough, a bit slower getting on plane but pretty good. Plugs had been getting moisture so they're probably not pristine. I will change out my plugs and make sure all is good on that end.

In the end it turns out it is either a riser problem or the bolts from the riser had been too long. I replaced the risers I got from manifold warehouse with Sierra risers. The Sierra's have a different water outlet system than the manifold warehouse risers. The water swirls out of holes all around the exhaust outlet section on the sierras vs a waterfall system that come out of the top of the riser on the manifold warehouse risers. Bottom line is that I'm not taking off the sierras to find out. Also not too good that I was provided with bolts that were too long for the manifold and riser setup on the manifold warehouse risers.
 
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Just an update on this. My motor is now running great with no moisture showing up anymore (been running well for the past 3 weeks or so). The motor was still running a little rough after changing the risers and riser bolts. I cleaned out the carb, changed plugs, distributor cap and rotor and engine is running like a champ. In the end it was a riser issue. I did get my money back from the Manifold Warehouse for the risers, which I appreciate.
 
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