On May 29, 5:38 pm, den wrote:
Hello George:
I had the same indications. Pulled the engine, and completely
rebuilt it anyway. Invited an old salt (Al D.) over to my boat, and he
interviewed me over a sixpack. He took another swig on his beer, and
said "intake manifold". Tryin to catch up I took 2 more swigs, and
said No Way. We eventually ran out of beer and I removed the Carb, and
took a flashlight to the intake ports. One was stepped up, and
couldn't tell if Al was right or not. After removing the intake
manifold I rolled it over to find a tin plate on the bottom. I popped
the rivets holding the tin and lo and behold there was a hole about
the size of 2 golf balls in the cast iron. It seems that if you do not
get the engine hot enough to evaporate the moisture there it will
definately rust it away. I found the same situation in the port
engine. This brings back fond memories of San Diego, and Al.
I aint no "old salt" but I hope this expands your thinking.

Den 48ftYF EAGLEhttp://www.densnet.com

I bought a 1968 34' TollyCraft with only the Stbd engine running for
$12K.
My brother came down and we pulled the Port engine apart to find out
why cylinders were full of water.
Boy, did we scratch our heads. Could not find anything wrong. Then
Dan, my brother, happened to look at the new
gasket kit we bought and compare it to the gaskets that were on the
engine.
Someone had put an auto gasket kit onto a marine engine. It seems that
there is a vast difference. The marine gasket blocks some
of the water circ holes. That was where the water was invading the
engine. With the new marine gasket kit, the engine roared to life
and has been running good ever since.
There is a difference in gasket kits. Marine and auto. Unless you are
a crackerjack marine mechanic, don't think just because the 302
accepts
car gaskets, that they will do the job. There is a reason that they
sell marine gaskets and auto separately. I didn't know that.
We used Scotch guard and diesel to scrub out the holes and the piston
tops. We didn't even have to pull the pistons.
By myself, I would have never figured it out.
Hat is off to my brother Dan.