I recently purchased a 18 foot webbcraft with a Chevy 350 inboard
engine...im getting ALOT of water in the oil...so much that it is
puching it out the blow by on the valve covers..... is there a way to
tell if this is caused by a cracked engine block... i have also been
told that it could be because of bad exhaust manifolds...is there a
way to tell....i hate to rebuild the engine if it is a mainfold
problem and vice versa....

First off, I would stop running the engine. Then I'd do a compression
check.


"Airborne" wrote in message
om...
I recently purchased a 18 foot webbcraft with a Chevy 350 inboard
engine...im getting ALOT of water in the oil...so much that it is
puching it out the blow by on the valve covers..... is there a way to
tell if this is caused by a cracked engine block... i have also been
told that it could be because of bad exhaust manifolds...is there a
way to tell....i hate to rebuild the engine if it is a mainfold
problem and vice versa....

On 11 Apr 2004 15:30:47 -0700, (Airborne) wrote:

I recently purchased a 18 foot webbcraft with a Chevy 350 inboard
engine...im getting ALOT of water in the oil...so much that it is
puching it out the blow by on the valve covers..... is there a way to
tell if this is caused by a cracked engine block... i have also been
told that it could be because of bad exhaust manifolds...is there a
way to tell....i hate to rebuild the engine if it is a mainfold
problem and vice versa....

Remove the exhaust manifolds and risers. This can be done in about an hour by
someone like me whose never done it before. A helper would be nice, but not
necessary. I didn't have one. Once the manifolds and risers are off, the access
to the plugs is much better and you can probably do a compression test (as
suggested earlier) much more easily.

John H

On the 'Poco Loco' out of Deale, MD
on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay!

On Sun, 11 Apr 2004 20:58:51 -0400, John H
wrote:

Remove the exhaust manifolds and risers.

==========================================

That's the right place to start.

I just went through a similar issue with a 350 and it turned out to be
a badly rusted cylinder head. Ended up replacing both manifolds and
risers, both cylinder heads (and valves), the thermostat housing, the
distributor, and the harmonic balancer.

Expensive toys, these boats.

In retrospect I wish I'd sprung for whole a new engine.

A compression test will only show bad rings or valves. If water is getting
in via the cylinders, you should experience a hydraulic lock while trying to
start the engine after it has been shutdown for a while/overnight and the
cylinder fills.

Try the following to isolate the exhaust manifolds, risers and cylinder
head.

Remove plugs, and crank engine, look for water coming out of plug holes. If
dry, water is NOT entering via exhaust or inlet ports or cylinder walls.

Another way to check, with plugs out, connect cooling water inlet to tap
(this assumes a raw water cooled system). If water is going in from one of
the 3 places, you should see it flowing out of the plug holes. For closed
cooling, feed tap source into cooling circuit. Turn engine 1 rev to open
closed ports.

I believe there are no oil passagees running in the cylinder head (plse
confirm). Did not examine the cylinder head closely to determine this the
last time it was out. Remove rocker covers, look for water seeping directly
into the rocker area and flowing into the area under the intake manifold and
back into the sump.

Good luck.

Tan PS



"John Gaquin" wrote in message
...
First off, I would stop running the engine. Then I'd do a compression
check.


"Airborne" wrote in message
om...
I recently purchased a 18 foot webbcraft with a Chevy 350 inboard
engine...im getting ALOT of water in the oil...so much that it is
puching it out the blow by on the valve covers..... is there a way to
tell if this is caused by a cracked engine block... i have also been
told that it could be because of bad exhaust manifolds...is there a
way to tell....i hate to rebuild the engine if it is a mainfold
problem and vice versa....