It also seems like I could recreate the leak with the smoke in the driveway
if it was a head gasket. Could it be some kidn of exhaust manifold leak if
it was water cooled? I dont know if mine is, but I'll try to checkand see
tonight.

--C

"Ree-Yees" wrote in message
...
Oh, I meant to say that when you fire it up in the water it will only
smoke
for 5-10 seconds, smelling like antifreeze, and then it is gone. If you
go
out on the lake for 3 hours and never turn the boat off it never smokes
and
never loses antifreeze. I dont know if that makes a difference or not?

How much about to fix a cracked head gasket? I feared that this could be
the case, but I thought normally if you had a cracked head gasket a little
water would make its way into the oil and it would turn milky?

Also, can I just keep adding a little coolant forever? Problem doesnt
seem
to be getting any better or worse. Getting the leak fixed at the same
time
would be a plus I guess. I need new shift cables installed anyways ($200)
so maybe I can get it all done at the same time.

How do I do the pressure test? If I take the radiator cap off wouldnt the
coolant just come up out of the top?

Also if it was letting water into the cylinder how woudl this explain it
smelling like antifreeze and loozing some antifreeze?

Thanks for the info!
--Cameron

Sounds like a cracked head. When the motor is cool or lighly loaded -
no leak. Once its loaded and heated the head contorts slightly and
the crack opens, letting small amounts of water into the cylinder.

You can try a coolant system pressure test, but if its cool it may not
happen. You can warm it up first - With the radiator cap OFF!! and
try a pressure test. I had the same problem on my old I/O, but it was
intermittent. Finally had the motor torn down and the mech showed me
the head cracked near a valve seat.

Thats the bad news. The good nes is that if you have to pull the
motor anyway you're going to have to pull the outdrive and you can fix
that other leak.

Good Luck

FishFan