Engine Failure

That is disturbing to read the engine reportedly had vacuum advance ignition. My understanding is vacuum advance is never used on marine engines- less of a safety issue than that marine engines run at consistently higher load than cars, with higher throttle openings which prevent sufficient vacuum for proper vacuum advance in marine application.
The vacuum pot was really on the distributor , yes, not just on the carb side to affect the choke mechanism?

Not sure, but I would imagine a marine carb used with an electric fuel pump would not have a use for a "J-tube" to direct any overflow from a leaky mechanical pump down the throat. If it has a mechanical pump the j tube is required. Either way, I expect the throttle shafts have seals on marine carbs.
 
JD/Sandy,
Thanks for the insights. JD, tank is aluminum and I don't know what brand the fuel pump is, but it is electric. Sandy, the people at DaddyO's said the vacuum pump was disabled and of no consequence, but when trying to time the motor, the nipple on the vacuum pump was hitting the intake manifold and had to be pulled and repositioned by my mechanic. Ultimately, he snipped the nipple off. The pump was attached to the distributor.

I got pictures from the mechanic this morning and to my surprise, an invoice. The invoice was for a new distributor and carburetor. They claimed they were broken in shipping. They'll get another $400 and change out of me. My wife is going to tar and feather me! When all is said and done, I would have been able to get a bobtail from Crusader and break even.

If you guys, or anyone else for that matter want to see the pictures they sent me, I'd love your feedback. Interestingly, the cylinder where the loose bolt was has a brown almost rusty tone color. If you check out my profile, my personal email address should be there. If you'd like to send me an offline email, I'd like to forward the pictures.
 
I'd recommend have someone other than you take a sample of the fuel and send to a lab for evidence and submit a claim in small claims court for the expense including the engine removal.
 
I think the warranty states any legal claims must be in a court local to Daddy-O in FL unless it involves another state in which such requirement is illegal.
 
It Is What It Is at this point, but if you want those pix posted here, let me know. I'll post my email and you can send them to me and I'll figure out a way to get them up here.

The discoloration interests me. Any sign the cylinder(s) got a sip of water?

An aluminum tank, cleaned a couple years ago, fresh fuel with stabilizer...? Fresh filters...? I really don't think fuel is the cause of the problem.

Let us know what the replacement carburetor and distributor look like? Get your Auxiliarist to take a look...
 
JD,

Would like to post the pics for feedback. Lets go forward with that, but you are right, it is what it is. I'm just looking at my next moves at this point. I arranged for shipping today (which I have to pay). Hoping it ships out well on Monday. Sandy, yes, they have me by the short ones on the Warranty. Basically, they force you to come to Florida for any warranty disputes. Not feesible for those of us in the Northeast..."Buyer Beware"
 
These guys want to market to the international and national market, but their warrnaty is not condusive to that model.
 
bought a front axle assembly. seller in PA. found an LTL (less than truckload) freight broker who arranged shipment for about half price. but didn't pay for home delivery, had it fork lifted into my pickup truck at their FL terminal. had to sign a damage waiver for the truck.
 
A marine engine doesn't have any vacuum systems on it. Not for advance or choke. I hope you got pictures of this engine and sue the sh*t outta these guys. They're flat out thieves if they put together a marine engine with these components.
 
.??? It was a vacuum leak that caused one of my Crusader 454s to run lean and burn a piston
 
Greg, What Charlie means is the marine engine doesn't use vacuum "controls" such as for choke application and ignition timing, like automotive does. A vacuum leak will probably kill a marine engine faster than a highway engine, because of the much higher load marine operates under. The kind of leak we think the OP had, and Charlie mentions, is like intake manifold/gasket failure, carburetor loose, bad gasket under carb, etc.
 
Charlie , I may well be wrong but I think some Mercruiser's carbs had "vacuum pull-offs" for the choke mechanism and this appears to be supported by search returns.... for whatever that is worth. Definitely no vacuum advance on real marine distributors.
 
Come to think of it, there's dampner for the choke so it doesn't close too fast. Could be it's vacuum but all you need is a pot with a small hole to the air that forces air thru that hole so it slows compression and extension.

I was wondering if daddy-o is the same company that Ollie had with his engine. That was one long process they went thru trying to deal with the company.
 
quote:
Originally posted by jtybt15

Come to think of it, there's dampner for the choke so it doesn't close too fast. Could be it's vacuum but all you need is a pot with a small hole to the air that forces air thru that hole so it slows compression and extension.

I was wondering if daddy-o is the same company that Ollie had with his engine. That was one long process they went thru trying to deal with the company.

Click to expand...


Good question- hope not. I wonder how Olivier/Footloose's Harley boat and surface drives are running these days.
 
I think we should have an unofficial list of companies/businesses that give questionable service or warranty problems. Warranty problems is the reason GVP quit using any of reman engine companies he used to advertise. He ended up advocating only for OEM (GM) reman.
 
Thanks, once again my limited engine knowledge confuses me!
 
I spoke with the engine outfitter...he said although there is a vacuum pump on the distributor, it is marine compatible as the vacuum pump is disabled and the distributor is centrifugally advanced? He also said the Edelbrock carb used is marine compatible becuause of the use of the electric fuel pump as opposed to the mechanical fuel pump. He said that there is a 3 prong switch that disables the fuel pump so that fuel cannot continue to be delivered to the engine. The motor is on it's way to Harrisburg PA as we speak. It is due back in Connecticut on Friday at my mechanic's shop. I am emailing pics of the heads (particularly the piston side of the valves) to j-d to see what he sees. If anyone else would like to see them, provide email address and I'd welcome feedback.

Thanks!
 
Here are David's pix of the head from this engine. I preserved his numbering (007-008-009-010-011-012) so he can comment on them.

007 - Head as Removed
30926113561_238d1ea824.jpg

008 - Detail 1
30926116211_95abdd7f20.jpg

009 - Detail 2
31004443766_db38b1171c.jpg

010 - Detail 3
31004443066_cdc92a16e9.jpg

011 - Refurb Head 1
30926114161_9ed203695b.jpg

012 - Refurb Head 2
31004450276_83dea2ebd9.jpg
 
Maybe someone didn't torque the heads down. I don't see any valve damage. You got pics of the pistons?

Looks like it was a short block. A short block is the block and rotating assembly...pistons, crank, connecting rods and cam. Heads, intake and tin added by assemblers
 
Pics of the pistons would be nice to see. I can also see why they said bad fuel, if this engine had multiple hours on it, my guess would have been bad fuel or water ingestion. Why, there is no carbon build up on 2 cylinders and hardly any on a third. I only see one cylinder that has any sign of working right. The first picture says it all for me, I don't think the head was ever torqued down just because of the burn pattern on 3 of the 4. I also dont see any valve damage. Re-reading the original post the engine wasn't idling right from the start so what ever was wrong was wrong from the beginning.

Do you have the compression test results for all cylinders? I suspect this head would have been 0 on 2, low on one, and close to right on the last one just looking at the burn pattern on the head. The refurbished heads look to me to be 2 shot blasted heads, cant really see any new valves but the pic isn't that great either..........D...........
 
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