Expensive Engine Problem?

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mvilardo

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Oct 26, 2006
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24046
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We went to the bay today towing a boat and came home without one. That's never good. My boat is at the Marina so I am posting to see if anybody may have any thoughts before I get the diagnosis.

I have a 99 four wins 18ft runabout with a 99 Volvo Penta 4.3L 190hp IOB. We've had it out about 6 times this year. Last week we were out for about 6 hrs and as we were coming home I had some glass like smooth water. So I went WOT (first time all year). After abt 5 minutes the engine made a squealing sound. I backed off and then the engine quite. I noticed smoke from the engine. After a few minutes dead in the water we limped back home. After putting on the ear muffs I started her in the driveway with no problem, although I had some leaky hoses. I replaced and we went out today. She died again. I also had oil or gas (the water turned rainbow like) behind the boat. The mechanic said maybe cracked block or blown gasket from WOT. All this year I had taken on water when going fast but not at idle. I had though this was because of the hoses? Any ideas?

Sorry for the long post,
Mark
 
how was the oil press and temperature when the squealing occured ? how is the oil ? clean or mikly ? how old are the manifolds and risers ? is it a raw water cooled engine or fresh water cooled ?

"smoke from the engine " in the engine compartment or out the exhaust ? smoke color ? smell ?
 
The first time it stopped I did not note the oil pressure. The temp was aroung 160F (the manual says range should be 145-198). Today Oild pressure was fine, temp was around 140-150. Today it peformed great at idle speed and as soon as we left the no wake zone and throttled up we had the sqealing. It sounded like an old car that had a bad belt.

Exhausts and manfolds are probably orginal. We bought this boat last August.

I checked the oil this morning and from the dip stick it looked fine, not milky at all. However, it was low and I added 2 qts.
 
It is raw water cooled. We use in vey low salinity water. However, the previous owner used in the ocean and kept it in the water (very salty water)

The smoke was from the engine itself. I removed the engine cover and could see white smoke, it seemed oderless
 
just did, sorry I didn't know I could delete untill you said. Again sorry
 
no water in oil is good... but when is the last time you had checked it ? used/lost/burned 2 qts in how long?

check the risers and manifolds, if original and used in salt water most of their life, they're toast. 5 to 6 years is as long as they usually last, failure can be VERY expensive !

odorless white smoke is probably steam... could be as simple as a water leak onto something hot. I really woudln't use a boat if i knew there was a water leak, it's asking for it. "it" being an expensive failure...

first thing you need to do is find the source of the squeal. could be a belt, but I'd bet on a water pump (circulation or raw water pump). how old is the impeller on the raw water pump ?
 
belt changed? Again probably never, but I don't know. Would that lead to oil or gas leakage?
 
well, if the belt is bad you could loose both water pumps resulting in overheating and steam... but the fact that the gauge didn't show overheating is odd, ASSUMING the gauge is working.
 
It lost/used 2 qts in 6 outings about 35-40hrs. Should I burn oil that quickly? One of the reasons I'm asking so much is the mechanic, who also owns the marina, was strongly preparing me for the possibilty of a cracked block and trading up to a new boat
 
Would the belt sound fine under idle and in the driveway? (I did not put in gear with the muffs on as I read that was bad)
 
Squelling can surely be your belt/belts slipping. which can create all kinds of little problems all in itself. when you give trottle the belt slips under the load. also , maybe the water pump or altinator may be seezing which can make your belts squeel. also a loose belt to the altinator my cause a lack of electricity produced and not cause spark to run the engine which could also mean you have weak battery. Your machanic should be able to find a bunch of what it isn't as soon as he gets to work on it.
 
Your boat shouldn't really burn oil, I mean if you're down a little oil that's okay, but if you were full and now you're down 2 quarts after only 35 - 40 hours of use, there is a problem somewhere!
 
Did the engine stop or did you stop it?? Will it race in neutral when the problem happens? That is a lot of oil to burn are you sure it is lot leaking. You are going to have to isolate the squeal a bit more. front or rear of the engine?
leaking hoses is not a problem to be ignored it could have rusted something like the alternator but first find and fix the other problems.
 
the oil useage may be another problem such as a leak. Oil in the bilge cound answer that question. If so he might be able to trace where it is coming from . Maybe the oil filter isn't on properly?

I'm woundering if the engine cuts out only at the high rpms?

If nothing happens at half throttle and he can cruise around all day,,,, It could be a fuel problem too. As in maybe the fuel filter won't let enough fuel through and the engine runs out of gas. After sitting the filter refills and the engine starts.

The hot engine from running wot could be producing a normal amount of steam just from burning off areas of moister/oil/coolant or even leakage of these substances.

Maybe we will get some more clues and we can start making better guesses.

a blown head gasket or a cracked block doesn't soundlike a possability yet to me.

That would be steam out of the exhaust maybe and probably would have an engine rap for the cracked block. Those 2 would also have very noticeable performance or noise differnce from normal that were not mentioned.
 
Both times it "died" I throttled down the engine out of fear from the squealling sound and then it quite. The smoke/steam seemed to be coming from the lower part of the engine abt 1/2 way back. I definetly could not smell smoke and my wife (who is usually back there with the baby so as to get less wind) couldn't smell any either. I changed the fuel filter myself this spring (first time I did it) so it is possible I could have made a mistake. I have not noticed any leak from the oil filter while running with the ear muffs and enigne cover off.
 
You're going top have to be a little more clear about your description of how and what order things happened. aAn engine that 'died' isn't going to squeek from a bad belt. There's a big differencr between smoke and steam, too...and exactly where it's coming from. Saying it's smoking is like saying it's raining. We need specifics on everything.

This is bothering me! With a baby on board, you have a higher lever of responsibility to learn safe operation. This includes all possible dangerous conditions. Contrary to popular belief of the layman, boats are NOT TOYS.
 
a sure fire way to tell if your belt is doing the squeeling. i assume your checked to see if it was tight, Sometimes I found I can turn my altinator by gripping those fins directly behind the pully and try turning them. If you can spin it somewhat easy ,it has a lose belt.

Another way to find out if it your belt is to take it off and start your engine. As long as you have coolant in the engine you should be fairly safe to rev up the engine a few seconds to where you think that squeeling starts. If you get no squeeling you can assume that it is the belt and go ahead and replace it. That would solve one of the possible problems. The engine quiting still sounds like it could be fuel since you seem to be able to restart it. alot of people are having fuel problems with the ethonal gas mix out. Maybe your filter is clogged already? the ethonal does a great job of loosening stuff in your fuel system.

let us know if you find anything else.
 
by the way.

since you were willing to change your filter and do work on the engine yourself I'm sure you don't need to be told this but just in case....

Gripping the fins on you altinator would be done with the engine not running and the key in the off position so it could not run.

The belt removeal would be done with the boat sitting in the driveway. be sure not to run the engine very long so not to overheat the engine.
 
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