It took me about a dozen oil changes to get rid of water in a merc 502.

--


Keith
__
Karate is a form of martial arts in which people who have had years and
years of training can, using only their hands and feet, make some of the
worst movies in
the history of the world.
-- Dave Barry
"Daniel" wrote in message
...
Ralph Modica wrote:
Hello :

I have a 2003 Larson Cabrio 254 Cabin Crusier w/73 hours on the 5.7 Volvo
Penta
I/O.

Have recently discovered water in the engine oil. The dealer's mechanic
is
telling me this is "Normal" and may occur if the boat ingests water while
coming
down off-plane too rapidly or even if water is splashed too high while
putting
the boat in the water at a launch ramp.

Seems this is TOO easy an "explanation" for what I think is a defective
engine
gasket.
IF this IS something common, I'm amazed more people have not complained
to the
manufacturer's about designing their boats better to avoid water
ingestion.

I've also heard water ingestion is a common problem on Volvo 8-cylinder
I/O
engines. There is apparently a problem with valve timing being off - this
allows
the intake stroke to pull vacuum while an exhaust valve is still open,
thus
sucking water into the cylinders. Has anyone here heard of this or have
further
details ?

Thanks in advance !

Ralph

Not so uncommon and may be due to a malfunctioning of the exhaust/raw
water discharge circuit.
Sometimes it is just a vent that is plugged and permits a backflow of
water into the cylinders after shutting off the engine. The water, then,
seeps between the pistons and the cylinder walls into the sump.
Sometimes this problem, if not understood early, may cause the blow up of
the engine head at the next attempt to start the engine.

Anyway if you realize it right away you may prevent fatal consequences.
Flush the oil sump several times with new oil and brand new oil filters
letting the engine run between oil changes for few minutes. Repeat until
the oil becomes unmistakenly clear of water contamination; usually 2-3
times (or more) right away and then once more after few hours of
functioning. Be very careful to watch the oil pressure gauge: one of the
problems is that water in the system makes the pressure erratical and you
should never let the engine run with no oil pressure for more than few
seconds.

It happened to my old Perkins 4.108 but, after the cure, the engine
continued its normal life (well... hopefully... it happened two summers
ago!).

Daniel