your getting there.. can you manually rock the engine back n forth or she tight? You Americans never seem to have gotten the diesels, they will make more torque and do it with economy Lots of American boat imports here are rebuilt with yanmar and steyr diesels
my 21ft bayliner had an older 75hp, picked me up on a wake board ez.. and I was 230lbs then outboard boats are super light, a big diesel or gas engine is pretty heavy I agree tho the mercruiser 4.3 is pretty reliable.. its usually the outdrive that will give you problems though and they are expensive to rebuild.
I just love boats, but they really, truly are money sinks. As a guy who is down to only three (with two that are unusable) it just tickles me to see other lemmings jumping over the same cliff.
Thankfully the only skin I had in my dad's free boat was labor. My dad is the kind of guy who would spend $10,000 fixing up something that is only worth$5,000
Before I write this, I’m fully aware of the risks. So Zip it. I got up bright and early and went to work on the boat. Hooked up a clean gas can to the engine, a charged battery, and a fresh oil change. Hooked the Fake-A-Lake (muff) to the lower unit and gave the key a turn. She turned over sucking fuel into her floatbowls then fired off. The joy was tremendous. I let her run for about 20 minutes then shut her down. Then my world came crashing down. I checked the oil and found the fatal White cappuccino froth on the dipstick. I immediately felt my heart sink into my feet. This could mean a head gasket leak, cracked head, or a cracked engine block. Either way a big job. I guess it froze while sitting in that warehouse all those years. Wanting to dig into this and figure out what’s going on, I decided to pull the intake manifold to have a look. I figured it would be easier than pulling heads. Turns out my gamble was correct. I found an 8” crack running along the upper edge of the oil tray behind the lifter push rods. Damn! The most expensive boat is a free boat. Searching craigslist, ebay, and boat forums for a replacement engine I came up with a few leads, but expensive. I can get a Marine long block from Summit Racing for about $1800. What to do? Pic below is of the crack. So here is what I decided. I’m renaming the boat the HMS JB Weld. Yup, tomorrow morning I’ll start grinding and cleaning the metal then lovingly squish a bead of JB Weld along the cracks. If it doesn’t work, I’ll order a long block. But I just gotta try and see if this works first. My history with JB Weld is epic. This will surly be another chapter in the book.
Maybe. Try drilling the ends of the crack to stop it from lengthening. If you can, vee it out a bit to allow more contact area. I don’t suppose you could braze it?
Yeah, you’d need it out and heated uniformly to work the weld. Well, there this one time we were out steaming and ran over a parking lot block. Tore the oil plug out of the pan, which meant a long hike home to the ship. Next day we took some JB Weld and acetone (to clean the metal) back. Uses a bit of screen to hold shape and patched it. A few hours later, properly lubricated and in the mood to try anything, poured in some diesel lube (about 90 weight) and hydraulic fluid to thin it, both obtained courtesy of main engineering and the appropriate petcocks into a milk jug. Fired up the engine and never changed the oil again. I bet it is still running forty years later. The point is, JB Weld worked.
Coastie, I know I’m taking a bit of a gamble here. But I just gotta try. Yeah, that’s exactly what I’ll be doing. Drilling into the ends of the cracks, then dremeling along the crack in a wide path exposing fresh metal for the bond. I’ll then clean the area with acetone. I also need to seal up the holes so no shavings fall into the cam and oil pan.
To quote my friend Marty on his last live FB video, “You are not the worthless piece of crap you think you are”
So much for my day of progress. I thought I had the perfect excuse to get out of church today. As I dove deeper into my JB Weld repair I noticed the crack made a "U" up toward the edge of the head gasket. This indicates that the crack likely continues under the gasket also. I think at this point a new block is the better option. If the cracks had stayed in a straight line, I would JB Weld. It's hard to tell in the pic but you can see the crack ending at the head gasket. I also noticed on the there side of the block another trickle of rust coming out from the head gasket, indicating another internal crack. Looks like i'm ordering a new long block. . How the hell am I going to build a hoist to get this engine out? Large A-Frame with a chain hoist?