Carb-> Oil in an embarrassing way

[Overboard]

Hey all, just wanted to share a journey I went on getting my boat ready to hit the marina.....

Backstory is the boat was having an idle issue when warm...diagnosed it down to a misbehaving choke...left it for the winter...

last week amongst other things I pulled the carb and I’m still waiting for the rebuild kit (thanks Covid for shipping times to Canada)...covered it up and left it for the week. It rained...a lot...at some point the “lid” I made came off and water evidently poured into my intake even with all the precautions I took with covers etc....which I only figured out because I decided to take the new oil out of my engine for different oil and the at first it was straight clean water followed by the nice clean new oil that had been sitting on top of it.......I have never felt so stupid.

If I had not decided to swap out my oil there is a huge chance I would have killed my motor moments after getting my carb back on with a flip of the key switch. It was only 5 days so I pulled all the plugs, found water in a couple cylinders that would be on the intake stroke.


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[mmwjr]

At least you found it in a week. I would refill with new oil, reinstall the carb and fire up the engine to burn off any remaining water in the cylinders/intake.

[Overboard]

Originally Posted by mmwjr

At least you found it in a week. I would refill with new oil, reinstall the carb and fire up the engine to burn off any remaining water in the cylinders/intake.

You bet Mike, I pulled all the plugs and turned it over then sprayed fogging oil into the intake and all the cylinders and cranked it again, did that procedure a couple times (made one heck of a mess) then poured oil into the filler and let it drain straight through to try and flush any residue in the bottom of the pan then filled it up with fresh oil.

Once the carbs on I will run it to temp then change the oil and filter again.


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[Overboard]

Just wanted to tie off my own thread.

Got the carb on and ran the boat with fresh oil up to temp and then drained it and changed it and filter again and put new plugs in, everything runs great now.

When I rebuilt the carburetor everything worked out well, cured my rough “hot” idle and smoothed put the running but I had a massive acceleration lag which led me to have to split the carb again and ensure the accelerator pump was seated correctly.

Now, it appears all is good.

As an addition to this journey, I was never happy with the recommended oil for the mercruiser and if you read the requirements and can decipher the code it basically says to run whatever the heck you want for specification ( I have specific training in this field) so I went with a euro spec diesel PCMO 5W40 designed for use in Diesel engines. I stayed away from heavy duty motor oil to avoid the heavy metals additives that cause carbon buildup in non diesel applications and I am finding that my motor runs significantly smoother and quieter (the carb rebuild likely plays a roll also), the valve train noise is gone and the oil pressure jumps faster at startup obviously due to the (5) lower number in the multi viscosity as compared to the 25w40 that I was using. Food for thought.

Share any thoughts if you have any.


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[mmwjr]

Glad to hear you got things straightened out.

[Phillbo]

I've run Rotella T6 5W40 Synthetic for years with no issues. I also get a Blackstone oil analysis every other change and the reports always come back looking real good.

Same for my F250 PowerStroke.