First time boat owner and Milky oil on starboard engine

[marcucho]

Hello My name is Jose and I am a new boat owner of a 2000 Maxum 2800 SCR with Twin 4.3L. I was told that the starboard engine needed Exhaust manifolds, Riser, Elbow because seller found water on one of the pistons (#1 and #2) , I knew that I had to work on getting a new starboard engine after I did a compression test on the starboard engine and the values were all over the place.. piston location #3 was 25 psi , #5 was 150 psi and #1 was 150 psi , then the other bank was around 150 and location #6 was 200 ... Anyway, I found water on the piston #1 and #4. I thought that I may have a stuck valve.. Anyway, having to change an engine helped me to get a really really good price on the boat . My mechanic background is on vehicle engines (weekend warrior) , but my brother have a lot of experience on marine engine and restoring boats .. so we everything that we could from electricity connection all the way to hull conditions.. (no sea water test due to starboard engine issue) , port engine and outdrive worked great.

Now here was the plan, I had all the service records for this boat and every year it was winterized by the old owner . Since my family will be with me I had replaced the following on both engines just for safety,

1) riser, elbow and exhaust intake.
2) spark plugs
3) oil on the out-drive (bravo II)

While exchanging the all these above parts I was able to unstuck the valve :-) and I got all the pistons with a compression test on the 150 to 170 Psi.

The plan was to use the old oil already on the starboard engine and start the engine ( boat is on trailer) water ears connected and any water flushed out before I installed the new marine spark-plugs. This engine was sitting for a year .. and after some starting fluid ( 1 carburated ) the engine started and it sound really well , I could not believe how good the engine sound and the minimum of it ... all stable the sound for this 4.3 L engine .. wait too happy . Temperature was 175 and kept on that way for the 5 to 7 minutes that it was ran to warm up the oil. Then I applied to flush the engine since I did not know what was inside that engine for 1 year , Then I restart the engine with the Oil cleaner flush added to the oil, 5 minutes later engines is ready to get the oil out . It came out milky as a cappuccino which I said well I did not know how how much water is there was any water on the carter beside the cleaner I added to the oil. so after the old oil its out I just pour another gallon of oil(cheap one ) just to flush any residue of the cleaner (no oil filter change yet) . This time the engine took 3 more tries to start , but came to run smooth . When I pull the oil out ( cheap one ) I was expecting to see just a little bit of the left over of the cleaner , but my surprise is milky oil all over again. I said .. man the engine its really mess up, ( block is gone). It could be the intake head gasket which 4.3 L are famous to mess them up and let water to leak to the intake.

Time to remove spark plugs and flush the water out of the engine again, like water fountain . Here are the pictures of the intake, I do not see any damage to the intake gasket , but what I did notice is the exhaust holes are corrode , but the water one are fine.. where is this water coming from ? Head gasket when compression test came back fine with approx 150 all around ? Any other idea before I say is the bloke that is gone ?

The rusted one are the exhaust intake and should not be any water on them ? just gas ... where is the water coming from ? Block is gone that it gets all this water flooded all the way to these holes ? did you see any damage on the seal ? there is a little pinch on the water hole , but I believed that happened when I remove the intake... Please let me know any idea would be well recieved..

[Kevlar7r]

A little hard to follow your post, but if you didn't change the filter, it was full of wet oil. Doesn't take much water to make the oil look milky.

As far as the intake rust, if the thermostat is stuck open, and the engine is running cold, you will get condensation in the intake.

I would change oil and filter, and run to 180 on temp gauge, then see what your oil looks like.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

[mmwjr]

Welcome aboard

Not sure I totally followed your post.

Did you replace the exhaust manifold, elbow and gaskets? These are water jacketed to cool them and in salt water need to be replaced every five years. When they fail water gets into the exhaust stream and engine backpressure sucks it into the engine. Water is not compressible and will make compression look high such as your 170 psi reading.

Could be a crack in the heads or a head gasket water passage leaking near a oil return passage.

The amount of rust in the intake runner passages is greater than condensation would form, its water intrusion.

IMO your chasing your tail and the engine just needs to be replaced.

[marcucho]

Originally Posted by mmwjr

Welcome aboard

Not sure I totally followed your post.

Did you replace the exhaust manifold, elbow and gaskets? These are water jacketed to cool them and in salt water need to be replaced every five years. When they fail water gets into the exhaust stream and engine backpressure sucks it into the engine. Water is not compressible and will make compression look high such as your 170 psi reading.

Could be a crack in the heads or a head gasket water passage leaking near a oil return passage.

The amount of rust in the intake runner passages is greater than condensation would form, its water intrusion.

IMO your chasing your tail and the engine just needs to be replaced.

The exhaust manifold, riser, elbow and gaskets, spark plugs all changed compression test was completed after the water was removed from the pistons so the system was water free and just looking for any other idea that I could be missing before I have to order a long block

Thank you for the help...

[mmwjr]

Water may have been removed but new water is getting back IMO.

You can try flushing the oil a few more times but if it keeps turning milky water is still intruding.

I have seen this way too many times and in the end it's time to replace the engine.

[marcucho]

Originally Posted by Kevlar7r

A little hard to follow your post, but if you didn't change the filter, it was full of wet oil. Doesn't take much water to make the oil look milky.

As far as the intake rust, if the thermostat is stuck open, and the engine is running cold, you will get condensation in the intake.

I would change oil and filter, and run to 180 on temp gauge, then see what your oil looks like.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

Kevlar, you are right about no much water is needed to turn oil to look like a cappuccino ..Engine was running 175 all the time. The crazy thing is that the engine was running smooth like silk with all that water

[marcucho]

Originally Posted by mmwjr

I have seen this way too many times and in the end it's time to replace the engine.

I going to need to set my mind to be ready for it

[Phillbo]

[speedysprocket]

Pull the heads. Check the cylinder walls. If they're scored or scuffed or polished, that water likely ruined your crank bearings as well. If this just happened recently and the cylinders still look good, take the heads to get rebuilt and try again. Worse case you have to take the heads off and use them on another short block or this same block after a rebuild.

[marcucho]

I did not want to leave the post without the cause of the milky oil. Blown head gasket, I replaced the whole unit with a remanufactured head unit and the gasket ... I know I could just replace the gasket, but I did not want to take any chance with a cracked unit so I just ordered all the head unit and the gasket. No more water on the oil.

[Sandrager]

great news and thanks for replying is always good to hear what happened and helps other people

[mmwjr]

Thanks for the update.

[Kev39]

Thank you for letting us all know at the end ,my story is the exact same as yours so I too will be pulling the heads and reading the gaskets .

[marcucho]

Kev39 .. Also change your intake.. 2020 I had to replace the intake on the same engine. My bad I should have changed heads, head gasket and intake. Oh well, now it is working just fine.

[Kev39]

Thank you for that.is there anyone on here selling any parts fir these engines .I live in Northern Ireland and parts are very rare to find or very over priced .any help would be appreciated.