She fired up !! But

[Scott]

Hi Y'all
I got my 1989 Maxum, W/mercruiser 3.0L 4cyl started. Engine sounded good till I seen the water flowing out under the intake/exhaust manifold. Is manifold hard to remove? Do I have to drain the engine water?

Scott

[cunuck]

Yes drain the water you don't want water in the oil where is the leak from the gasket

[Scott]

It is a crack in the block behind the intake/exhaust manifold. I removed the manifold and am trying to jb weld the crack. Seems io be just the outside theres no water in the oil as of yet.

[cunuck]

I don't think jb weld will work on a block.I have welded lots of block and they can be tough to do the right way good luck

[shrew]

Scott,

You have a cracked block. It doesn't really matter whether you drain the oil or not, because the only solution is to pull the engine and replace the block. BTW, you HAVE water in your oil. There are two things to keep in mind:

1) Oil floats on water, so water will collect at the bottom of the oil pain.
2) oil does not circulate through the dipstick tube, so if you are checking the dipstick and are seeing nice black oil that means absolutely nothing.

There are a few ways to verify whether there is water in the oil:

1) after running the engine, pull the oil filter or pull a valve cover. If the oil looks like coffee with cream, there is water in the oil
2) after running the engine, replace the oil filter. If the oil looks like coffee with cream, there is water in the oil
3) after running the engine. Drain the oil completely and look at the oil. If the oil looks like coffee with cream, there is water in the oil

[mcoffey]

Shrew, just because the block is cracked does not mean there is water in the oil. It is quite possible that water in the coolant channels froze and only cracked to the outside of the block (and why he is seeing water leak when running). It is hard to know for sure without running it and testing. If it is just an exterior water jacket crack, that can easily be fixed.


Scott, if you can confirm it is only an exterior crack and not internal as well, it can be welded by a "good" welder and should last for many years.
The best way to weld a block is to first heat the crack area up as hot as you can (almost to the point where it is glowing orange). While it is hot like this and the crack is as open as it will ever be, quickly weld the crack. It may require some grinding first to create a nice valley to weld up so do that before heating and welding (this is a common practice).

[shrew]

Great point, thanks. For some reason I thought it was coming from the manifolds and made an assumption.