I am my own worst enemy... (BEWARE-Long, but a good laugh at my expense!)

[Flip]

It's definately been one of THOSE weekends.
First of all, we we're supposed to go out to river for a 4 day weekend. But, my buddy bailed on us at the last minute so he could put his girlfriend in order. So that sucked. For us, there's no use going if we can't ski or wakeboard. Anyways, it's good thing we didn't go.
Yesterday, we headed out to Elsinore for a shakedown run. Yeah, I shook it down all right. I was real anxious to test out the new pump (Energizer), the inducer, RPM manifold, and Holley carb I got for this season. For a brief moment of glory there was absolute bliss. My boat was running like a raped ape on steroids. Granted, it's only an Olds 350 so no speed records were going to be broken, but damn. The boat was finally plowing OVER the chop instead of THROUGH it. I also learned that Holley's make the weirdest "whistle" when the secondaries start closing. All was good. That is until I decided to start closing the water intake valve in order to get the temp up closer to 160. I had switched to a ball valve from the gate valve that I was using. Well, in my opinion, the ball valve has a bit less range of motion than the gate. I was about 70 degrees closed of the 90 available and the ball must have been shut. I got it up to WOT and the next thing I know the temp jumps up to 210, the oil pressure DUMPS to about 10 psi and the engine stalls out. I start crankin' it over hoping it won't sieze. The starter is barely getting it over. I let it cool down, bumping it over now and then. Finally, I just flagged a fellow hot boater down who was cool enough to get the Elsinore lake cop to pull us in. Big thanks to those guys.
This morning I pull the engine and put it on the stand, start disassembling and everything looks good so far. Then I go to roll the sucker over. Well, it got away from me. The stand goes in to 3 wheel motion and *THUNK*, there's my engine on the ground. :burningm: So, I hoist it back up and inspect for damages. Gonna need a new oil filter dealie, inlet for the fuel pump is bent, and the oil tube (where you pour the oil in) is destroyed.
In the mean time while this going on, I smell gas. Turns out the fuel hose coming from the tanks has slipped and fallen in to the bilge. So now my bilge is FULL of gas. WTF! I give up.
So what do you think? Is that motor toast or what? What do I need to be looking for? (besides the eventual bolt of lightning that will strike me down soon)

[Flip]

Forgot to mention the rod knock that developed when it stalled the first time. It disappered after letting the engine cool off though it still ran like crap.

[DeputyDawg]

How long were you running it at wide open throttle? Those Oldsmobiles don't like to be held open all the way down the lake unless they have had extensive oiling system mods. As far as the temp goes, 210 degrees isn't really enough to hurt the motor even though there isn't any reason to run a boat motor with an open cooling system at that temp. I know you didn't intend for it to get that hot, but 210 shouldn't have hurt anything especially for a very short period of time. Now, the oil pressure suddenly dropping is a bigger issue. Were you watching the gauges and all of the sudden the temp shot up and then the oil pressure suddenly dropped, or did you just notice it after running for a while?
Sorry about your bad day dude, but hang in there, it will get better!

[Flip]

Sorry about your bad day dude, but hang in there, it will get better!
DD, thanks. I hope it gets better tomorrow. I'm starting to think it may be some kind of sign or something.
I wasn't running it to long before it took a dump. I would say it went something like: Adjusted ball valve. Idled out of no wake zone (about 2 minutes). Looked at gauge, about 180. Took off WOT for about 2 minutes. Engine sputters. Rod knocking noise. Looked at gauges. Temp 210 or above. Oil pressure about 10 psi when I got it restarted. When it did restart it ran like crap but eventually the rod knock went away.
The oil was brand new on this run. When I drained it, it was dark. Not black, but almost. Didn't smell burnt and no shavings to be found. Turned it over by hand and all the valves open a close, pushrods don't look bent.
What specifically should I look at? Should I pull the main caps and look at the bearings? Do I have to pull the heads to get a look at the cylinders?

[DeputyDawg]

Yank the pan off and have a look. If the motor all the sudden had a big drop in oil pressure then something is wrong. When you got it restarted and running again what was the oil pressure like? If you want to run an Olds flat out for two minutes in a jet boat you are going to have to do some oiling system modifications if you want it to stay alive. One of the Olds experts here on the boards could probably tell you what modifications to make to the oil system. When you refired it the knock probably went away because it cooled back down and more of the oil returned to the bottom end where it is most needed. You also weren't running it as hard. But the fact remains that you have 10psi of oil pressure and that ain't gonna cut it! Pull the pan and check her out. Be CAREFUL when you rotate the motor on the stand, we don't need another "Incident" in the garage, but for safety sake you might want to put on your steel toed Flip Flops! :D

[v-drive]

I don't think the olds 350 has the same problems as the 455. how many hours do you have on the engine? :frown: v-drive

[FHI-prez]

OK first of all it sounds like you had the ball valve closed, or close enough to it. If you did, then the 210 isn't a good idea of how hot you were. If you had the water off to the motor the chance of you getting a accurate water temp is slim and none. The water temp sensor only indicates motor temp when the water is circulating through the motor.
Anyway, I'd bet you spun a rod bearing or two. I hope it didn't damage anything else. Good luck and keep us posted.
Nick

[Flip]

I don't think the olds 350 has the same problems as the 455. how many hours do you have on the engine? :frown: v-drive
I have about 4 years on the motor but pretty low hours. I'd take a guess at around 90 to 100? I dunno. One of those years the boat never even went out.
I don't think the 350 has the same oiling problems either. I've never had problems within last 4 years running it WOT for long periods and thats with a high volume oil pump.

[Flip]

Pulled the rod bearings. All of them were in their right places in the journals. There doesn't seem to be any major damages to the journals from what I can tell. But then again, I've never seen what a spun bearing looks like, so I don't really know what I'm looking for.
http://www.blazerclub.com/cgi-bin/bearings001.jpg
http://www.blazerclub.com/cgi-bin/bearings002.jpg
http://www.blazerclub.com/cgi-bin/bearings003.jpg
http://www.blazerclub.com/cgi-bin/bearings004.jpg

[PC Rat]

I did something similar on my first boat. Shut the valve down too far, and I don't remember if the gauge wasn't working right or what, but I got the engine so hot that it would not shut off. Finally got it to quit running, loaded it up on the trailer, and four hours later it was still hot to the touch. This happened over 10 years ago and I know that the engine (BBC) still runs good to this day.
Also had my engine on the stand with no pin in it, I put one header on and turned around to grab the other header. I hear this big crash and turn around to see my engine upside down and the stand on top. Without the pin, the engine spun and the header knocked the stand out from under it and flipped it on top. I damn near shed a tear seeing my chrome Bassett with big dents, a broken tunnel ram, and my brand new chrome plated aluminum valve covers shattered like glass.
Oh and by the way, of the three boats that I've bought, one engine made it four trips and the other two didn't make it past one trip.
Your not alone.
Brian

[Tahiti350]

Looks like the rod bearing are a little cooked. Should be shiny silver, adn the one with spots is imbedded crap. Take the crank and have it checked for size, and if it's okay have it polished and put it all back together.
If the oil press "suddenly" dropped it may have been holding the oil in the top end, and pulling air, which would explain the blackened bearings and the knock that went away.
Good luck with it, and BE CAREFUL!!!!

[Flip]

Main bearings. #4 (from the front) to be exact. There was a nice piece of shrapnel sitting in the oiling hole. :notam:
So I guess it's time to have the crank polished and order up a gasket and bearing kit. Sucks. I'd be less pissed if I hadn't cause all this carnage myself. Dumbass.
I'm in the big debate on whether to have to heads and block magnafluxed now. Everything "looks" fine with the naked eye. What do you guys think?
I really didn't want this to turn in to a full rebuild project, especially now at the end of may. But I guess I shit my own shorts on this one. :cry:

[berk]

Main bearings. #4 (from the front) to be exact. There was a nice piece of shrapnel sitting in the oiling hole. :notam:
So I guess it's time to have the crank polished and order up a gasket and bearing kit. Sucks. I'd be less pissed if I hadn't cause all this carnage myself. Dumbass.
I'm in the big debate on whether to have to heads and block magnafluxed now. Everything "looks" fine with the naked eye. What do you guys think?
I really didn't want this to turn in to a full rebuild project, especially now at the end of may. But I guess I shit my own shorts on this one. :cry:
put a 502/502 on visa :notam:

[CrdStang]

Don't feel too bad, at least you made it to the water. I fired my 455 for the first time today, about 10 minutes into the cam break-in, the oil pressore dropped to ~10psi. :frown: I shut it off, hopefully before anything got screwed up.
I figure either something went horribly wrong or it did the patented Oldsmobile pump-all-the-oil-into-the-valve-covers trick. I'll fire it up again in the morning and see if the oil pressure comes back...

[v-drive]

I think I would bite the bullet and do the rebuild. If you don't and something goes wrong you will be really upset,I know that I would
:coffeycup :coffeycup v-drive

[FHI-prez]

Don't feel too bad, at least you made it to the water. I fired my 455 for the first time today, about 10 minutes into the cam break-in, the oil pressore dropped to ~10psi. :frown: I shut it off, hopefully before anything got screwed up.
I figure either something went horribly wrong or it did the patented Oldsmobile pump-all-the-oil-into-the-valve-covers trick. I'll fire it up again in the morning and see if the oil pressure comes back...
Not to hijack the thread, but the oil being held in the heads on an olds shouldn't and probably wouldn't happen upon break in. It's holding the big olds at high RPM that does the trick. The oil can't flow back to the pan as fast as it's pumped to the top. I hope I'm wrong, but sounds to me like a cam lobe went south. If your breaking it in with double valve springs, that would be the first thing I'd look for. For break in, it's always a good idea to run just the outer spring and leave the inner spring out. Once the cam is broken in, pull the spring and put them both in. I'm making a lot of assumptions here, but I've seen it many times before.
Now I know there will be someone that says they've always broken in cams with both valve springs with no problems, I have too (before I knew better) it's just a measure of safety, that's all.
Good luck olds guys,
Nick