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Boerman
06-10-2002, 08:28 AM
I have a boat with a brekely jet powered by a stock 454. The exhaust system exits the boat below the water line through a Hardin exhaust system. Last week I ran the boat for about 20 minutes and then stopped for about 40 minutes. When I went to start the boat, the starter was not able to turn over the motor. I found, after pulling the spark plugs water in all cylinders. Does anyone know what would cause this?? The motor was recently rebuilt.
Regards,
Neils

propless
06-10-2002, 03:05 PM
Neils -
I am assuming that you have ran this boat before without an incident,is this accurate? Any other changes to the exhaust system, something is not clicking here if you only made improvements to the motor.
I'm not a guru by any stretch, so I throw this question out to the pro's, could plumbing your system in some way cause this?

cyclone
06-10-2002, 03:52 PM
does the exhaust system have those flappers that shut when the boat is just sittin in the water? maybe they got stuck open and the water just flowed into the cylinders from the exhaust?

Boerman
06-10-2002, 03:57 PM
It has the flappers, however, they may not be sealing properly. Would this create the problem????

DickDanger
06-10-2002, 04:22 PM
Flappers over the thru transom headers would help if you dont have them yet. Since this has never happened to me, I believe the quick fix is to pull the plugs, and fire the motor to get that water out of the cylinders. Good luck -DD out

Shockwave
06-11-2002, 05:41 AM
Be very careful... I have hydrauliced an engine before- it was in a car that had sat in the rain with the engine exposed. When I tryed to crank it, it turned over slow then fired on off and bent a rod and scuffed the crap out of the cylinder wall- I have heard that generally the starter motor will not turn one over and damage anything- it will just "lock-up"- in my case the ignition fired it on through. If in doubt, just pull the plugs and blow it out. On the boat I'm building I am putting the ignition on a circuit so I can turn the engine over with the starter, and then if everythings good, I'll hit the ignition and fire on up. That deal with the car engine has me paranoid as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs with this boat engine.
HB

cyclone
06-11-2002, 07:49 AM
i had the same problem in my boat a couple of weeks ago and my engine builder had me pull all the plugs out, disconnect the MSD and crank the motor until all the water was out of the cylinders. He then had me change the oil and filter, adding a bottle of automatic transmission fluid to the oil. I then ran the motor until it was warmed up and changed the oil again.

Boerman
06-11-2002, 07:53 AM
That is what I did to clean the water out. My problem is how do you prevent this from happening in the future.
Neils

79Hawaiian
06-11-2002, 12:49 PM
Auto trans fluid in your motor oil? What in gods green earth would that do?

Lifeguard
06-17-2002, 10:37 PM
Hi,
What may have happened is that your motor cooled down and as the pressure decreased inside of the cylinders it pulled water in through your exhaust. Another possible cause is simply that the water ran in through the exhaust. You didnt mention having any risers. Risers may prevent this from happening again.