Recent content by frankn88

I think last night was the last straw. Our problems began about 3 years ago. I had replaced the exhaust over the winter, and the boat ran fine a couple times then got water in the engine. Payed a mechanic about $2500 to rebuild the top end, took all summer, ran it only once or twice, the day I...

I'll spare you all the history, but here's what's going on: Engine had a valve job last summer. 550 hours. Immediately following valve job, at high speed/on plane, it appears that oil is leaking out from a gap in the intake manifold seal (RTV) at the back of the engine. According to the...

Bt Doctur, if I understand correctly, you're saying you don't think it's blowby, and the intake just needs to be properly seated, right? I moved the boat yesterday and I rechecked the breather tubes while it was running - they have some oil residue on the inside, but nothing's coming out and...

Ok, hundreds of dollars and weeks later the latest diagnosis (by a mechanic that DIDN'T do the upper end valve job last year) is that the mechanic that DID do the valve job did not properly seal the intake manifold and oil is leaking out of the back through a gap where there should be sealant...

They were supposed to look at it yesterday. Since I didn't get a call, they probably haven't yet. Thanks for the tips, I'll see what they say.

I have a bad oil leak when the engine is running. The mechanic is supposed to look at it tomorrow. He said it could be a leaky oil sender, or a rear main seal, or ? I am confident, with my luck, it will be the rear main seal. I looked it up in the Seloc manual and for a 1994 5.7l it says you...

Thanks for the tips everyone!

We're trying to plan our annual camping trip, and I thought it would be fun to throw the tent on the boat and find someplace we could camp, but get there by boat. We're mid-Bay, so anything between roughly Rock Hall (I did find Hart Miller State Park, which looks great, but is a little too far...

I agree with you, but I certainly didnt expect him to be able to just know exactly what was wrong and give me an exact estimate. we discussed that it was probably a blown head gasket and I think he should at least be able to say it'll be about 4 hours to remove the heads and about 8 hours to...

I did, but the torque wrench I used was of the non-clicking variety, i.e., not as accurate, so that probably didn't help either.

Thanks for the info/opinions guys. I prefer doing my own work too, but in this case, it didn't work out so well... If only I'd chased those damn threads! Might have saved $3k...that hurts. Oh well, live and learn. Next time I'll know better.

AFD - he didn't expend much effort getting the boat, he works in the marina, so it's about 100 yards from my boat to his shop. I agree that I can't complain about the $70 an hour, and I don't think he's trying to screw me or anything. But it took him a full month to get it done (7/5 - 8/5)...

Sorry for the confusion - my fault. I did pull the heads and took them to a machine shop because I had a bent rod. I used sealant where I was supposed to, but good point about the threads giving me a false torque reading - hadn't thought of that and maybe that was the cause of my new troubles...

I'm trying to determine whether/how much I should complain about this. So before I tell you how many hours they charged, let me know how many hours you think is reasonable, or give a range (if you're interested). Here's the description of the work done: COMPLETED: Sprayed down engine...

My new exhaust elbows came with a little bag with a brass plug and a tag that says, "Important these exhaust elbows are self draining. As a result of testing the drain holes and plugs are not required." On the surface it sounds very self explanatory. but what does that mean? Am I not supposed...