- Oct 4, 2006
- 2,335
- Boat Info
- 2003 280DA and 1995 Sea Ray 175
- Engines
- Twin 4.3l and 3.0l, all w/ AlphaI GenII drives
Hey all, back in late 2018 one of the 4.3MPI engines on my boat suffered hydro-lock. After removing the spark plugs, there was water in the #2 and #4 cylinders. I got it running again and it ran just fine. A couple of weeks later it happened again. And then again. When I finally brought the boat home on the trailer, it was dead (the low oil pressure alarm sounded and it started stalling). Long story short, I purchased a remanufactured long block. In disgust, I let the boat sit for all of 2020 and so far, 2021.
I have removed the engine and just today finished the tear down and removed the starboard side cylinder heads. All 3 cylinders were massively corroded due to the brackish water ingestion. But no smoking gun. I fully expected to find a pathway from the water jacket into the cylinder head, or from the water jacket in the block to the cylinder bore. But it all looks well sealed, no pathways above or under the head gasket.
So now I'm wondering...could it be my brand-new HGE EDP-coated dry-joint exhaust manifold, spacer and riser? I say brand-new because they were replaced about 2-3 months before the water ingestion occurred. Coincidence?! Maybe. Or maybe they were the root cause. They only have about 5 hours of use on them. I replaced them as a preventative maintenance items, go figure.
I unbolted the pieces to check the condition of the gaskets and see if there was any smoking gun there. But all of the gaskets looked great. Could there be something else with this manifold that I just can't see? Or should I not worry about them, reassemble with new gaskets, and quit worrying about it? (I also wonder if I placed the restrictor gasket in the right place, in the right orientation, if it matters, and if that could have caused water injestion...).
To be honest, I'm unfamiliar with what even the "dry-joint" means, and how the water flows throughout these things, and where failure might occur to cause water ingestion...
Any help you all can provide would be greatly appreciated while I re-assemble my boat!
Tom
I have removed the engine and just today finished the tear down and removed the starboard side cylinder heads. All 3 cylinders were massively corroded due to the brackish water ingestion. But no smoking gun. I fully expected to find a pathway from the water jacket into the cylinder head, or from the water jacket in the block to the cylinder bore. But it all looks well sealed, no pathways above or under the head gasket.
So now I'm wondering...could it be my brand-new HGE EDP-coated dry-joint exhaust manifold, spacer and riser? I say brand-new because they were replaced about 2-3 months before the water ingestion occurred. Coincidence?! Maybe. Or maybe they were the root cause. They only have about 5 hours of use on them. I replaced them as a preventative maintenance items, go figure.
I unbolted the pieces to check the condition of the gaskets and see if there was any smoking gun there. But all of the gaskets looked great. Could there be something else with this manifold that I just can't see? Or should I not worry about them, reassemble with new gaskets, and quit worrying about it? (I also wonder if I placed the restrictor gasket in the right place, in the right orientation, if it matters, and if that could have caused water injestion...).
To be honest, I'm unfamiliar with what even the "dry-joint" means, and how the water flows throughout these things, and where failure might occur to cause water ingestion...
Any help you all can provide would be greatly appreciated while I re-assemble my boat!
Tom