Gray Smoke out Exhaust and Oil Spattered in ER?

[Prosideus]

We took the boat out for the first time this season yesterday.

When I started the starboard engine, a thick cloud of gray smoke puffed out the exhaust, then cleared up. Port engine did not do this. Normal? Do I need to look into something?

Was able to spend about an hour on the water and about 5-10 minutes of that running at wide open throttle. Hit about 2700 rpms (which I think is a bit low by 200, but I need to go back and check my notes on that).

At the end of the day I went to close the sea cocks and noticed that oil had spattered around the starboard engine in the ER. Looking around I noticed the dipstick was unseated about an inch, my guess is the oil came from the dipstick hole.

At the end of last season when I changed the oil I had overfilled the starboard engine a little bit. Since this has never happened before, I'm wondering if overfilling with oil created enough pressure to unseat the dipstick and start spattering oil. Is it reasonable to think an overfill of oil would cause this? Other thoughts?

 

[ziekman@cox.net]

You might want to check current oil level, secure dipstick, rev to 2500 rpm, in neutral, and inspect engine fittings, with a flashlight. You might have a hairline crack, that is now just wide enough to create the spray.

 

[fwebster]

A hairline crack in what?

 

[HUMPH]

Do you have a reverso system? If you do and you overfill, use the reverse to pump out the extra oil. If not, use your oil extractor to remove excess oil. Oil fill mistakes I are easy to correct.

 

[shadow9999]

I had the same engines in my 410. You are revving about 100 RPM low. They are supposed to max out at 2800 RPM. Yes overfilling the crankcase can cause the splatte. I had the exact same issue one time. I had the oil changed and for some reason the guy overfilled both engines. I ended up with oil all over the engine room. When I lowered the oil to where it was supposed to be, the problem went away.

 

[ziekman@cox.net]

A hairline crack in what?

A couple of years ago, I had a small (1 in. Elbow) brass fitting that developed one. If I can find the old part, I'll post a pic.

 

[fwebster]

I think increased crankcase pressure is the cause. Enough pressure and the dipstick will push out of the tube as the combustion gasses try to escape. If the crankcase was over filled, that would explain the oil blown all over the bilge; but you would have had to really over fill the oil.