Help! Water in cylinders and oil! Stumped!

[Phatty5BMW]

Long time lurker, first time poster! You guys/gals are amazing but I am completely stumped. Help!
I'll try and be as descriptive as I can, sorry for the long post!
boat= 79 Sea ray srv207 bowrider.
I've had this issue for 3 years now but uncommonly similar in ways.
It had a merc 228 with logs. I started getting water in my cylinders at about 1500 hours on the engine. Compression test was fair but the boat was under powered anyway. I did the acetone test on the logs and came up within range but a little weak. I figured the headgasket was toasted so I decided to empower anyways. (Tore that engine apart besides normal wear and tear still didnt see an issue)
Bought a marine 350 with vortec heads, brand new reman, edelbrock marine intake and edelbrock 1409 carb.
Swapped everything over and broke it in, with the old log manis, seemed to be fine, no water intrusion. About 2 hours or so into actually being on the water my outdrive took a turn for the worst (irrelevant to my issue)
I got a different drive (got stiffed because the new one was for a 6 cylinder so the ratio was wrong) so anyways back to the water I went, engine got a little warmer than normal (obviously)but nothing concerning, never went past 190 but I went and pulled it out.
then that's where it all started.
water in the cyls.
pulled the logs, still leaking from the one side, and a little from the other, primarily the center cyls.
bought a parts boat for cheap so I had enough parts for a center rise conversion.
center rise conversion completed all buttoned up. Ran it on muffs, kept checking the dipstick, all "looked" good and well. Took it out to our campsite right on the river, fired it up again for good measures when we got there, all was fine.
took it to the ramp and wouldn't turn over for crap.
back to the site I went, trying to figure that out, pulled plugs and low and behold cyl 3&5 water. Engine was hydrolocked. "Oil" was drained, with more chocolate milk/water than oil.
got it all freed back up without plugs and fogging oil, fresh oil and seafoam and cranked it over a while to get some fresh dispersed with the seafoam.
purchased brand new mercruiser manis/risers. Just put them on today, ran for a few on muffs to get it warm to do yet another oil change. Drained, and milk.
went and got 2 new filters do so another 2 changes for good insurance and low and behold MORE WATER! All on muffs!
cyl 3&5 primarily.
I've literally replaced EVERYTHING! I honestly dont even know where to look anymore!?
will be doing a compression and leak down test tomorrow but honestly I'm completely stumped and about 4k into this damn engine! Should have just bought another boat!

 

[BillK2632]

Based on what you have said, I would suspect an installation issue.
So a couple of thing:

• Do you have the right gaskets / plates for the risers? There are several different configurations and it can be confusing which one is right for your engine.
• Since you switched from a log style manifold to the Merc riser style, do you have enough "rise" in the risers? They should be a certain height above the water line. In some cases spacers are required to achieve the correct height.
• Do you have flappers installed?

 

[Phatty5BMW]

All OEM supplied gaskets. Boat hasn't been in the water since the conversion this is all on muffs in the driveway

 

[BillK2632]

If you are sure it's not the riser/manifold gasket or an installation problem - seems unlikely I guess since the other side is ok - your getting water in two cylinders next to each other, so if it's not the riser/manifold it's the head gasket. Compression test will tell the story.

 

[Phatty5BMW]

I just pulled the manifold/riser. I did last night turn the engine over to get the water out and fogged the cyls. Just now turned it over and water spewed from the cylinders. Bench tested the manifold outside of the boat and all water comes out of the riser.
Chocolate milk is caked inside the manifold and riser

 

[SCORPIO]

Did you re use an old intake manifold or is it new? If it's old, it could be corroded thru or cracked allowing water to drop into the engine. I would not think it would be confined to just a few cylinders but would drop into the lifter gallery. I lost a 5.7 a few years ago to a rotten intake, made a mess of the oil.
I suspect you had a bad log manifold and may have got water in those two cylinders from that. A subsequent start may have cracked a head or blown the gasket and now you have a channel from a water passage to cylinders. You may have to pull that head and see what's up. Do a compression test first, as that should show up any head gasket leakage.

 

[LG111]

Long time lurker, first time poster! You guys/gals are amazing but I am completely stumped. Help!
I'll try and be as descriptive as I can, sorry for the long post!
boat= 79 Sea ray srv207 bowrider.
I've had this issue for 3 years now but uncommonly similar in ways.
It had a merc 228 with logs. I started getting water in my cylinders at about 1500 hours on the engine. Compression test was fair but the boat was under powered anyway. I did the acetone test on the logs and came up within range but a little weak. I figured the headgasket was toasted so I decided to empower anyways. (Tore that engine apart besides normal wear and tear still didnt see an issue)
Bought a marine 350 with vortec heads, brand new reman, edelbrock marine intake and edelbrock 1409 carb.
Swapped everything over and broke it in, with the old log manis, seemed to be fine, no water intrusion. About 2 hours or so into actually being on the water my outdrive took a turn for the worst (irrelevant to my issue)
I got a different drive (got stiffed because the new one was for a 6 cylinder so the ratio was wrong) so anyways back to the water I went, engine got a little warmer than normal (obviously)but nothing concerning, never went past 190 but I went and pulled it out.
then that's where it all started.
water in the cyls.
pulled the logs, still leaking from the one side, and a little from the other, primarily the center cyls.
bought a parts boat for cheap so I had enough parts for a center rise conversion.
center rise conversion completed all buttoned up. Ran it on muffs, kept checking the dipstick, all "looked" good and well. Took it out to our campsite right on the river, fired it up again for good measures when we got there, all was fine.
took it to the ramp and wouldn't turn over for crap.
back to the site I went, trying to figure that out, pulled plugs and low and behold cyl 3&5 water. Engine was hydrolocked. "Oil" was drained, with more chocolate milk/water than oil.
got it all freed back up without plugs and fogging oil, fresh oil and seafoam and cranked it over a while to get some fresh dispersed with the seafoam.
purchased brand new mercruiser manis/risers. Just put them on today, ran for a few on muffs to get it warm to do yet another oil change. Drained, and milk.
went and got 2 new filters do so another 2 changes for good insurance and low and behold MORE WATER! All on muffs!
cyl 3&5 primarily.
I've literally replaced EVERYTHING! I honestly dont even know where to look anymore!?
will be doing a compression and leak down test tomorrow but honestly I'm completely stumped and about 4k into this damn engine! Should have just bought another boat!

If I missed the comment sorry. how is the engine cooled? raw water in block or heat exchanger with antifreeze? I am guessing raw water. the only place left to leak water into the oil is a cracked head or block internally. early on the engine will run fine even with cracks. hope it' not but that's my guess.

sorry
Mark

 

[Phatty5BMW]

Motor is smoked. 2 hours run time, never overheated nothing. My guess is crap gaskets and crap engine builder. My guess is the head wasnt torqued correct because some were easy and some weren't. 2k down the drain in that motor!
Pretty odd the amount of failure in the gasket in that many places let alone the piston doing that damage to itself?

 

[Thornton69]

Sounds like you are having heating issues as well. Did you check the pressure in your cooling system? If raw water cooled, the entire system could be running at too high a pressure causing the internal gasket failures. Make sure to pull the Y pipe and check the exhaust flapper. If it fails, it can get stuck in the outdrive and cause high back pressure in the exhaust and in turn the cooling system.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Well, the way I see it the motor was overheated ,period. This can crack the heads/block or head gaskets will start leaking. Marine raw water cooled motors cannot run hotter than 175 without damage. That is why the thermostat is rated for 140 or 160
Can blame the builder if your doing the abuse