obligatory Kohler 5E overheating questions… (thinking head gasket)

[KSalibs]

OK.. So 2002 Kohler 5e no digital panel on unit... strange things are happening. I’ll start with some history. When I got the boat last May it would bog on load and the exhaust would get steamy and oily... this eventually stopped happening as i used it. Since then I have done all the routine service, water pump, oil, coolant, Zink, flushed the heat exchanger as the old zink had broken up inside... Last season it would run fine for days then out of nowhere it would shut down... I’d go take a look and the overflow bottle would be full and there would appear to be coolant stains near the fill cap indicating that coolant leaked out, then boiled and evaporated leaving this marking not much about the size of a dollar ripped in half. I would fill it back up, burp it and she would run for a while (15 -20 hrs) then same thing... so then at the end of last season I go to change the oil and... NO oil comes out!

oddly enough the unit was running the entire way to the haul out without issue... idk what to think. So I add oil flush it with more oil… nothing out of the ordinary and WTF say see you next year.


This year... Boat in, starts right up put 10 hrs on it... back to the overheating issue paired with the full reservoir and stain near fill cap... I also notice a strange watery / oily consistency in the pan under the unit... like not oil and water separated but oily water... (if that makes any sense). So this time I burp the unit fill it up drain the reservoir halfway down... and start the unit with the fill cap off... I immediately notice VERY small white bubbles finding their way to the fill cap... so i put the fill cap on and then watch the reservoir... I notice that there is bubbling going on in there not a tone like half of what you would see from a fish tank bubbler…... my initial thought is that this is a head gasket... can anyone firm up on this before I go nuts trying to make this repair?

Also id say I rank around a 8.5 out of 10 in regards to mechanically inclined, can i take this on myself?
A direction on where to find the parts would be really appreciated as well. Thanks guys! Hope everyone is enjoying their season or at least about to!

 

[villain style]

Hello Ksalibs
Your symptoms sound identical to exactly what I had last year. Mine had poor water flow, smoke,gas smell, overheating, shutdown. The diagnosis was that the entire cooling system was scaled up to the point that flow was nil at best. The mechanic spent most of the labor descaling the cooling system with Ridlyme whick worked and saved me a lot of money from having to purchase new parts. This was still about a 1500 job though. Here was his service ticket items..

Disassemble and clean cooling system on Generator
1 Rydlyme cooling system cleaner
Remove and replace fuel module, lift pump and injector.. test run under load. ran well
1 Kohler digtal lift pump

Good luck!!!

 

[KSalibs]

Hello Ksalibs
Your symptoms sound identical to exactly what I had last year. Mine had poor water flow, smoke,gas smell, overheating, shutdown. The diagnosis was that the entire cooling system was scaled up to the point that flow was nil at best. The mechanic spent most of the labor descaling the cooling system with Ridlyme whick worked and saved me a lot of money from having to purchase new parts. This was still about a 1500 job though. Here was his service ticket items..

Disassemble and clean cooling system on Generator
1 Rydlyme cooling system cleaner
Remove and replace fuel module, lift pump and injector.. test run under load. ran well
1 Kohler digtal lift pump

Good luck!!!

Thanks! I will look into this if I'm not mistaken i do have good water flow though... would appreciate a few more point of views if i can get them Thanks again!