I have milky engine oil. I was working on the assumption that I had a blown head gasket but after reading lots of posts, I am not sure anymore. I'm enough of a mechanic to figure out how to replace the head gaskets (with lots of help from youtube) but I don't know how to figure out if that's really the problem. From the posts I've read it could be the exhaust manifold, a cracked head, a cracked block, the head gasket or something else entirely.
Here is what I think happened......I was concerned that I might have a blocked exhaust elbow so I took them off and cleaned and inspected them (rusty but nothing blocked). I put them back together and tried to start the engine. It cranked for a few seconds and the starter failed. In addition to the starter failing, one of the starter bolts sheared off inside the engine block. In order to fix it, I had to pull the engine.
In the process, I took out the plugs and noticed some fluid in cylinder #6. I believe, that I got some water in the cylinder when I was putting the exhaust elbows back on and hydrolocked the engine which resulted in the stater failure and the sheared starter bolt.
While I had the engine out, I cleaned and painted it and replaced a few parts that were rusted or damaged. Full disclosure, while I had it on the lift about 12 inches from the ground, the lift tipped over and the engine hit the floor. Dented the oil pan but didn't seem to do any other damage.
I got the engine back in and everything put back together. After running it several times, I discovered that the oil was milky. My guess is in hydrolocking the cylinder, I blew the head gasket.
I intended to go buy or borrow a compression gauge but I'm not sure that's going to tell me what's wrong, Every test I can think of would give the same result if it was a blown head gasket or a cracked head/block. Any suggestions on how I should proceed? I'd hate to buy a gasket set only to find out that I need a new engine.
I'm hesitant to take it to a marine mechanic. Last time I did that due to a "funny noise" I was told that he'd have to pull the engine with a minimum charge of $1000 just to diagnose it.
Here is what I think happened......I was concerned that I might have a blocked exhaust elbow so I took them off and cleaned and inspected them (rusty but nothing blocked). I put them back together and tried to start the engine. It cranked for a few seconds and the starter failed. In addition to the starter failing, one of the starter bolts sheared off inside the engine block. In order to fix it, I had to pull the engine.
In the process, I took out the plugs and noticed some fluid in cylinder #6. I believe, that I got some water in the cylinder when I was putting the exhaust elbows back on and hydrolocked the engine which resulted in the stater failure and the sheared starter bolt.
While I had the engine out, I cleaned and painted it and replaced a few parts that were rusted or damaged. Full disclosure, while I had it on the lift about 12 inches from the ground, the lift tipped over and the engine hit the floor. Dented the oil pan but didn't seem to do any other damage.
I got the engine back in and everything put back together. After running it several times, I discovered that the oil was milky. My guess is in hydrolocking the cylinder, I blew the head gasket.
I intended to go buy or borrow a compression gauge but I'm not sure that's going to tell me what's wrong, Every test I can think of would give the same result if it was a blown head gasket or a cracked head/block. Any suggestions on how I should proceed? I'd hate to buy a gasket set only to find out that I need a new engine.
I'm hesitant to take it to a marine mechanic. Last time I did that due to a "funny noise" I was told that he'd have to pull the engine with a minimum charge of $1000 just to diagnose it.
