This post will be rather long but I want to explain everything I've done so you will have all the information, and might be able to help. Last winter I bought a 1991 Larson F&S with a 3.0 L Mercruiser and alpha 1 outdrive. The story he gave me is that he picked up some trash while boating in the Arkansas River and over heated the engine. It was pretty bad all the exhaust hoses had to be replaced. And since he said it was running so bad and had water in the oil I pulled the head and replaced the headgasket. Really didn't find anything as far as head gasket. I put it all back together, replaced the water pump in the lower unit. I then hooked it up to water hose and started the engine, everything seemed fine. I took it to the lake and ran it for a couple of hours, still getting water in the oil. After talking to a guy at Travis Boating here in Little Rock, I realized I didn't replace the flapper valve in the exhaust. I replaced it and a friend of mine borrowed the boat for a week on the lake. Well it got a lot of water in it, raised the oil level on the dipstick past halfway. That was last fall, so I winterized it and parked it over the winter. I finally got to start back working on it last month. I pulled the head and manifold took them to a machine shop I use for my automotive projects. They did not have a plate to fit the head to pressure test it, but did maniflux the head. No cracks showed up in the head. He talked to some guy he knows and he said that there was no way that much water could be getting into the crankcase through the manifold. I have never had any water to show up inside the cylinders, never had hydraulic lock, and the engine runs great from idle to full throttle. So now I'm assuming that it's a cracked block, is this a correct assumption or is there something else I should look at before I pull the engine out?<br /><br />Thanks in advance,<br />Delos
