4.3 Volvo Penta freshwater, engine full of water

[Paul Rummell]

My neighbors boat with the 4.3 V/P, somehow is filling the crankcase with water. He calls me since he's not a mech, to have a look. Wow. Engine is full of syrupy oil/water mix. I mean beyond full. He had not run it in 2 years. He changed his impellers, and muffed the water intake, ran it for "10 minutes" during which time it filled with water and quit. I start by cleaning and flushing, a few times. New oil/filter. Look things over for general condition. Start it up, checking oil immediately and every 30 seconds or so to see if water is entering. Remained nice and clean. Engine ran beautiful, smooth. Ran until temp stabilized, did a couple throttle snaps, all fine. Shut down, checked oil again. Perfect. The next day, he muffed it, ran it, and once again filled with water. He ran it a few minutes longer than i did. Oh,i also ran compression checks, all cylinders nearly equal at around 180. Ideas? Where can this volume of water be entering? Thank you.

 

[Don S]

Re: 4.3 Volvo Penta freshwater, engine full of water

Sounds like the block froze and cracked. If the freshwater cooling system doesn't have antifreeze in it freezes just like a raw water cooled engne.

 

[Paul Rummell]

Re: 4.3 Volvo Penta freshwater, engine full of water

I initally discounted winter freezing due to our location in Texas, and that he keeps it in his garage, but am reconsidering the possibility. I'm going back over to look at it tomorrow, will remove the intake manifold to start off. Ugg.

 

[mtbdudex]

Re: 4.3 Volvo Penta freshwater, engine full of water

see my thread Mike R 4.3L Volvo-Penta rebuild thread, check the intake manifold, inspect the block, etc like I did.

Good luck, I feel you pain....trust me.

 

[Maclin]

Re: 4.3 Volvo Penta freshwater, engine full of water

Last October in 2011 I got a flash weather message about temps getting down to 28 overnite on a Tuesday, freak thing. I dropped everything, got my tools and headed to the boat storage about 10 miles away at 9:30pm to drain it. I had planned to do it the next weekend but I just could not take the chance by waiting. It was the boat's first winter down here, and some do not even winterize here, but being from Kansas I always assume the weather is not my friend. The recorded temp here was 26 for 3 hours very early the next morning, so glad I did what I did. I saw lots of I/O boats with cracked blocks on craigslist this spring from this area, and saw a few threads here on iboats from Texas owners wondering why they had water in the oil. And I am sure some of those ended up on Craiglist also.

 

[Paul Rummell]

Re: 4.3 Volvo Penta freshwater, engine full of water

All of the help has been appreciated friends, the results are in. Got with the neighbor, we pulled the intake manifold, yep, two cracks. He was hopeful that was all. I started cleaning the goop out of the lifter valley, and there it was. Big old chunk of block cracked out of the water jacket. Tragic. He says he's going to have it replaced. Sad end to a fine 70 hour engine.

 

[PS94]

Re: 4.3 Volvo Penta freshwater, engine full of water

I just bought one, was supposedly winterized....same thing. 2 girthy cracks on Port side. 200 hour engine.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Re: 4.3 Volvo Penta freshwater, engine full of water

unfortunately most marine engines usually do not die of old age, they are usually murdered by poor winterization or poor maintenance.

good news is longblocks are easy to come by.