1996 Mercruiser 4.3LX Gen+. Got my boat in the water today (finally). Pulled away from the marina and everything worked great! Ran it up to 4500 RPM with no noises, no surging, purring like a kitten. Shut it down to take a swim. Started it up again and it started knocking. Sounded like someone is sending Morse Code to me with a ball peen hammer on my engine block. Also, engine bogged down a couple of times and quit at idle. A little history: When I first started "summerizing" it, I found water in the engine oil. Changed it out, ran it today and the "milkiness" went away I'm assuming through evaporation. Anyway, I thought the knocking might be lifters. Changed the oil for a second time. Put on the muffs and ran it up to 2000 RPM. Resulted in faster morse code. Any ideas?
