Need help please with AQ125B w/270 outdrive (correction: 280)

[Don S]

Re: Need help please with AQ125B w/270 outdrive

Re: Need help please with AQ125B w/270 outdrive

So, we're planning on taking the head off this weekend, replacing all the gaskets, and than go from there....

I would suggest you do some troubleshooting before you remove the head, the head gasket is probably not your problem.

Do a real compression test, not just popping rags out of the plug holes. You need to drain the cooling system and pressure test it, that could lead you to the leak if that is where it's coming from. Even doing leakdown tests can help pinpoint leaky gaskets or cracks. If you take it apart, you are done troubleshooting and are then just throwing parts at it and hoping it works.

It may have been underwater, hard to say. For one thing, if the engine had been run with water in it, you wouldn't have water beads, you would have milky oil.

 

[vladens]

Re: Need help please with AQ125B w/270 outdrive

Re: Need help please with AQ125B w/270 outdrive

UPDATE:
OK, against your probably better judgement and advice me and my friend we started removing parts without doing proper testing, we just didn't have right tools for that and were very eager to find out whats going on inside.
We started with exhaust manifold because I seems like it's the only place where the fresh water could come in through into the engine. It looked pretty solid, no cracks.
Then went on to removing the head. There was some water in intake manifold, little bit in the cylinders, but only couple of teaspoons maybe. There were some unusual signs.... Head gasket looked brand new, and the piston in the very last cylinder also looks brand new. There is even little bit of adhesive residue from the sticker on top of the piston, at least that's what it looks like. Also the exhaust port on the manifold for the same cylinder looks different then others, sleeve is different shape. Everything else looked fine...
I'm thinking -what else?
We "knew" that there was fresh oil in the crankcase because it looked TOTALLY fresh on the dipstick, and the seller claimed that he changed the oil & coolant. Well, that was our mistake! We removed the drain plug & a lot of water poured out with just a little bit of oil after it....... There was just enough oil to cover the dipstick end, and it was really clean.
I could've totally done this before removing the head, but whatever... it's not really that much work for the weekend. We need to get few more gaskets & will be putting it back together.

What do you guys make out of this?
To me it looks like the previous owner had some engine work done, put in the water without the plug, sunk it... then pulled it out and sold it to me. Just my guess.

 

[Nickypoo]

Re: Need help please with AQ125B w/270 outdrive

Re: Need help please with AQ125B w/270 outdrive

On these aluminum head engines the exhaust port on the #4 cylinder gets corroded pretty bad so it's sometimes necessary to weld it back up. From this it sounds like the cylinder head was rebuilt. I don't know why the piston was replaced, maybe the corrosion extended past the head.

If you want to know whether he sunk it or not you should do some more detective work. Maybe you could take out one of the seats and see if the foam is saturated, or if any of the trim padding such as in the bow is wet. It may have dried out by now but if it's wet then you have a pretty good idea of what happened.

It seems kind of weird that he would sell it without at least draining the water.

 

[vladens]

Re: Need help please with AQ125B w/270 outdrive

Re: Need help please with AQ125B w/270 outdrive

I know, it does seem weird....
All the trim and seats have been removed for reupholstering. Rear seats, front seats & doghouse have all been re-done. All the carpeting has been replaced, and according to the seller so has the floor according to the seller. But I don't know if I want to believe that. Yes the carpet is brand new, but I don't know about the floor. All the plywood at the bottom of rear seats is wet, the plywood piece that sits vertically right after the fuel tank is very wet too. The gas tank was to the top filled with water.
Those were my clues.
I guess it doesn't really matter what happened, I just want to make it run.