oil drip?

[ziggy]

72, mercrusier 165, L6. first look in the boat for the season today. wiped up 1-2 oz. of motor oil from the bilge. have been fighting this leak since i got the boat mid last summer. got a a lot of this oil leak repaired with a new valve cover gasket. not conviced this was the whole problem though. i didn't use anything on the gasket, just cleaned it up and R&R'ed it. am wondering if there is any other likely location for the leak. or perhaps i should have used a sealer on the valve cover gasket. most certainly the person working on it before me used a lot of sealer. wondering about the rear main though. looking pretty hard with a mirror. the oil drip is comeing off the inside starter mount bolt. is this something i should just be keepin my eye on or???? at this point all the leak does is bum me out for haveing to clean it up. but am thinking it aint gonna fix it self too, and will just get worse. any idea's? don't seem bad enough to pull the motor and look at the rear main. pan looks ok, no major rust.

 

[waterone1@aol.com]

Re: oil drip?

ziggy, you know what you are looking for....just takes the time and patience to find it. Could be rear main seal, could be oil pan gasket....looking upward, could be valve cover gasket running down....could be oil sender switch farther up running down. My suggestion would be to clean-up and de-grease the motor and start at the top looking down to see where the first place you see oil is. Sorry, not much help, these kind of problems suck.

 

[Laddies]

Re: oil drip?

Ck the lifter cover gaskets for leakage too--Bob

 

[kev_79]

Re: oil drip?

I don't think it is likely that the oil leaked from the valve cover gasket without it running. If there was no oil when you parked it, you can probably rule that one out.<br /><br />Actually, if you had a substantial amount of oil, when there was none when you parked it, I would probably look @ the oil plug on the bottom (if so equipped)and the oil pan gasket . When an engine doesn't run, the oil all drains down to the oil pan.<br /><br />Kevin

 

[ziggy]

Re: oil drip?

i like the idea of cleaning the block off. not sure what to use though. usually i clean stuff with brake kleen. not sure i like that idea though, brake kleen on the wires. so far i've tightened up a slightly loose trim line. leak down the line and dripping, that's cured. had a leak at the pan drain. got one of themz hoses to run out the boat drain hole. that has been tighted 2 times, so will be a maint item for me. replaced the valve cover gasket. old one was rolled into the valve train not even close to the back 180* of the cover. i could have done the same thing when replaceing i suppose, may find out about that. guess i really think it's the rear main. hope not. boat sat for one season w/o use. just my guess. gonna get my mirror again. looks wet at very back of engine. straight up the middle of the block. that's with a mirror. pretty darn hard to tell. oh and it aint the lifter cover gaskets as that is out in plain sight. so i keep looking. rekon i will find it eventurally. yep boat was clean and dry for winter stoarge. so the 1-2 oz. i had was an over the winter drip..... one thing i will say about the 1-2 oz though is, that ya can see the streaks of old (black) oil mixed in with fresh oil. fresh oil has been added to the engine and the power trim res. i'm thinking more likely the egine since it was pretty black, just like i drained out from the fall use. it won't get that black again either, yikes...... thanks for the help folks.

 

[ziggy]

Re: oil drip?

hum, upon further inspetion, with better light. perhpaps i'll go for pan gasket leak to start with(looks like a good call guys, just had to keep looking). can see oil dripping off the starter, starboard side rear pan bolt. think i will be lame and try just tighting first. see if any are loose compared to torque specs. if that don't work then.... if room, R&R it. if not, might have to live with it.

 

[trog100]

Re: oil drip?

 

[Northern Eclipse]

Re: oil drip?

Ziggy any rust on the oil pan, if there is any flaky rust oil can be seeping from a very tiny hole, But if you think its a rear main seal, give her a oil leak treatment, it will help swell old seals along as there not dry, but only treat once if it does not work the first time its not gonna work at all.

 

[Winger Ed.]

Re: oil drip?

If the easy stuff doesn't work, and you lose less than a quart for every 3-4 tanks of gas--<br /><br />I'd get one football size things you leave in the bilge to soak up oil, head for the water, and enjoy the boat.

 

[steve n carol]

Re: oil drip?

ziggy, were you able to tighten any of the oil pan mounting bolts? the four, (two on each side of the front/rear) mainseals, are 1/2", the ones in the field are 7/16". CAREFUL, the little ones are easy to break. I had Carolyn tighten ours, that's when she wore the short skirt! BOING!!!<br />have fun...sl

 

[WillyBWright]

Re: oil drip?

Winger Ed's talking about a Bilge Sock. You can buy them or make one with an old athletic sock filled with styrene packing peanuts.

 

[ziggy]

Re: oil drip?

hi folks, thanks for the good ideas. yep, got them pan bolts to turn. darn. my girl friend is carol too steve. guess i made a mistake and tighten my screws myself, . next time will have her help. . actually she did help. she held the socket perpen****ular to the screw on the inside starter bolt while i torqued wrenched it from the other side. got all bolt's to turn. brought them up to specs. 7 ft. lbs on the side. 10 on the 1/2 drive bolts(end pan bolts). had one that didn't want to turn real bad. left it alone. didn't figure a sheared bolt would do much good for me. we'll see if i have the desired effects. i think i will. time will tell. on to the next thing wrong with it. think it's got's to be better than it was. i have high hopes. btw. no rusty pan.

 

[Northern Eclipse]

Re: oil drip?

Glad to hear you don't have a rusty pan, I get to deal with a rusty t-chain cover this spring, time to pull motor again, hope you solved the leak.

 

[steve n carol]

Re: oil drip?

another thought, check your PVC valve...it should rattle when remove it and shake it, ( the valve). these things gotta breathe, if not your engine will buildup excessive (blow-by) pressure and push oil out...just a (cheap) thought..sl

 

[ziggy]

Re: oil drip?

thanks folks. steve. the pvc valve will be an easy one to check. man, this is a old boat. no pvc. just a oil filter breather cap. . good, one less item to leak. . thanks for the pointer on the rustys. will keep an eye on this. most of my rusty's so far is the block. . surface rust for now. i'm thinking dad (he had the boat before me)let too much water in the boat at one point or another. like one of his last storys prior to dieing was how he was over by reed island and how it started smokeing a lot. instead of checking right there. he just drove her on home. but apperently not before the smoke got worse. then he decided to look. sounded like the cooling hose from the drive had fallen off. filling up the boat and overheating it bad. hum. dad was a scolar, not a boat mech. he just wanted to go out on the lake with his kids. i miss him.... update on the leak too. don't see a lot of oil in the bilge since tighting the pan bolts. a little, but am hopeing that its from where i might not have cleaned up from the leak. back to time will tell.