Oily water beneath Stern Drive Mercruiser engine.

[phwrd]

Friend has a, she said a 2004, Rinker 243 cruiser with a 5.0 (or 5.7) Mercruiser.

Her late husband bought and by all accounts, properly maintained this boat.
It's been 18 months since he has been on the boat and she won't step foot on it.

She wants to sell and ask that I ?just come over and start it up?. Both batteries were fried. They had left the shore plug in and battery charger on. In the process of changing out the batteries, of course, I dropped a wrench.

Retrieving the wrench turned out to be a messy proposition. Found that there is oily water laying under the motor. Milky not fresh oil.

What could be the source of this oil ? Had the boat on a 6 hour run, 4 months ago prior to finding this and had no problems. Don't know if it was there then or not.

And have run the motor approximately 60 minutes total since i changed the batteries, 30 in water, 30 just to run motor. The motor purrs, not even a hick-up.

But not knowing anything at all about stern drives, I don't want to cause any problems for her with the boat. I have done a little reading and am beginning to worry that this might indicate a serious problem.

After reading about seals / gaskets that can go bad, I made sure to leave the boat high enough on the lift to keep the stern drive out of the water.

I am going back in 2 weeks, will soak up the oil with absorption pads. Will find out what size and year of motor and outdrive. Gonna check the engine oil, check the oil plug to make sure it is tight.

What else should I look for ? Guess I will keep reading on it but other than engine oil, what else can leak into this area ? Gear oil, power steering ?

Another silly question, is this part of the bilge and can it clog the pumps ?

Thanks

 

[Don S]

Re: Oily water beneath Stern Drive Mercruiser engine.

Another silly question, is this part of the bilge and can it clog the pumps ?

What's the difference, you aren't allowed to pump oil overboard even it the pump could pump it.

Did you ever check the oil with the dipstick? What did it look like?????

 

[cheburashka]

Re: Oily water beneath Stern Drive Mercruiser engine.

Interesting that it's milky. Usually if it's engine oil and it hasn't run in the engine, it will float on top of the water in the bilge. Lighter oils will mix in more readily, so there's a good chance that it's hydraulic fluid from the trim rams. Check the level in the pump and you may find that it's low. Is the trim/tilt working?

There's also the possibility that it's left over from the last time the oil was changed. What's the condition of the engine oil? Does the level stay the same? Any chance that there's water leaking in and oil leaking out?

 

[phwrd]

Re: Oily water beneath Stern Drive Mercruiser engine.

Thanks Don,

I already admitted that i am in over my head here, just want to know if i did any damage to the bilge pumps (which i have no idea where they are) by being stupid enough to turn them on yesterday and sucking in that oil or not.

Really, as far as trouble shooting goes you answer makes me think, i have kept the boat high enough on the lift to keep the prop out of the water. And as i did lower it down over the stern drive to run the motor for 30 minutes, nothing came out of the bilge during that time.

So either it isn't taking on water or the pump isn't working and the boat is gonna sink ? What do you think ?

as always, i appreciate all the help any of you can give me,

thanks again

 

[Don S]

Re: Oily water beneath Stern Drive Mercruiser engine.

You may have water and oil leaking in due to a faulty ujoint bellows. Who knows. If you aren't mechanically inclined, I would suggest you find someone to pull the drive, check the bellows, check the outdrive oil, and look for other leaks in the bilge. You have to be the one to tell us where the leak is, we can tell you why or possible reasons for it to leak in that area. But no way can we look at it or find where water is coming from.

 

[phwrd]

Re: Oily water beneath Stern Drive Mercruiser engine.

This isn't fresh (rainbow) oil floating on the surface. It is mixed. It is consistent and iced coffee in color, but floating on top of the water. What i would call mississipi mud.

The trim tilt and steering seems to work fine. Gonna check the oil next time I am there. Didn't see a dipstick but really didn't look too hard. My fault, hot Florida day, laying on the motor trying to muscle batteries in and out of the compartment, just wanted to get out of there.

Thanks again for your time, patience and assistance,

pat

 

[Don S]

Re: Oily water beneath Stern Drive Mercruiser engine.

Water and gear lube in the bellows tends to turn milky.

 

[imported_TheMan]

Re: Oily water beneath Stern Drive Mercruiser engine.

How much oil are you talking about here? That might help you diagnose the leak.

I think the only milky oil I found in my bilge was once when I didn't have the power steering connections tight enough.