tested my oil pump...and a couple other questions

[stackz]

ok, I've been suspecting that my oil pump hasnt been working due to a noise I'm hearing in the engine.

I decided to test it. I have a 10 gallon gas tank that is full. I added tcw2 to it (1-quart) which is a bit richer than 50:1 as per the manual but I'd rather be rich at this point.

I popped off the oil pump outlet and plugged the inlet to the fuel pump and cranked up the engine. yay! first time I've seen oil smoke in the exhaust. I ran it about a minute and saw no oil come out of the pump outlet (hose was dry actually).

I shut it down because apparently my water pump decided to crap out on me (sigh). anyway, I checked the procedure afterwards in the service manual which mirrored what I did except it said to run the engine for 15 minutes and look to see if oil output is around 25cc...did not feel comfortable with that obviously.

shouldnt I have seen some oil though in the one minute of run time?

also, recently the engine would crank and run a quick minute and then shut off. I decided to empty the carbs before pumping up with the tank mix and the top two carbs had clean gas. the bottom one had what looked like oil/water/gas in it? any ideas how this happened? I'm sure this was causing the bogging. I think maybe water may be sitting in the plastic intake box and getting sucked in the carb but have no idea how to even test for this?

by the way, after draining all the carbs and pumping with the gas/oil tank mix. it fired right up and purred (except for no water pee and no oil from outlet).

 

[stackz]

Re: tested my oil pump...and a couple other questions

I hate when I'm right. I pulled the carb cover off and at least I know the gasket is sealing properly without the bottom two bolts lol.

bunch of oil poured out the bottom and you can see some still in there.

my thoughts: I know the oil reservoir cap is leaking and I have had the motor tilted up for a couple days several times while dealing with lower unit issues.

I've seen oil down in the splashwell actually as well. I'm thinking its dripping while trimmed up from the oil cap and inside the carb box and collecting in the bottom then getting sucked into the lower carb. though how it gets in the bowl is beyond me unless when its overflowed it back syphons down the jet into the bowl as it probably submerges that area due to the engine still being tilted slightly forward even when down due to grond clearance issues.

 

[stackz]

Re: tested my oil pump...and a couple other questions

ok, so the weather gods smiled on me by abating the 110* heat with a thunderstorm about 8 miles away which lowered the temp outside and hid the sun. so I downed two glasses of water, tossed on a fresh shirt and went back at it.

I completely cleaned off the carb box with brake parts cleaner and some towels. dry and squeeky clean. why? because I raised the foot just enough to pull the foot and without getting the oil tank level up enough to the cap so it couldnt leak.

I then took the water pump housing off and the impeller was in great shape? the hell? oh, duh...forgot to put the impeller keyway back in :facepalm: driveshaft was just freewheeling the impeller. found it on the shop bench under a dirty rag

put it in, put the foot back on the boat 25 minutes later and lowered it to ground level. hooked up the muffs after I bypassed the oil pump again and this time I put a cut open beer can as a container to see if 25cc of fluid would come out during the 15 minute run time.

I cranked it up and it idled nicely. nice huge pee stream rawr! approximately 700rpm idle, 8 psi water pressure, water temp was around 130-150* entire time. I can still hear the "grinding" noise inside the head which at this point I'm almost positive is a galled roller bearing. I got oil in the can but cant tell if its ~25cc. doesnt quite look like it to me but I could be wrong. looks to be about half of that (I'm a microbiologist by profession and I've used countless 25cc pipets and this just doesnt look like that to me).

so is the pump weak or would you run it or replace it?

video for support (the buzz at the end was a friend calling in haha). you can also hear the grinding noise I'm concerned about pretty well when I go in for the close-up on the oil pump "can" on the side of the engine.

also, after I cut it off. I opened up the carb cover again and there is fresh oil in there. it formed a small pool at the bottom in the same place as the previous pic and there was a "stream" going from the top of the first carb down to the last carb before forming the pool at the bottom. anyone have a clue what is causing this? its hard to see in the picture but you can see the stream/leak after the second carb. it looks just like that for the first and third carbs.

 

[stackz]

Re: tested my oil pump...and a couple other questions

nobody has a clue on the oil coming out of the carbs?

 

[CharlieB]

Re: tested my oil pump...and a couple other questions

A lelaky reed valve will allow air/fuel/oil mixture to blow back out of the carb, leaving an oil residue. Run it long enough and it could leak a trail.

Leave the airbox cover off and idle the motor, do not look directly at the airspace in front of the carb by look at a point far enough away such that the carb front is at the peprifery of your vision, that makes it a lot easier to notice a very light 'fog' or blurred area immediately in front of the carb.

If noticed, pull out the reed block(s) for closer inspection.

 

[stackz]

Re: tested my oil pump...and a couple other questions

ok, will do once I get back in town as I got pulled away for work. so, if I read your reply right, I'm going to crank it with the carb cover off and then jump out of the boat and get sideways to the engine and look for a faint cloud puffing out of the carbs? I'm assuming it can be all or 2 or just 1 depending on if one or more reed blocks have failed?

if I see the puffing and pull it apart, what exactly will I be looking for in the reed blocks? will I be looking for reed valves that dont close all the way or that are pulled all the way back or what? never been into a set of reeds before but I intend to look around on youtube for some helpful hints lol.

just in case I do need to replace any of the reeds, I'm just posting this part number for my own reference as it took me a bit to find it 34 43018A 2

 

[stackz]

Re: tested my oil pump...and a couple other questions

A lelaky reed valve will allow air/fuel/oil mixture to blow back out of the carb, leaving an oil residue. Run it long enough and it could leak a trail.

Leave the airbox cover off and idle the motor, do not look directly at the airspace in front of the carb by look at a point far enough away such that the carb front is at the peprifery of your vision, that makes it a lot easier to notice a very light 'fog' or blurred area immediately in front of the carb.

If noticed, pull out the reed block(s) for closer inspection.

ok, got back in town yesterday and had a chance to run it today. I pulled off the carb cover and let the engine run and didnt see any fog. while letting it run I also looked inside the carb throats for any spitting/etc and they were nice and dry. once I shut the engine off is when I started to see oil oozing from the inside of each carb down the throat to inside the carb box.

what does this tell anyone? is it still reed valves or the carbs just need a rebuild with new gaskets?

 

[j_martin]

Re: tested my oil pump...and a couple other questions

After a coupla thousand words and several pictures, I still don't know what engine you're talking about.

The "oil" is probably fuel that has partially evaporated, leaving a pretty oily mess. There should be bleed lines that pull the fuel away from each reed block when it puddles like that. If the lines are mis-routed, you could get this symptom.

 

[stackz]

Re: tested my oil pump...and a couple other questions

lol. ok, well a video says a thousand words right?

tried to show the problem in the video. later on today or tomorrow I'll pull the carb cover off and show where I see the oil coming from inside the carbs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sRZqYiGDX8