Too much compression?

Jimkimmi70

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A few weekends ago I too out my 94 searay 170. Everything was going fine and all the sudden I hear a strange noise. Needless to say limped back to the ramp got the boat out of the water and trucked it home. Bilge was full of oil. None left in the engine. So I take it to a local mercury authorized shop and they say nothing is leaking but I have too much compression. And that is blowing all the oil out into the bilge. They tell me my motor is no good and I need a new one. Any ideas on what to do. I don't have 5000 for a new motor
 

Bt Doctur

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Re: Too much compression?

is this the FWC inline 4 cylinder motor? how about your location, type of motor, type of drive, etc.
 

achris

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Re: Too much compression?

A few weekends ago I too out my 94 searay 170. Everything was going fine and all the sudden I hear a strange noise. Needless to say limped back to the ramp got the boat out of the water and trucked it home. Bilge was full of oil. None left in the engine. So I take it to a local mercury authorized shop and they say nothing is leaking but I have too much compression. And that is blowing all the oil out into the bilge. They tell me my motor is no good and I need a new one. Any ideas on what to do. I don't have 5000 for a new motor

Sounds like a 'story' to me... Take the boat home and run the test yourself.

Chris...
 

Bt Doctur

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Re: Too much compression?

pm`d you achris . only a lot of blow-by can push oil out the dipstick
 

Jimkimmi70

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Re: Too much compression?

is this the FWC inline 4 cylinder motor? how about your location, type of motor, type of drive, etc.

Yes it is I believe it is a mercury 3.0L in a 94 sea ray 170. I am new at all this boat stuff. But I have had cars with a lot more miles and never had to replace an engine because of too much compression. Maybe the head but come on now. I am in savannah tn. The service dept. Was pier 57 in pickwick.
 

Jimkimmi70

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Re: Too much compression?

is this the FWC inline 4 cylinder motor? how about your location, type of motor, type of drive, etc.

Sounds like a 'story' to me... Take the boat home and run the test yourself.

Chris...
Sounded like a story to me too. I think they have too many people who will just dole out the money and never
question anything they say. I mean really. They charged me 136.00 just to replace the oil. And so called look for leaks. Their idea if a compression test was to hold their hand over the fill valve and feel the air coming out
 

Jimkimmi70

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Re: Too much compression?

is this the FWC inline 4 cylinder motor? how about your location, type of motor, type of drive, etc.

Couldn't see the post so I will answer again. I am in savannah tn. I have a 3.0L mercury with an alpha one stern drive. No idea how many hours are on the boat I just bought it last summer. This is my first boat. We love it but aren't made if money like some of these people here.
 

MikDee

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Re: Too much compression?

pm`d you achris . only a lot of blow-by can push oil out the dipstick

That's what I was thinking myself.

I got this lesson myself when I was 16, I went to buy a Classic old Pontiac in mint condition, opened the hood with the engine running, and oil was blowing out the dipstick :eek: It scared the bejesus out of me, I ran outta there!
 

Bt Doctur

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Re: Too much compression?

3.0 is the 140 hp inline cast iron motor. The other one,3.7 is a aluminum block, cast iron head FWC inline 4 cylinder
3.0 has spark plugs on the stbd side of the motor, 3.7 has plugs on the top of the motor.
 

Bt Doctur

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Re: Too much compression?

due to the design the 4`s will have puffing from the valve cover, its normal because of the 2 up ,2 down piston stroke.
not so much with V8`s.A compression test is the first place to start. report those readings and we might find the answer
 

Jimkimmi70

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Re: Too much compression?

due to the design the 4`s will have puffing from the valve cover, its normal because of the 2 up ,2 down piston stroke.
not so much with V8`s.A compression test is the first place to start. report those readings and we might find the answer
How do I do a compression test? Is it the same as on a car. Except of coarse you need the muffs on! I would assume you get it up to operating temp before testing.
 
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Bt Doctur

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Re: Too much compression?

Still need to know the type of motor?
nope, just remove the wire on the + side from the coil, have the carb wide open, jumper the slave solenoid to spin the motor atleast 4 rev with a good strong battery
 

achris

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Re: Too much compression?

A few weekends ago I too out my 94 searay 170. ...

Yes it is I believe it is a mercury 3.0L in a 94 sea ray 170. ....

Ok.. Jim, there appears to be some confusion here. In the first post you said a 170... That's a 3.7 litre Mercruiser of the '470' family. In the later post you are saying it's a 3.0 litre.

As far as the engine goes, we don't care what boat it's in. Boat makers don't make engines, people like Mercruiser and Volvo buy the basic block from people like Ford and GM (engine makers), add some marinising bits, and their label.... Then boat makers buy the engines from Mercruiser and Volvo. So, you can have many different boat makers using the same engine, and conversely, the same boat could be available with a choice of a range of different Mercruiser engines or Volvo engines... So, telling us it's a 1994 Searay tells us NOTHING about the engine. Saying it's a 170 just let's us assume it's a Mercruiser 170hp/3.7L engine... And that's not a 3.0L engine... :confused:

So, can we please start with all and only the following:
Engine Maker: (I'm assuming Mercruiser here)
Engine Model: (ie, what engine is it.. 2.5L/120, 3.0L/130, 4.3L/V6, 5.0L ect. I think you get the picture)
Engine Year: (self explanatory, and not always the same as the hull)
Engine SERIAL NUMBER: (Probably the most important item. If you don't know where to look for the serial numbers, have a read of THIS post)

Also, as you are new to boats, may I suggest you read all of the 'stickies' information...
 
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Jimkimmi70

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Re: Too much compression?

The motor is a 3.0L inline 4. Sorry or the confusion the boat is a 170 not the motor. 17' I assume.
 

Jimkimmi70

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Re: Too much compression?

It is a mercruiser 3.0L alpha one serial# qf117309 drive serial# is qf1177045 and I am assuming its original so it would be a 1994
 

UncleWillie

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Re: Too much compression?

Is there a chance that the mechanic said,"There is Too Much Pressure in the Crankcase."
And it got Mis-translated into, "Too Much Compression?"
 

Jimkimmi70

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Re: Too much compression?

No he said compression but he may have meant pressure. He said the pressure was so high it would push your hand off the oil fill tube. So he may have meant pressure
 

achris

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Re: Too much compression?

Only time I saw that was when the cylinder compressions were LOW, not high... Bypass on the piston rings pressurised the crankcase. Do a compression test yourself... Compression gauges are dirty cheap, and the procedure is nothing more than removing the spark plugs and cranking the engine... If you've not done it before, here's how... (This is a copy and paste as a generic document. For your purposes you can exclude the 'wet' test, steps 9 to 12, and step #1)....

How to compression test.

What you need to do is the following. These are the correct and complete procedures for checking compressions. All steps are important and there for a reason. Each must be followed completely, and in the order below. Missing any step or doing them out of order will render the whole test as useless. Read through all the steps below (a few times) before doing ANYTHING, so you are familiar with what you will be doing.

Before you start, make sure you have the following. A fully charged battery (of the right size for the engine), a compression tester, a spark plug wrench and either a remote starter switch or another person with you and some light engine oil (2 stoke oil is good for this) and a way of getting a small amount of it into each cylinder. You also need to know the cylinder numbering of the engine. Not all engines number the same way!

1. Run the engine until normal operating temperature is reached. VERY important! And remember to put water on the ear muffs while running the engine...
2. Remove all spark plugs. It’s a good idea to keep the plugs in the order they came out, so you can ‘read’ them and know which cylinder had what plug. It’s also a good idea to double check they are the correct plugs for that engine at this point.
3. Set the throttle to wide open, and leave it there until ALL checks are complete.
4. Remove the centre lead from the distributor cap and put it on the engine block, securely. This is so you don’t have any sparks flying around while you are testing.
5. Using either a ‘remote starter switch’ hooked to the low current side of the starter solenoid or another person operating the ignition switch, turn the engine over a good half dozen times to clear any residual fuel from the cylinders and intake manifold.
6. Put the compression tester in one of the spark plug holes. Turn the engine over until the reading on the gauge is steady (usually about 5 or 6 compressions).
7. Record the cylinder compression reading for that cylinder in the ‘dry’ column.
8. Repeat step 6 and 7 for the rest of the cylinders.
9. Once all readings are done, squirt a small amount (around a teaspoon) of oil into each cylinder. Replace the spark plugs (but only finger tight is needed) and turn the engine over another half dozen times on the starter (throttle still fully open and the distributor lead still grounded).
10. Remove all the spark plugs and start checking the cylinder compression pressures again, like in step 6.
11. Record the cylinders compression reading for that cylinder in the ‘wet’ column.
12. Repeat step 10 and 11 for the rest of the cylinders.
13. When all tests are complete, move the throttle back to closed, clean the oil from the spark plugs, check their gap and refit them to the cylinders. Reconnect the centre distributor lead.
 
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