Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

[bryceheinz]

Took the boat out for its maiden voyage and After a few minutes running it at a pretty good rate I have chocolate milk spraying out the breather on the valve cover. The engine oil is milky also. We had no problems when on the garden hose. The motor is a Brand New 2.3 Truck engine and cylinder head that has been sitting in the crate since the early 90's. I think that its a blown headgasket. Im just looking for a second opinion. It ran perfect prior to putting it in the lake. I never got above 150 degrees when running on the lake even at 3/4 throttle. Thanks for the help!

 

[CoffeeHound]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

Start at the top and work your way down till you find the problem .
Sounds like a cracked head or blown head gasket to me too.
Be sure to let us in on what you find wrong .
BTW Did you notice white smoke coming from the exhaust area ?

 

[Jono69]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

Time for a compression check and pressure test the block. Did you swap the head gasket out to a marine-grade gasket?

 

[Maclin]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

The following is just an opinion, but it explains all of your symptoms...

It is way more than a head gasket. The valve breather is venting a nasty oil+water mix from the crankcase. Water leaking in from a headgasket will be above the pistons so to get to the crankcase it has to get past the rings. That takes a long time and the volume described is not coming from just a gasket breach. Look at the dipstick. The crankcase will be over full and the junk on the dipstick will not look like oil. More than likely the cooling water passages inside the block have cracked and circulated cooling water that is under pressure as it heats up goes directly into the crankcase out the cracks until it comes out the top of the engine anywhere it can. The engine was probably not winterized correctly and a hard freeze broke those passages on the inside of the block.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

The following is just an opinion,

Ayuh,... I'm thinkin' yer right...

 

[bryceheinz]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

How could the block have cracked. This motor has never had water ran through it until this wednesday. We used the truck head and block and the OMC intake and exhaust. Could the manifold be cracked? There is a chance the head wasnt properly torqued back in the day when the motor was assembled.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

the cooling system is not pressurized. There has to be a pretty big opening or crack for water to go into the oil. On cars, your rad sits after shutdown at 12-15 psi. Not on boats...0 psi running 0 psi off.

so head gasket not likely unless half of it is missing.

torque? not the problem

maybe you did not get what you were sold.

pressure test the cooling system and follow the hissing.

 

[bryceheinz]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

The motor came from a family member and was a blueprint motor from a test facility so it is for sure New we had 4 of them and none of the others have problems.I went home and Pulled the cover last night to work on the issue at hand and before I tore anything apart I checked the oil and found no water at all on the dipstick. I swear that it was covered in milky residue when we had it out on the water and checked it. I hooked up my muffs full blast and ran the boat and it is running perfect and is not mixing any water or leaking any water anywhere. I still am getting 70psi of oil pressure too. I did notice when I pulled the PCV valve that it had a milky residue on it, could the intake have started leaking under the immense volume? I dont have the fittings to pressure test it so we are dropping it in the lake tmrw to see if we can pin point it. The year before last the boat was winterized and over this winter the manifolds were removed and under the seats so chances are they are most likely rotted out if anything. It has been a lake erie boat its entire life and has never seen salt water.

 

[Jono69]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

70psi OP seems a bit high to me. Are you sure it is water in the oil and not gas? Also a clean dipstick doesn't necessarily mean it is clean inside the crankcase. Everything could have separated. The pressure test needs to be done. Very simple to make. Costed me about $25 to make a decent one.

 

[Rob the weekend warrior]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

I dunno but 70 psi oil pressure has little or nothing to do with your issue, and your issue gets worse with what the water suspended in your oil is corroding. The water will flow pretty quickly past your rings if it is a blown head gasket, but it would have to ingest about a gallon of water to let the crank slap the mixture and make it spew out the breather and that would take a little time, and it would run pretty rough as one or more cyls would not be firing- i suppose a 2.3 is a four cyl so you would know it. I would have to lean on the block having a casting imperfection somewhere and agree with the need for a pressure test. I will agree that the coolant system on a open system makes no pressure, as i have the sides of my engine block held on with JB weld after the last owner forgot to winterize so whatever hole you have that is allowing water into the oil has to be a pretty big one.

 

[metalwizard]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

Well water is getting into your crankcase somehow, if you are 100% sure its not the block or the head being cracked then whats left??? head gasket? maybe
Intake/exhaust manifolds?? possibly

you said it ran fine on the muffs but did you check the oil after you ran it on muffs? you may have pumped water into the oil but not enough to see as of yet.

Unfortunately I dont believe you can pressure test your cooling system like you would a car. (at least not that I have heard of but I am still kinda new at boats)

If you are taking on enough water to fill the engine till its coming out the breather, its a BIG hole, so it should not to hard to find.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

I checked the oil and found no water at all on the dipstick.

water is heavier than oil - it goes to the bottom of the pan

some oils (ones that aren't for boats) foam like crazy and look milky when it is really air frothed in

use a straight 30 weight oil - less additives, less chance of weirdness.

 

[Maclin]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

An intake leak is above the pistons and will not make stuff come out the PCV outlet. PCV is Positive Crankcase Ventilation. Anything coming out of the PCV opening is from the crankcase.

Overfilling the oil even just a little will let the crankcase stir it up and frothing occurs.

Not sure about the 70psi, but I would make sure there is not an HP instead of an HV oil pump on there, or regulator spring for an HP in it.

 

[Maclin]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

The year before last the boat was winterized and over this winter the manifolds were removed and under the seats so chances are they are most likely rotted out if anything. It has been a lake erie boat its entire life and has never seen salt water.

When was this engine installed, meaning when would it have received the first dose of water for cooling? I think I confused myself re-reading all this, sorry.

 

[bryceheinz]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

This engine was installed 2 weeks ago. First saw water on the 4th of july this year. Drained the oil and had some water in it. Refilled the oil and ran engine for 20mins and have no water in it with the muffs. It could have been overfilled but that doesn't explain the water in crankcase. I am going to pressure test tmrw and I also got a plastic 55gallon drum to run it in.

 

[aerobat]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

when you are sure the engine is brand new and newer saw water ( not even ever testrunned? ) you can exclude a cracked block due to freezing damage.

on the other hand - how can the headgasket be blown on a brand new , never run engine ?

in my opinion there are two possibilities : you had just condensation water that accumulated due to sitting for years and after an oil change everything is fine- so much discussion for a non event

or

you have a cracked block , either due to freezing because it saw water without you know it or a manufacturer fault when it is a test engine.

just put the back of the boat in water to get full raw water pump volume- when it runs fine without water in oil ,fully warmed up with thermostat open , just go boating !

good luck !

 

[bryceheinz]

Re: Water in oil, oil and water spraying out breather

The problem turned out to not be motor related. The plastic valve in the exhaust had melted and my trailing wake had flooded the engine. So with a new $20 valve and a fresh Carb cleaning the boat ran for 2hrs last night with no issues except for a slight sputter because the timing is out. Thanks for all the input.