Blown Head Gaskets? Somthing else?

[NateHaskovec]

I don't think the spilled water got much above the oil pan, given that the floor of the boat is even with the lower portion of the block. So I would think any excess water would just go up forward in the hull, right? As for a hard forward / reverse, I can ask my son (he was driving - I wasn't there), but before he emptied the bag, he was just surfing (10 - 11 mph), so I'm not sure that would really be considered a hard forward / reverse action? If the water DID come through the flappers / exhaust, would it be normal to have the water fill only two cylinders on each side? Would something like that trigger the "check engine" light, or do you think that is simply a by-product of it (and if so, what might THAT be)?

I have not had the intake off the boat. Up until Tuesday, everything was working perfect.

Water in the exhaust would likely trigger the O2 sensor malfunction code. This is a trigger for the check engine light.

Whichever exhaust pipes are the easiest for water to flow into would have water in the associated cylinders. I have never seen the internals of an Indmar manifold, but I would guess they are symmetrical.

If the two wet cylinders have the easiest flow path, it would make sense that only those two would be wet, and on both sides.

In the scenario I am using, the water would have to be coming in each exhaust port, at the same time. I cannot imagine any scenario that is more likely.

[mmandley]

Sorry to hear about this man, I would be more looking at your insurance company then your check book, this bill will run you between 1k for simple to 6K for engine replacement / rebuild.

There is something missing to this story from the way i read it.

Details
Out surfing, No issues, no over heat, no problems
Draining Ballast and it drains into the bilge
Bilge pump works?
Still water only fills to 1/2 the depth of the oil pan

I was in a boat last year in Oct that we had water almost covering the crankshaft pully, and all we had was belt whistle and lots of splashing water.

Now engine runs ruff, and we have water in the 3 and 6 cylinders.

Oil pressure is LOW at 14psi, it should be 20 min with operating 40-60

Water in the engine means, blown head gasket, leaking exhaust manifolds, water through your intake.
Blown head gaskets are the most likely item yet its really rare you would blow both sides and leak in 3 and 6 cylinders only.

Leaking exhaust manifolds would be a good choice, depending on the engine firing order it could shut down with an exhaust valve open allowing water inside the engine. Would it be both 3,6 holes? IDK off hand. There is absolutely NO way water can go back through the exhaust manifolds into the engine when its running, you have 3 other cylinders pushing exhaust out the entire time.

Water in the intake, would be the least likely because for 1 you would have had to take a HUGE amount in, which would typically stall the engine, and it would be in all the cylinders.

Like i said something is missing from this story.

You best best is to do the compression test on each cylinder, good readings mean water is coming in elsewhere, bad reading on any cylinder means head gasket failed, or rings are bad.

Check engine light is default, it could be low oil pressure, emissions readings, fouled plugs, exhaust is rich with fuel, engine is knocking due to dead cylinders. To many things to worry about, the worry is that you have water in the engine and oil.

[scottg]

You're right on the oil pressure, I think that may have been a typo, although I don't remember what the guage WAS reading. I'm really stumped on this, it just seems so wierd to have problems in the same two cylinders on each side at the same time, with no signs of problems ahead of it. Blown head gaskets / cracked cylinder heads don't seem reasonable to me, even a cracked block, because of the symmetry (same cylinders, similar amounts of water, etc).

Nate's thoughts on the water coming in from the exhaust seems like it could be more likely, as it would be even on both sides, and we did appear to have similar amounts of water in the third cylinder and fourth cylinder on each side. Plus, there seemed to be MORE water in the third cylinder than in the fourth. Of course, that may be "hope" shining through, as that seems like it should cost far less than heads / blocks!

We have to take this into the dealer, it's beyond my skill set, but the more I can do to try to eliminate it will hopefully save the dealer some time and hopefully help me avoid getting screwed over by them.

Really appreciate you guys taking the time to provides some thoughts and insight. I haven't had issues with our boats, so I'm trying to figure this out from a "car guy" perspective.

[maxpower220]

Ask me how I know: If your impeller or water pump fails, you can warp a head, blow a head gasket, or crack a block.

Do you have the engine with CATs?

Since your boat is an 11, it is still under warranty from Indmar. Call the dealer.

[scottg]

I'm guessing you've been there then? I wasn't in the boat, and my son didn't think to look at the temp gauge, so we're not sure if the boat was overheating. The local repair shop thinks the motor overheated and we blew the head gaskets. That WAS one of my initial guesses, but seems a little weird that both blew, and in the exact same spot. I did have my son check the impeller and he "thought" it seemed to work fine, but when we tested the motor briefly last night, we could never get the water temp guage to move, so maybe it's not picking up any water? Sure wish these things came with some sort of "alarm" when the temp got to a certain level, but too late for that!

Not sure if this will be under warranty, we bought the boat used last year. Not sure whether the boat has CAT's or not.

[DOCDRS]

There has to be a transfer of warranty paperwork and a 200 fee to indmar to transfer the motor warrantee. I believe.

[wolfeman131]

Details on warranty.

http://www.moomba.com/warranty/

[86century]

This is a wild ass guess at best but after a quick look on google the intake on that thing would be my first suspect.

since it is always the same cylinders that makes it tough to be the exhaust.
Water in oil can be explained by the water leaking by the rings. Or one of the coolant passages in the intake cracked across to a shared intake runner.

Again this is a guess based on many years of automotive experience and looking at pictures of what could be an engine like yours.

[94Boom]

The easiest thing to do, if you have the tools, and the skills is to run a compression test. All the cylinders should be very close, any more than a 10% variance should be looked at. But I doubt that if you have a blown head gasket there will only be a 10% difference. If after this and you find a variance you could run a leak down test. Which is more difficult and requires another tool. The leak down test will help you figure out what is leaking. Either way water in the oil is not good and probably requires at best removal of intake first, then heads if nothing found well then keep going. If you are so inclined and just want to try, you could change the oil and see if water gets in the new oil. If you try this say a prayer first, it may help. I also find it hard to believe that there were not alarms going off if the motor overheated. A good rule of thumb for oil pressure is 10lbs/ 1,000 rpm. So i.e. 4,000 rpm should have 40lbs to be safe. So if you did indeed have 14lbs oil pressure you have some serious issues. But I would be willing to bet you mis read the gauge or faulty gauge, again you would have alarms going off. Clear as mud??

Brian

[scottg]

Thanks to everyone for ideas, at this point we're just going to take it to the shop and pray that they don't screw us over too bad. I agree that this doesn't look like blown head gaskets or cracked block / heads, the symmetry of the problem just doesn't seem to support that thesis.

There were NO alarms going off at all, so I don't think it overheated or had low oil pressure, but clearly something IS wrong! This has been very helpful though, as I can have some ideas / perspective when I'm talking to the shop(s) to see if they have some ideas, or if they are just guessing and are going to throw time / parts at it until they figure it out.

Many thanks to everyone for taking the time to provide some thoughts and ideas here, really appreciate it!