Engine Problems

[olitay]

Hi Guys, I had a rather frightening experience recently with the whole family onboard. As we left the 8 knott zone at northbridge I smelt smoke coming from the motor, my young one came out from the cabin and said the cabin was filling with smoke.

My initial thought was that the motor (inboard) was on fire so i desperately drove to the nearest sheltered area and unloaded the family.

I jammed the boat on some oyster encrusted rocks at Northbridge (not too much damage to the hull fortunately) and turned the motor off. By the time i got eberyone off the boat and sent them on their way home, i returned to the boat and it seemed the smoke had died down.

The waterways towed me back to tunks and it wasnt till then that i gained the courage to open the motor cover and see the damage.

now im no mechanic, but to my surprise there was no fire. It seems that all the oil had drained itself from the motor and was siting on the bottom of the hull. I think all smoke was caused by the oil heating so much it filled the engine bay with smoke.

It sems all the electrical components are in tack which is another reason im sure there were no physical flames.

After manually getting the 2.5 tonn boat on the trailer in Gale force winds I drove to a mates place who knows more than me about motors.

He said it looked like either a gasket or hose had burst causing the oil to drain from the motor. If this is the cause im thinking I may be in for a relatively inexpensive repair, however im just wondering if anyone can share some light on what they think may be the problem.

The motor is a 5.7 litre Mercruiser 350 Chev inboard, just before i saw the smoke i noticed the motor was "Splurting" a lot and loosing compression/power, i didnt hear any load seizing or knocking sounds the main issue was the smoke and the lack of power.

Has anyone had any similar experiences or even better if anyone knows anything about inboards and is willing to come and have a lookisee I would really appreciate it. I just want to know if she is a complete ride off or not.

Thanks all!!.

[fisherboy]

There are not many oil hoses to cause your issue. You really need to find the leak, how much oil did you loose and it would need to leak on a hot manifold to cause smoke and with water cooled exhaust manifolds they are not normally hot enough

[olitay]

Thanks fisherboy, thats interesting.... this is doing my head in. Can anyone pm me a mobile mechanic or somewhere they recommend that know about inboards.

[dunc333]

call huey and if cant help you pm me and ill help you out .with a mobi.