Not good when you find all engine oil in bildge

[Bagar55]

I have had a very slow oil leak from my drain plug/quick drain hose since purchasing boat in April this year. 2006 21v 340hp. Starting noticing a little bit of oil in bildge about 2 months after purchase so went on the hunt for the issue. Engine oil drain plug that has the quick drain hose attachment found as culprit. Can't see anything because its so far under the motor but reaching under I can feel its totally rusted/corroded. It wasn't a bad leak. Hardly was losing any oil. Nothing getting into motor. Just kept an eye on it and topped off oil every 4th or 5th time out. Figured I would tackle it over the winter. Well didn't quite make it. Yesterday after a beautiful morning run we pulled off to the side to float and relax for a bit. Checked oil before heading out as I always do and it was good. Ran good. Oil pressure and temp was same as always. Well we started drifting a little to close to shore so I started the motor to pull out a little bit. I'm always monitoring the gauges and to my disbelief the oil pressure was reading zero. Shut down immediately and started searching for the issue. Checked gauge then checked sending unit not believing what it was reading. All was good. Pulled rear seat and drive cover and found a wonderful present. About 5qts of oil in the bildge. Checked dipstick on motor and it was showing totally empty. Checked everything on motor and all was good. Went back to the drain plug and found it was basically allowing the oil to drain straight out of the bottom of the motor. Ruined a beautiful day. F..k!!! How in the heck can I replace the drain plug. You can't see anything and can barely reach it. Has anyone ever dealt with this issue? Is it possible to get the pan off the motor and wiggle it out without pulling motor? Does anyone have a picture of what the assembly looks like. Any suggestions. I really, really don't want to have to pull the motor just to fix the drain plug. I'm messing with it today. I'm trying to get a pipe camera from a buddy to see if I can fish it under there and see what it looks like. Need some advise please!! I'm fearing that my season is coming to an early end.

[CornRickey]

is the pan rusted?

[Bagar55]

I can't tell. Trying to figure that out. It doesn't feel like it at all. Just the drain plug. I can't tell what is what by just feeling under the pan. Tried a mirror but its impossible to get it positioned right and then get flashlight to shine on it right. I'm not sure how the drain plug and quick drain hose all go together. It feels like it is just this assembly. How do you even get it out to look at it.

[CornRickey]

how about taking your cell phone and take some pictures.

[Bagar55]

Great idea. Never even thought about sticking a camera or my phone under there and taking pics. So simple. I just spent all afternoon and evening cleaning all of the oil out of the bildge. Never want to have to do that again. No fun. It makes it more fun that the ski locker drains into the bildge or the bildge flows into the ski locker. Ballast bag was dripping oil. Mat in bottom of locker is totally saturated. What a nightmare to clean everything. Luckily I was able to use the wash pit at my shop to drain all the oil into. Has anyone put a plug in the drain hole for the ski locker. Something removable if you need to drain in to back. Wondering what you used or what size plug.

[wotan2525]

I don't know much about the fit on the newer boats, but I did have the same issue in mine. The 454 oil pan sits within 1/4" of the floor. When I rebuilt my engine I added a remote oil drain line and over time it was cracked from beating itself into the hull over and over and over as the hull flexed. Just like your issue, I had no access under the engine. Ended up winching the engine up high enough to pull the oil pan, replace the gasket, add a traditional oil plug back and then added a remote oil drain to a location with more clearance.

It wasn't fun and the bilge still has oily residue.

Good luck!

[Bagar55]

Update:
Thanks for all of the replies and suggestions. Well most of the suggestions. Finally had a chance to get back to the boat and figured out a way to see what was going on under the motor. Brought a pipe camera home from my shop and it turned out to be the perfect way to inspect everything under the motor. Motor will be coming out starting this weekend. Oil pan rusted out. Was pushing gently around drain plug trying to feel an issue and found it. Finger went right through the pan. Hole was big enough to fit the tip of my pinky into it. Unfortunately wasn't the quick drain hose or the fitting for it. Check out the pics. Hope they help somebody else trying to see what the drain plug/quick drain looks. First time posting pics. Trying to figure it out.
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[Bagar55]

Any suggestions or things to look for when pulling the motor. Have pulled many car motors but no experience with an inboard v-drive. It looks like I can leave the trans and drive mounted and just pull motor. Does pulling the motor have any effect on the drive shaft alignment? Doesn't look like it. Any hints or tricks that you have learned. I can't believe I bought this boat in April with 127hrs on it and I'm dealing with this now. Just doesn't seem right. Sucks so bad to have the season come to an early end. Only needed to make it another month or so. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the motor wasn't damaged. Will run compression and leak down test and inspect cylinder walls. Please pray for my motor to be okay! Since I'm pulling the motor I'm going to replace or clean everything under and around it that needs it. What are some things you would suggest doing while the motor is out. Think I will probably run a new steering cable. Probably put in a new oil pump and def change impeller. What else would you do with the motor out of the way?

[DAFF]

Clean the bilge.. I would suggest some hot water or steam to clean her up.

[Kma4444]

Biggest thing to look for as far as lack of lubrication would be the rod bearings. They would be the first to show stress from low oil pressure. Plenty of pics on the internet to show what they should look like and typical failure modes. If you only cranked it and idled with no/low pressure you are likely fine. The bearings will be obviously stressed and if so it's not the end of the world. It would only be really involved if you have any discoloration, blue, on the crank or rods. This would include heavy and obvious bearing damage. If it is that bad, you would be looking at a teardown and freshening. None of this would be huge after the engine is sitting on a stand and fortunately engine parts are crazy cheap for these things. If you have some damage to the bearings but none on the crank then replacing them is not difficult.

I would bet you have little if any damage outside of the leak. With that low of hours there should be very little you have to replace. My main concern would be things that are hard to get to once the lump is back in the boat, and rubber things. You seem pretty handy, if you can pry the engine out an put it back in, you can definitely handle the rest.

[Bagar55]

Luckily I have access to numerous pieces of equipment to pull the motor with. I'm going to yank it and go through and replace everything that is a normal wear item that is not easily accessible with in boat. Thanks for the timing chain cover suggestion. Since its so close to the end of the season just going to make it a winter project and clean, restore, replace everything in and around the engine compartment. Don't want to forget something so was asking for suggestions.
I'm starting to get this uneasy feeling that there is more to the story with what I purchased. Lots of questions that the dealer needs to give me answers to. Does anyone know how to check what the original motor was from the factory. Is there a way to run the VIN for the boat or motor and determine that. I've been searching the web but haven't figured it out just yet. It does not look like there was an engine swap performed previously but I have questions about other things that this info could be very helpful with.

[wotan2525]

Something is rotten in denmark here. I just can't see how an oil pan can completely rust through in that short of time without some kind of salt water exposure (or maybe they dumped in some kind of corrosive bilge cleaner and it ate through the pan???) No idea it's just that I've never seen or heard of anything like this!

As long as the engine is coming out, you'll want to do the rear main seal and the timing cover gasket. Look for any other places that might be leaking and address those at the same time.

Good luck!

[Bagar55]

So I started the process of pulling the motor over a couple nights this week. I was surprised to find that there really isn't much to disconnect to get to the point it's ready to pull. Decided to pull the motor, tranny, and drive together. At least thats the plan. The exhaust was a bitch. The hoses did not want to let go. WD 40 and slowly working a flathead around them and finally got them off. The biggest other pita was the prop shaft coupler bolts. Those puppies are hidden down in there. Not hard just a pain. So couple questions. I've never pulled a inboard v drive motor and the motor mounts are very weird items. How have you guys dealt with unbolt ing the mounts. Do you unbolt from the block? It looks the easiest but looks like it could be a bitch to line the holes back up on install. How bout the tranny mounts. Do you remove the long bolt that Go's through the cylinder type piece and rubber grommets or unbolt from the stringer? Sorry don't know all the proper names. Or unbolt from the tranny side?

[TitanTn]

When I pulled mine, I just pulled out the engine mounting brackets with the engine because I was redoing the stringers underneath. If I pulled it again, I'd do the same thing because I have confidence in the stringers. I might not want to pull the brackets if I didn't think my stringers would like to have the bolts pulled out and bolted in again. I think it's up to you, but I think the easiest thing is the leave the brackets on the block.

[Yamaha24]

You are probably done with the engine pull already but here is my 2 cents....I am in the process of putting mine back in, this was the easiest engine pull I ever did.Pull lag bolt mounts from stringers. Now when you go to reinstall the engine,If there is an issue in getting the lag bolts to "bite" back into stringers, there is a trick that will get them back in tightly, that trick is to buy some wooden dowels, cut them to the depth of your hole, then before you reinstall lag bolts fill the hole with fiberglass resin, while hole is wet reinstall lag bolts. I have had to do this more than once over the years. Always worked, of course ideally you want them into the natural wood, but sometimes that is just not possible. Good Luck!!




So I started the process of pulling the motor over a couple nights this week. I was surprised to find that there really isn't much to disconnect to get to the point it's ready to pull. Decided to pull the motor, tranny, and drive together. At least thats the plan. The exhaust was a bitch. The hoses did not want to let go. WD 40 and slowly working a flathead around them and finally got them off. The biggest other pita was the prop shaft coupler bolts. Those puppies are hidden down in there. Not hard just a pain. So couple questions. I've never pulled a inboard v drive motor and the motor mounts are very weird items. How have you guys dealt with unbolt ing the mounts. Do you unbolt from the block? It looks the easiest but looks like it could be a bitch to line the holes back up on install. How bout the tranny mounts. Do you remove the long bolt that Go's through the cylinder type piece and rubber grommets or unbolt from the stringer? Sorry don't know all the proper names. Or unbolt from the tranny side?

[Bagar55]

Got the motor pulled over the weekend. Thanks to everyone for the advice. This site is awesome. Hopefully I can help someone else with a similar project

The motor mounts were easy. Just unbolted three bolts from the block and left the mounts in the boat. The tranny mounts were rusted pretty good. I figured out how they work and the adjustment built into them but they didn't want to cooperate. I ended up just unscrewing from the stringer and removing the whole mount. The screws were really solid coming out so hopefully no problem going back in.

[Bagar55]

I work for a rental company so had access to a gantry crane. Worked very well for pulling the motor. Having it on wheels and being able to just roll the motor back was slick. Using a chain fall with a load leveler attached to the motor was also perfect. The chain fall gives you way better control of the motor than a forklift or hydraulic piece of equipment. Makes little adjustments much easier. The load leveler made angling the motor under the firewall very easy. Just tilt it up get it under then level it back out to clear the stern.