Oil in bilge

[snibbornairb]

Gentlemen,
I have had an unfortunate turn of events for which I could use some good advice.
Last time out, I started getting some pretty severe missing, especially when under load. Finally, when pulling someone up, she died. After a bit of coaxing she started back up and we limped back to the launch ramp.
I initially thought it was ignition related, as this has been the cause in the past (still hoping it is). But, I did notice I had some oil mixed in with water in the bilge.
At home, I disconnected the raw water line at the hull to run water through while i tried to start her up and do some diagnostics. no luck.
Now I go back a week or so later and it looks like some oil may have leaked out of the still disconnected raw water inlet hose, into the bilge.
So now I am wondering if it might be a head gasket or <gulp> cracked block.
My question would be, are the symptoms of an head gasket or crack consistent with my situation?
I am not too experienced on the motor side.
Any advice on how to check these things out would be greatly appreciated.
Also, I am looking at the Pretronix 1582 ignition conversion kit, if anyone has thoughts on that.
Thanks for your thoughts,
Brian

[lively]

Well im sorry to hear about the motor issue , its always scary when u see water in the oil .....


head-gasket - you will need to look for the tell -tell signs .. temp gauge staying the same ?

if the gasket is not sealing you will see either white chalky smoke coming from exhaust , you will get a miss from un-wanted air sucking in through the gasket .. witch in turn will lean the motor causing it to stall ...

diagnosing - go to auto parts store and grab some b-12 chemtool or some general carb cleaner and start the engine and spray around the intake bolts around the cly- head base . what this does is gasket is bad or sucking air it will suck the b-12 and make the engine rev or stall (miss) and then that tell you right there . that there is a vacuum and leading you further into what is going on ... next what i would do is grab yourself a vacuum gauge and plug it into anything pulling air , sometimes they have allen head plugs on the intake itself to plug right into .. thats where i would check its fluctuation at idle and at 2k rpm ....

Now with all of that said , what kind of engine is this ? year,make,model ? .. i would start by changing the oil , run it in the drive way for about an hour or so , check the oil after , if there is water , then i would proceed to removing exhaust manifolds and try to snugging up on the head bolts .. (dont over do it they can break off )


really is not that bad putting head gaskets on .. just make sure you follow the torque sequence and ft lbs its asking for ... good luck and id be glad to help

[snibbornairb]

Thanks for the info. I will check that stuff out. One stumbling block I have is that, right now, I can not get the motor to fire. like I said in the original post, I am hoping that there is something killing the spark in the ignition. I am getting spark at from the coil, but may be losing it at the cap. I went down to get new cap and rotor, but it needed to be ordered, that's what lead me to looking at the Pertronix electric conversion.
'88 Mariah - PCM 351'
Thanks again

[lively]

Yeah EI is the way to go .. i got a Mallory EI on my 86' sunsport PCM 351 winsor ... if you have volts at the coil , then what about at the cap ? have you checked it ? go buy yourself a noid light from the auto parts store .. that will let you see whats going on while you crank it , they are cheap and help with diagnosing... also check your grounds !! they will cause problems also ...

[snibbornairb]

After getting in closer I can see that I probably just need to replace my valve cover gaskets (source of the oil). Didn't seem like that much was leaking (in relation to the amount in my bilge) but I see no other source. Compression was good on all cylinders, so I hope I am all clear on that end.
Still no luck starting, however. Early in the day I had faint spark at the plugs, but later on I couldn't even get that. I am pretty tired of tinkering with the coil, points, rotor, etc... I have replaced most of the stuff last season and it seems like it is someting in there again. I am looking at this conversion that utilizes the existing disrtibutor, but replaces the internals with the electronic components. It's only $75 vs. a few hundred or so for a whole new EI. Have you heard anything about that set up?
Thanks again

[lively]

yes It cann be swapped .. but really with all the mess dont you just want something plug and play ? just get the whole set up man .. trust me you wont regret it and wont have to worrry about it in the future

[wotan2525]

yes It cann be swapped .. but really with all the mess dont you just want something plug and play ? just get the whole set up man .. trust me you wont regret it and wont have to worrry about it in the future

Someone will surely chime in with their "discomfort" with this response, but as far as the "marine" specific parts on your engine, it's my feeling that the distributor is one that you can skip. It sits up high (away from heavy gas fumes) and it's relatively "safe." I didn't know it, but my boat had an automotive distro from the day that I bought it. When it was time to replace, I bought another auto one. My friend that builds race engines recommended this site (http://www.kmjent.com/cart/product.php?productid=2264&cat=7137406&page=1). I spent $40 on a distro and it works perfectly.

Now... are you comfortable with this? That's up to you.

[Memmer99]

I just put the Pretronix 1582 in my boat last weekend and it runs like a champ! Make sure to remove the ballast resistor, get a new coil with resistance, and maybe even new plug wires that are NOT solid core. I also noticed that the 1582 did not come with a new rotor. I ended up using my old Mallory rotor from the previous EI module and it worked fine.

[Blackntan90]

+2 on the Pertronix units- 7years with no trouble!

[snibbornairb]

Well,
Replaced the rotor and cap, have spark at the coil and at the plug, have 120ish # compression, gas going down the throat of the carb... but not even a fire when I turn it over. There is plenty of gas going down the carb, but the plugs seem dry. Carburetor issues?
Any help?

[lively]

well ur either not getting fuel/spark at the right time ... or there's not enough gas going to the engine ... what is your fuel pressure ? have you tryed to prime the motor with raw fuel ? is this a lift pump or EI ? sounds like you have the spark just just not enough fuel , pour a little gas down the intake ... she will fire off and prime up !!

And how do you know there is plenty of gas ? fuel press gauge / noid light / timing light are used mostly for these conditions

[wotan2525]

Try some starting fluid. This will help prime it and may help you determine if it's getting too much gas or not enough.

[Salty87]

choke closed when cold?

[snibbornairb]

Thanks for sticking with me here guys, it is getting more interesting. I have poored gas directly down the throat and choked and pumped tons down with the throttle (watched it with my own two eyes). Here is the catch. When I then pull the plugs, the back plugs are drenched and the front are bone dry. Furthermore, when I put my finger over the front plug hole, I feel the compression, but there is no gas on my finger, while I can see the gas vapor coming out of the rear port. I have compression, so that means my cam is turning, right? but no gas is getting into certain cylinders. Maybe all the gas is going to some, flooding them, and no gas to others, leaving me with absolutely no action, not a single fire. (getting worried this is going to cost me too much money, and gray hair)

[lively]

buy a noid light from sears or your auto parts store ... and start at your # 1 cly and check your timing ... and spark ,


but before you start , clear your fuel from clyinders then......


Start on left side of motor (looking at the pulleys , harmonic balancer ) and the firing order for PCM 351 is left side 1234 and right side 5678 , and then take your cap off the distributor , then take #1 spark plug out and put your finger in the spark plug hole and have a friend bump the motor over till you feel air push against your finger , at the same time that happens the rotor (thing that spins inside distributor) will be pointing at the # 1 cylinder.. if its not , pull the distributor and repeat process till you hit TDC on #1 cly and then install the distributor back and line the rotor back to #1 ... call me if you have ?'s 817 996 3051 -lively-

[snibbornairb]

I may be an idiot for this whole thing, but at least now I am a more educated idiot. As it turns out, my points were grounding out, or never breaking ground, or failing to isolate the ground... how ever you would say it. I didn't think they would have been my problem, seeing how they were replaced the later half of last summer. I was getting spark, but weak spark, then no spark.

The good thing to come out of it was that I became very familiar with a multimeter, and all of its usefull functions.
Thanks again for your responses, you guys do a great service to the Supra community.

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