vc2948

My story starts last summer 2 weekends before Labor Day 2011. The Boat is a 33 Outlaw with twin 502's, Bravo 1's with low water
pickups. We boat at the Lake of the Ozarks. Love that rough water...... makes for some awesome E-ticket rides!!

At the end of that weekend, I checked the oil and it was just a tad milky. We were leaving in 2 weeks so I waited until winterizing time to deal with it. When I did change the oil, it just came right back slightly milky with the hose on it. So I just thought I would deal with it next year.

May 2012, I took off the intake manifold and found a some corrosion had eaten through the powder coating on the water port gasket surfaces. (I think it is totally black powder coated.) So I took the manifold to my machinest guy and he added aluminum by welding and refinished the gasket surfaces. He told me he took of just enough material to remove the black powder coating where it wasn't welded.

I put it on and when we went out on the Lake and got milky that weekend. When we got back to the dock I promptly got into repair mode. When I tried to remove the intake manifold.......I couldn't! I had to build a bolt and nut to lift the manifold off the block because the bottom of the manifold was sitting right on the block! I took it back to him and he removed more material from the bottom so it would fit.

So, I took it off again 4 other times AND the heads off and had the heads both pressure tested and resurfaced and new head gaskets. One time towards the end of this mess, when we were driving and this engine had an event.... dropped 400 rpm suddenly. Odd, I thought.

After all this, my Mechanic Man says" it musta Froze" during the winter. I told him these engines have Eddie Marine Exhaust's, and they are aluminum...they would break first! Besides, this all started year end of summer 2011. Also, neither one never overheated ever!

Plus, one more thing! After I did the whole 2 head thing, I pressure tested the whole system at 25 lbs held for 3 + hours ... WTF??

So.....I think it's the intake manifold... Maybe it doesn't fit right anymore??

1. That weird event of losing 400 rpm all of a sudden, was it possibly a shot of water getting into and intake runner or 2?

2. The "clean fresh water drops" big as my thumb collect on the lifter valley "pan" and underneath the manifold it's like a
rain forest of hundreds of little clean water droplets. They couldn't be so clean if they came from a crack in the lifter valley.
How could they ever get into the segregated area over the lifter pan? I have searched for ANY Tiny Crack in the lifter valley
even went over the whole area with a dental tool (very sharp point) The "Lifter valley area" looks like new ..........

3. Here is a another weird thing.... When tightening the Intake manifold bolts, in correct order, all sealed, by the way,
I went to 20 lbs first round, then it took " 3" full rounds to 35 lbs because they were loose until the third time!
I would say that is not right!! That was the last time I put it on .... still leaks.... (the other times I just stopped at after 20 to 35lbs)
May have to do with resurfacing the manifold....maybe now it's too small??

Anybody have any idea on what's gong on?? "Pretty Please" let me know ........ Thanks..

From " Sho 'um to Me" (boat's name)

PS I have pictures...I don't know how to attach them

pslonaker

iTrader: (1)

put a good dose of permatex on all the bolt threads going into the head and the head bolt threads going into the block. If the threaded holes are not blind holes, then you might be getting some small leaks from around the threads.

johnlaskowski

Oil cooler is bad. Mixing at that point. Check out. Pressure test.

pslonaker

iTrader: (1)

Possible, but dont think so. There is alot more oil pressure than water pressure, so you would be loosing oil into the exhaust water.

vc2948

Well. ....... Did pressure test oil cooler. It was good.
All head bolts and intake bolts were sealed with Permatex high toque gray stuff. I can't spell.

What great folks. I can't tell you how exciting this is to get reactions to my totally. Screwed up situation!!!!


Thanks so much to every one!!!

Boyd Racing Eng

I think you are on the right track with the intake not fitting correctly. With the ends of the intake hitting the block and then the weird torque after milling the ends, It sounds like the intake is droping too far down and the bolt threads are draging in the top of the bolt holes. Try a Mr Gasket # 122 "double thick" intake gasket and see if it fits better. Be sure to use a liquid teflon paste on the four corner bolt threads as I have seen water "wick" over to them and follow the threads to the lifter valley several times. You can usually see this by the stains around the water port on the heads and rusty threads on the bolts. 502 MPI's seem to be kinda prone to snotty oil anyway, esp boats that dont always get up to temp before coming out of the water. I have used external puke tanks or extended breathers on some of them. Hope this helps. Eric

vc2948

My worry now is. Is my intake manifold ruined??
Maybe I could use 2 sets of Felpro intake gaskets?
2 on each side??
More cushion to make sure it doesn't leak?

I just don't know how to check the intake to make sure it can seal

vc2948

Wow. Great idea!!!! Thanks so much for the info
I will look for those gaskets and see how it fits and most likely will try them

Thanks soo much Eric

Vince