Kokopelli

Last weekend out at Lake Powell noticed quite a bit of steam in the exhaust when throttling up onto plane, seemed to go away once boat came onto plane but was a pretty healthy cloud at first. Motor is a 502 efi with Whipple set up conservativly (5lbs @WOT) with 130 hrs (80 after Whipple). Checked oil which looked fine. It was pretty cold at night, about 45, and steam was definitly heaviest at first start up in the morning. I'm theorizing that it is just condensation burning off but I'm also a little concerned that a head gasket might be letting go. Anyone have any ideas suggestions?

formula31

My exhausts always steam if the air temp is below 60. They really steam after a hard run. Its even worse with cold water temps in the spring. I dont think you have a problem.

Kanookstr

I would agree that the colder temps would result in the more steam. It's the blue or black smoke you don't want...

CAP071

Had my boat out sunday in Philly, steam also in 60 degree water temps. No smoke just steam

Smitty

iTrader: (1)

Steam is not a problem. Just keep an eye on it like you should anyways.

How much speed did you gain with the Whipple? I am installing one for a friend and he keeps asking how much faster will I go?
I have one on mine but it is a carbed 454 and a 24 footer. His is a 502 EFI in a 26 footer.

Is yours a cat or deep v??

Beak Boater

I see more steam, but I have 500 EFI's that are whippled. In my case not as much water is going through the exhaust because of the intercooler dumping. The steam seems to be worse in colder water also.

SteveDavid

Kokopelli,

Can you see your intercooler overboards while you are underway? If so, are they dumping a solid stream of water or is their steam in that discharge as well? I ask as there should be no steam coming from the intercooler discharge unless you're in a very cold climate. If there is, and you're not in a cold weather situation, than I would guess that you have a water pickup issue which may be a water pump going away.

If the steam continues and the intercooler is OK, (no steam) you might consider adding a pickup for the intercooler alone, and letting the drive pickup and water pump solely feed the engine.
The pickup for the intercooler would be a force feed with no pump requirement. You really don't need any water flow for Blower issues until you pick up RPM and load. (this assumes that you'd begin to pick up water at a very low planing speed so as not to send a huge charge of cool water into a hot intercooler.)

Are you running a water pressure guage, and if so, is your pressure holding (between 15 and 25 at WOT) when you notice the steam??

In the for what it's worth column, I have my overboard dumps from the intercoolers coming out the driver side of the boat so they are clearly visible to me while running. It was because of their visibility that I caught the blown head gasket a while back. There should be no pulsing of the discharge, but with a blown head gasket there was.

Good luck!

Scott

Can excessive steam show some type of reversion or other problems like a head gasket going on?
Scott

SteveDavid

Scott,

Steam can come from a couple of areas.

#1. If you're running a fairly high X dimension and aerating the props resulting in cavitation around the pick up area
#2. If your water pump is impeller driven and there is either an air leak before the pump or an impeller going away. (some times if you're running strainers, the lid may be on cockeyed or the o ring may not have seated which would cause an air leak.)
#3. Head gasket going away introducing compression in the water flow or water flow into the combustion chamber
#4. You could experience water reversion, but generally you're not going to do that very often until you "puke" and internal part, such as hydraulic a connecting rod, breaking a crankshaft bending valves, etc.

Hope this helps.

Scott

Thanks