lextoy

hi all, long time reader, first time poster,
i have a genVI mercruiser 7.4 mpi
the oil cooler went bad, first it pumped all the oil out of the system, until the alarm went off. i was out on the water, so i pulled into a local gas dock, and put in 6.5 quarts!! ugh, it only holds 7.1 , so i went straight home.
saw a big oil slick from the exhaust every time i stopped so i assumed it was pumping oil into the raw water via the oil cooler.
boat is docked in the water, ordered the part, 3 days later went to put it in and BAM, dipstick is 3 inches high, so i pumped out 2 gallons of saltwater, then 6 quarts of milkshake oil. checked the plugs, no water or oil got past the rings as far as i could tell, so water/milkshake stayed in the bottom of the engine until i had to run it again.
replaced the oil cooler, then filled with new oil, ran 20 minutes idle at the dock, pumped out the oil, added new, ran 20 minutes, pumped out oil, added new with 5 quarts oil, 1 quart atf, ran 1 hr still idle at the dock. pumped out and added 7 quarts fo fresh oil and a new filter, ran 1.5 hr out on the water, 2800 rpm to 3200 rpm.
oil looks perfect now, and no signs of any other water intrusion. boat runs good, no smoke, no noises, pulls strong as ever.
so the question is
1) what could i have hurt when i was running for 15 minutes at idle gettting to the gas dock when i had no oil pressure and almost no oil in the pan, remember i added 6.5 quarts?
i heard no horrible sounds, and it wasnt overheating, but no oil pressure, it was just idle the whole time.
2)when i was running the first time on the water, i was spraying wd40 and fogging oil into the air intake to extra lube the valves on top, to disperse any residual water. as long as i was spraying the lube i was noticing a light plume of smoke coming from somewhere around the exhaust manifold where it mates to the block... or maybe intake manifold? stopped once i stopped the fogging treatment, so maybethere is an exhaust leak into the engine compartment, but i just cant see it as the exhaust is usually colorless?? where else could the fogging oil be burning that it could pressurize into the compartment, burning off the valves and smoking out via valve covers? loose rubber hoses off the risers?
i never have excess water in the bilge and i never noticed an exhaust leak before, is there some other explanation for smoking when i was fogging via the air intake?
could have been leftover oil burning off the outside of the block, but it only did it when i was spraying , and i dont think the block gets hot enough to burn the oil?? can a leaky intake manifold smoke when fogging? isnt it under vaccum so all gasses go in?
there is a consistent small oil leak somewhere, cuz i always find a bit of oil inthe bilge, but i was assuming oil pan, until now.
could the trace oil leak, and the smoking be from the same leak?

antisocial

You have a 50 50 shot that you didnt do any bearing damage.. Keep your fingers crossed..You might have caught it in time. only time will tell... Good luck

Dkahnjob

If the engine has hydraulic lifter, and I suspect it does, then if the lifters didn't colapse and get very noisy you probably had some oil pressure. I have heard of engines being run with less than a quart of oil and not being damaged. At Idle and no lifter clatter I am going to bet that you are OK. Biggest concern is salt water in the engine and it sounds like you took every precaution to clean that up. Go have fun boating, just keep a watchful eye on it.

lextoy

thx for the encouragement!!
it has been running fine now, no problems, no bad noises.
any other tricks to getting the salt out of the system, now tha tthe water is gone? i am assuming additives in the oil will take care of it, i might remove 1quart of oil and run replace with atf until the end of the summer.
my bigger concern now is why it was smoking around the block to exhaust manifold area when i was fogging the engine via the air intake.
i could not tell where it was coming from, but i thought it was from under the EXH. manifold. on the port side only.
but at 40 mph and 3000 rpm it was hard to stick my head all the way in there
if i had an exhaust manifold leak, to the block, not to the risers, what else would manifest itself?
i assume it would get water in the cylinders and it would run horrible?
if its just gasses leaking out, how is that possible and not causing other symptoms?
funny thing was i saw wisps of smoke near engine, but none in the wake of the boat... wisps at 30 mph, so must have been a good amount.