I bought a boat at auction and it died on me 1st time out. It just lost power and quit and then the battery didn't have enough power to crank the engine over. I figured a bad alternator so I pulled it and had it serviced, it needed a new voltage regulator. The boat is a 1988 powered with a 454 Magnum and Bravo drive.
I ran it on muffs yesterday for about 10-15 min. to warm the oil. I drained it through the dipstick with a vacuum pump and the oil was a solid light grey color. It gets better, I pulled 11.5 litres out! I'm guessing cracked block from the amount of water. Any common problem areas to find the crack?

If it is cracked the lifter valley is a common place!

Leaking intake gaskets will also fill the oil pan with water. Been there, done that.


Maybe hydro locked ?????? do to the fact it started running bad, then died, then not enough juice to turn over. Exhaust manifold bad or risor gasket shot??

Doubtful it's the block.Most likely would run very poorly on the muffs.Head gasket is the first thing i'd be checking.

Also if you dont find anything pull the t-stat housing and check the intake under there. The intakes have also rotted out and let water in the engines via that way also.

Good luck!

usually when a big block suffers from freeze damage, it breaks just above the oilpan mount on the in side, sometimes in the valley but that is usually small blocks,, hydro lock is possible, but thats a lot of water to get past the rings, head gasket and intake gasket are good possibilities, but if the boat was up here in utah, where frozen engines are common, I would bet on block.

Thanks for the replies guys. I don't think it was hydro-locked, the starter wouldn't even engage and the solenoid was clicking. A few hours after it quit (after i got towed in by a sweet 33' Baja) I fired it on the muffs with a fresh battery, it lit up as soon as it turned over. It would be nice if it was a head or intake gaskets so I wouldn't need to pull the motor.

I just bought some BBC stuff, one of the blocks I had was "repaired" in the valley from a crack, anything is possible.

That block is now at the scrapyard, I cannot believe someone tried to JB weld a crack in a block!

Leaking riser gaskets will also cause the same thing

Well I thought I would revive this thread, last fall I just ran the motor with fresh oil and fogged it out. I finally got around to pulling the intake manifold tonight and everything looks fine, I don't think the gaskets were leaking as they appear to be in great shape. I didn't see any cracks in the lifter valley, is their a particular area in there that is prone to cracking? I guess my next move is to pull the heads off!