85Baja

So i heard about this great forum and thought id check it out.. I just bought an 1985 28' baja with twin 454's which have been built up with a dart high rise intake, holley carb, roller rockers, and a perfomance cam (I THINK.. Not sure about the cam) The oil was changed just before i bought it.. I had it out on the lake for probably a total of 4-5 hours of running time and pulled the oil dipstick in both motors and have found water in the oil, and on the oil cap for the motor a buildup of white material (water?) heres what i think the problem is..

WATER REVERSION... if those are preformance cams.. the guy i bought the boat off of had headers but couldnt fit them on the boat so just hooked up the stock manifolds/risers.. I was thinking about going with eddie marine manifolds/risers.. for a total of about 3400$ for both engines.. i just wanted to make sure this was the problem before i started throwing money out.. any other ideas to stop this? what about just putting different risers on my current stock manifolds? throw some ideas out there and also include any other places i should check for possible water seepage into the engine.. thanks for your help

Ran-Dom 32

you may have a leaking intake gasket, very common

85Baja

i thought about that, but whats the chances of both engines having that problem?

Prostreeter

It's the riser gaskets no doubt.Been there done that.

Make sure you flush each motor out real well.

offthefront

iTrader: (1)

how old are the exhaust .... I'd pull them first to see if they are leaking inside.....m

BY U BOY

Ditto or the head bolts in the water passage were not sealed correctly.

85Baja

so you dont think its from using the stock manifolds/risers with the preformance camshaft?

Chris Sunkin

Reversion causes water to be pulled back down the exhaust and it splashes the very hot exhaust valve which damages them. It doesn't put water into the oil of a running engine.

Intake leaks are the most common, then head gaskets. On spring startup, don't eliminate the possibility of ineffective winterization and some trapped water cracking a block.

I've had riser gaskets fail and hydrolock engines, sometimes bending the rods. It's not easy for water to get past the piston rings and into the crankcase.

Water in the oil can occur from condensation- the engine isn't getting warm enough to boil off the moisture that condenses in the crankcase. Be sure you're not mistaking condensation for water intrusion. Do an oil change and carefully mark your oil level. If it's not moving upward, you don't have a water leak.

85Baja

so how would i check intake manifolds/cracked blocks.. ??.. i guess i have to start teardown on the top half of these motors to figure out whats going on...

Chris Sunkin

Remove them, plug all the openings and pressurize them with about 40PSI. Any more and you'll probably blow out any gaskets.

As I wrote before, I'd check to see if it was condensation before I did anything else. Plus, how would the water get past your piston rings? If it filled a cylinder enough for water to leak past that tight clearance, the cylinders would still be holding water when you tried to start, resulting in lockup and probably bent rods.