Please any Help/Input/Advice -500 EFI
 

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum here. I really need some help!! Just bought a 29' magic with the 500EFI from Shogren/pier 57 in northern IL. Dealer says seller has 50 hrs since rebuild and compression was all good. Took boat for a water test on Lake Michigan ran pretty good, but it was a little too rough to really run it hard for any period of time. Figured it was ok. Bought it, drove home all night. After I got it registered took it on the local lake I run at. For an hour I didn't run it hard, just getting to know the boat. After I got more comfortable I opened it up for 5 minutes, thats when bad things happened. The low oil pressure alarm went off, I killed the engine immediately. Opened the hatch, smoke everywhere, oil everywhere. Lost 2 quarts of oil. Oil came from port side of the engine. Appears to be upper end. looks almost like either from the oil cap or maybe even valve cover gasket?? Does that happen?? Started engine at home with muffs on couldn't get it to spit any oil. Took the oil cap off to check for blow by, nothing. Ran my hand down on port head where it meets the block. That was pretty wet with oil too. What do you guys think? Oil is clean, not milky or anything and the engine sounds fine. No knocks or ticks. Oil filter is good as are high pressure oil lines. I just don't know what to do. I've only had the boat for 25 hours. 10 of which was the drive home! Of course I bought the boat "as is." Called Shogrens and left a message. Waiting for a call back Monday. They're 10 hours away so I can't just run back over there.
Whole thing has me VERY upset and beside myself. Wondering what the ____ happened. Figured maybe you guys would know or have experience with this. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks- Dan

check the oil lines and the fittings. start the engine bring rpm up 3500. then check around the oil cooler area hope this helps

Ken

Not sure I would be running that motor on a hose at 3500 rpm for any length of time......

I would wait until you here back from Shogren before doing anything else.

+1 Griff. Find out what tests Shogren performed on the boat to feel comfortable to associate their name with the sale of the boat. Also, since they have a fleet of transport resources, see if they will assist with getting the boat back in their possession for inspection. If you are like me, you have not slept since this upset! Do you have a good mechanic who could look at it locally if need be to pinpoint the issue?

I will. Im just so disheartened by the whole thing you know. I really hope that Shogren stands behind what they sold.

Keep up to date with what's going on.....I will be curious how this plays out.....I know they don't want bad publicity. It will be interesting

Will do

Phragle can be the king of understatement sometimes! really suggest you take his advice.

Yea. I wasn't going to run my motor at 3500 rpm out of the water and without load.

UPDATE: Called Shogrens, talked to Scott Sjogren himself. Im going to paraphrase here but he told me "...Thats what happens when you buy a used boat. Thats why new performance marine engines only come with a one year warranty. I sell these boats 'as is, where is' and I'm black and white about that... you can bring the boat back up here and we can take a look at it for you. If its something minor we'll see what we can do. but I'm not going to make any promises..." I asked whats it going to cost me? he said "I don't know depends on whats wrong..."
What I got from the conversation with him is:: Bring it back up here at your own expense, we might take care of it if its nothing too expensive. But if its something major we can still fix it but its going to cost you:: :hothead:
ARE YOU FING SERIOUS? HE PUT HIS NAME ON THE BOAT.... AND WON'T STAND BEHIND IT AFTER 1 DAY

After talking to my local offshore friends here and their mechanics. They seem to think the probable cause for my problems are valve seats.

I know this is not what you are going to want to hear but all Shogren adds have the disclaimer he paraphrased for you. Take this as a lesson in used boat buying next time pay to have the engines scanned, leak down test, survey and a sea trial...... and even with all this there is no guarantee, sometime bad things just happen.

I really feel bad for you and the position your in my advice is not to take it back to Shogren find someone really good close to you and take it to them and by really good I mean on a level with Eddie Young, Mer-Performance basically someone that has a stellar reputation.

I live close to Shogren and would not go there for service I learned a long time ago while the names I mentioned will appear to be expensive in the long run they will be the most affordable.

Very sorry to hear this happened to you.

Your first step is going to be to determine the root cause of the oil leak. If it is a valve cover gasket or even an oil cap gasket, that really isn't too bad. Clean the mess up thoroughly. I have a steam cleaner I use but you can get decent results from a little degreaser and a pressure washer. From there I would buy a bottle of oil dye and a battery powered UV light kit. Add the dye to the engine, tie the boat up to a dock, and run it at 3500 RPM's for 10 minutes or so and start looking for the source of the leak. It is entirely possible it may just be a loose valve cover, but you aren't going to find anything until you clean it up and get looking. Pay particular attention to oil pressure and oil temperature senders as those typically will make a giant mess quick when they start to leak.

Hopefully it's nothing too serious. It could still be the oil lines that run along the side of the engine. They may need to be warm and under pressure to develop the leak. Clean it well, then bring it back up to temp and look for the leak.

I would also do a leak down and compression test to put your mind at ease.

By the way, where I cbus are you? I'm out east near newark. Nice to see more locals on the board. Welcome to OSO. :drink:

Another thought, it could still be a valve cover gasket. Usually at idle there isn't a tremendous amount of oil moving to the top end. At high revs, lots of oil up there!

I've spread the word around my local boating community. Had friends and friends of friends talk to their high-performance boat mechanics. People seem to think from the amount of oil that came out and the fact that it did so under higher rpm/load that its something more serious. Along the lines of valve seals... or worse like a bad piston ring..... I've been advised not to start the boat incase it is a piston ring to hopefully prevent scoring on cylinder wall.

Total nightmare.

Both valve seals and a broken ring would put oil in the exhaust as well. Pull your plugs (when you do your comprrssion test) and look for evidence of oil fouling.

Im in Pataskala. I see that your names Artie.. Would you happen to know a guy named Colby? With an old Formula?? If so, pretty small world because he told me to try to find a guy named Artie who knows a lot about these engines lol.

That would be me :)

I know a thing or two about em ;)

I'll pm you my number, give me a shout tomorrow if you like.

AWESOME! Ya man ill give you a shout tomorrow! Thanks!!