Mopower,

I just pulled the plugs last week, and none of them were as you described. They all looked good - slight chocolate brown color on the porcellain, maybe just a tad rich. First step will be to take a close look at all of the bypass hoses and passages.

Thanks for the help!

Bud,
Glad to here your plugs look good...but so did mine in the beginning:( Like I said , this saga went on for a couple of month and toward the end is when the plugs were white.At first , when the cyl. fired it blew a very little into the waterjacket and the water pressure wasn't enough to blow the other way so no excess steam or hydrolocking. I really hope you find something else stupid , but next July if your still fighting this problem , remember this. It drove me nutz for I don't know how long:rolleyes:

Tom,
If the leak is sealing itself up once it is warm your plugs will look fine after you have run it. If the head gasket has a slight leak it could seal up once warm. Best to get a compression gauge on there so you have the winter to pull the heads if needed. Better yet lets rig up a leakdown tester and check all cylinders. Mopower may be on to something, check it out while it is a slight hangover instead of a major headache.

cp,
I couldn't justify pulling my own heads , particularly after drilling a couple of 1/8 holes in the 'stat to let the steam go by and allow the 'stat to sit in the water and function properly. I was too stubborn and lazy to do what had to be done:(. Besides that , I still wasn't convinced it was the problem when it was steaming out the pipes just that 'little extra'. You know , blame it on the weather...slightly cooler ...more humid.. or "well the engines not up to complete operating temp". I mean face it pulling the heads is a pain in the a$$! Especially if you don't know for sure:confused: . Not till it hydrolocked did I finally admit to it and pull the heads and found an ever so small rust mark at #5 between the water jacket and the cylinder:(.

Well, I wanted to run it this past weekend...
 

when it was warm, but none of my fellow boaters were going out! I guess that's a lame excuse. Now I'll have to break out the winter coat to run it!

Tim - we need to hook up anyway and try that outdrive swap sometime.