some of you may remember me from last year with lifter noise issues...damn morels. Ended up swapping them for johnsons much better. Noise went away. Was a happy boater for a partial summer...

Well until the next issue was discovered. Upon pulling the exhaust manifolds to do a routine pressure check (cmi) I discovered pitted valves from reversion and water intrusion. Decided to pull motors and have a reputable engine builder do the work.



Before pulling the motors they were running great. No noise. Performance was great. No oil consumption. Perfect.

Well fast forward a few months...builder put in new valves, seals, guides, and re-used most if not all old valve train given it was only 20 hours old.

Well dropped motors in boat and now get a huge puff of smoke at start up and oil consumption is thru the roof. At 1 qt per hour. Al 16 plugs are fouled. Both engines exhibiting same issue.

Spent the past 3 weeks trying to figure out the issue: put new oil and plugs in thinking maybe fogging oil played a role. No dice. Still smoking and still consuming oil.

performed a compression test. It was 150-155psi across the board. Inspected pcv system and all associated hoses for blow by. No evidence of oil anywhere. Also decided to put a paper towel over pcv hose looking for blow by. Came out clean.

Are there any other checks to perform? I've eliminated rings and pcv system at this point. Builder swears by his work and states that the valve guides and seals are correct and done correctly.

Here is a videio of engine start up...https://youtu.be/prnx0vRqBwg

Did a quick test to test my theory. Let engine sit for 10-15 mins and that is what you see. Turned motor off and started it back not allowing oil to settle past valve seals and there was no smoke... I'm stuck because builder doesn't think it's his work. Not sure what else I can do to convince him that he needs to inspect them. He says that 32 seals can't possibly be bad. My argument is that seals might not be right. Or clearance is wrong? Am I way off base? Thanks.

You know leaving the lifter valley trays out can cause a great bit of oil consumption and although its a problem it would be a simple fix. If not you'll have to pull them because there's not going to be a quick fix for anything else . Best of luck keep us informed. Sincerely Laz Mesa

I think your assumption is correct

Quick update...took plenum off last night and stuck a boroscope down the intake. Voila...oil all over the valves and stems. I took some pictures I'll work to get them on here but it validates my assumption. They are in fact the source as the intake itself is dry up until that point. Boat is now back at engine builder. Will keep you posted.

PCV would have a big oil trail from the valve thru the intake before you saw it on the valves. Rings couldn't push oil upstream against air flow to the back side of the intake valves. Maybe it is 16 defective valve seals. The defect being they were not installed...

Quick update...engine builder when doing the work decided to pull the lifter valley tray without my knowledge. I had asked him last week and the answer was no. Long story short we had to move the pcv valve from intake manifold to valve cover. No longer any smoke on start up. Will post results of oil consumption when we get some run time on the boat. Quick question on a 500 application where is preferred location of pcv valve? Right now it's on right hand side of motor if you are looking at the front.

The tray needs to be reinstalled and the PCV put back where mercury intended it to be,,,,jmo

Said sarcastically with a chuckle in fun: As of now, it looks like the internet 'expurts' (all of us on OSO) where right. Can't be, can it ?

For those who don't know, this valley tray was brought up in another thread for that OP and 1Moses1. Thus this new thread.

1Moses1 bring up an old thread to present his issue here. Start with post #32 : http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...il-help-4.html

1Moses1. - hope this is the only issue and you are good to go from there.

Hahaha +1 for OSO. To address F2 comment. Cannot put the valley tray in as the Johnson tie bar lifters don't have adequate clearance thus the tray was removed. Thus the need to move the pcv valve.

I ran morel tie bar lifters in my 540's with 500 EFI intakes and the trays installed with no clearance issues, are the Johnsons + 300 bodies ?