Water in cylinder, looking for advice

BHoppe

BHoppe

New Member
May 13, 2019
13
Waco, TX
Boat Info
2006 220 Select
Engines
5.0 Mercruiser EFI w/ Bravo III
Hi All, I'm having an issue and looking for a little advice.

First, background on the boat:

1998 Sundeck 210
5.0 V8
Purchased in April 2019
$7500 purchase price
Put about $4000 into it this offseason

The boat has never had problems starting. In the offseason it was properly winterized and I had steering cable, starter, alternator, batteries replaced.

When I first took it out for the season I noticed it being a little "sluggish", as if it perhaps had bad gas or a fuel line issue. Taking too long to plane, lower top speed (used to go 35, now goes 25).

Long story short, after having it out 10 or so times I took it into the shop to have it checked out thinking I had a spark plug issue or similar. Turns out there is water in the #8 cylinder. It does start very hard on first crank but once it warms up it seems to run fine other than the aforementioned performance issues.

The mechanic says that there is water in the #8 cylinder and we're looking at an engine rebuild which will run in the neighborhood of $5k. I trust the guy and think he knows what he is doing. He has worked on mercruisers for over 25 years.

What I'm wondering is are there any other options for me here? I'm looking at selling it as a project for someone that wants one but I'd ideally like to keep it and not have to spend $5k to get it going.

What would you do in the same scenario?
 
You have a choice between spending $5K for a rebuild (which doesn't sound too bad) or selling the boat and likely taking a big hit on it.

I guess my first question is this: What would you replace it with and how much more than $5K is that going to cost you?

As the resident CSR cheapskate I hate to throw money at a repair but I'd have to balance that against what the cost of other options would be. You already have a boat that works except for the rebuild. If you replaced this boat who is to say that the next boat couldn't develop problems that would cost you $$$. You have a "known quantity" with this boat. If you replaced it you'd have an "unknown quantity".
 
Find out exactly what is wrong - what has likely happened is the exhaust riser and or manifold has failed and is leaking water in through the open exhaust valve on the #8 when you shut the engine down. It's possible you only need to re-work the cylinder heads and not a total rebuild.

I would have to think about investing $5k into a boat work $7500 unless I was planning to keep it a long time.
 
All good advice. Hopefully the cylinder head fix will be sufficient. There's not much of a market for an engine-less old boat.
 
Thanks for the feedback all.

If I were to sell it I might be able to get $5k for it based on interest I've had so far. Take that with the $5k I would put on the repair and I'd have $10k to put towards a $15-20k boat that would probably be a lot nicer/newer. But then I have to think about what I would need to put into whatever else I got.
 
Usually the 2 center cylinders go first if a riser goes bad 3/5 4/6 they're directly below the opening in the riser.
8 is all the way in the back .
Ask to have and see numbers from a compression test.
sounds fishy to me.
 
I would look closely at the manifolds and risers as the cause. I had a similar problem years ago, cylinder was full of water. Turned out to be a crack in the riser from the water jacket which allowed water into the cylinder. Replacing a manifold would be a lot cheaper than $5000.
 
Most likely manifold and or the elbow are leaking after shut down. You were running the boat so it is savable now but if you wait too long it won't be. First forget the mechanic, go to the boat disconnect the serpentine belt and remove all plugs. Now crank it over to get out all the water, next spray fogging oil in the cylinders and turn the motor by hand to evenly coat the cylinders. Pull the dipstick and check for oil in the pan, if the fluid is milky white you'll need to pickle the engine if not do nothing yet. At this point I'd spin over a few times to get the oil out(messy) then put the plugs in and start it. If it runs for a minute with no water you won't hurt it. At this point I'd do a compression check and the results will tell you how to proceed. Please post back the results. If compression is good replace manifolds and risers, plugs, oil & filter and go boating.
 
Good advice above to prevent rust. If in fact only #8 has water I think it unlikely to be an exhaust manifold issue.
I would pressure test the water side of the engine before you take anything apart. Could be a cracked intake or a rust through on the head.
 
Just an update. I took it to another guy who tore into it a bit and said it was actually number 5. At any rate, I decided I didn’t want to put anything more into that boat. I put it on Facebook marketplace being totally honest about the issues and had it sold for 7000 within 24 hours.

Now on to the next boat, which I’m bringing to the mechanic before I purchase!
 
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