Major engine failure

medic3538

Member
Aug 17, 2008
151
Charleston, SC
Boat Info
2005 260 Sundancer. 2003 F250 Super Duty V10 Ford Tow. 5.0 KW Kohler genset. Old school Naman GPS.
Engines
350 MAG MPI, Bravo 2 drive.
Was 30 min into a cruise and the alarm sounded. A quick look at the gauges while throttling down showed temp, oil pressure, RPM and speed to be normal. Before I could get all the way down to idle, the Smart Craft system beat me to it and shut the engine down.

Opened the engine hatch and there is a moderate smoke condition coming from wires melting to manifold covers and paint melting. I did not attempt to restart and just called Tow Boat US.

Dropped boat at Sea Ray and as of Monday we have the following:

They placed the bunny ears on the outdrive and she started and ran. There was good water flow out the exhaust bellows. The manifold covers heated up very quickly and they shut the engine down. They were slighly confused and worried as they were seeing water flow, but still heating up.

So, they started from the top and worked down. Pulled risers, manifold covers, spark plugs and water pump.

Risers were not pulled apart as of Monday, but they were doing leak testing. Compression on 2 of 4 starboard cylinders was low and the tech saw signs of salt water in the cylinders. The spark plugs on the low compression cylinders showed white flashing at their bases suggesting extreme heat.

The service manager stepped over and started talking to me about the risers. He said that on the 04-06 350 mag risers that they (apologize if I get this wrong, just trying to recall what/how he said) have 2 parallel channels running through them. 1 for exhaust and 1 for water flow. He feels that maybe the channels have corroded into eachother, causing water backflow into cylinders. It still doesn't explain why there is water flow and high heat, but it is clear that these 2 cylinders have some problems and I am just wating for the final verdict.

I will keep ya'll informed as to the final problem. Was planning on changing risers at the end of the season e.g September 1st-ish. That will be a bite on the @$$ if I missed it by 3 weeks.
 
Wow sorry to hear of your issues. Keep us posted.
 
Sure will Skolbe. Just hating it if the root issue ends up being those risers. It what it is, still love my boat and just thought (there is the main problem, me thinking) that I was doing all my maintainence on time and taking care of things. Just never know I guess.
 

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