Is There Supposed to be Water in the Engine?
A few weeks after our first boat ride I was ready to do it again. I picked up the boat Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning we got ready
to go. I wanted to fire it up in the driveway, just to be sure it would run, so I connected the battery and turned the key. The motor got about a half-turn and stopped. I kept trying it, but
it wouldn't move. Finally the started stopped trying altogether. After some diagnosis we determined that the ground cable had somehow melted down inside the the insulation. It still looked
okay, but it had infinite resistance. Hmmm.
I was still concerned about the engine not turning over. It sounded like it was hydro-locked, but that was impossible. So I pulled the plugs and turned it over by hand. And water gushed out
of #3 spark plug hole!
That's not good. I pulled the heads, and there was indeed water inside #3.
I looked really closely at the combustion chamber in the head, but couldn't see any problems there. And the shop did magnaflux them and say they were okay. Looked like a cracked block to
me.
I got on the jet boat board and posted these photos and asked some questions, but the consensus was that I was blowing the head gaskets off with too much water pressure from the pump. Okay,
time for a pressure regulator. While I was posting pictures, I put up this one of my hand-hole cover, asking what the heck the little grommet fastener thing on the right side was for, because
I couldn't figure it out. Turns out it is to hold the special hand-hole wrench on top of the cover so you can find it in a hurry, when you really need it.
