Firewalker

Long story, so I will give you the coles notes version. I am looking for suggestions.
Last year I bought a Sea Ray Pachanga 22 for day to day driver at the cottage, me not being able to leave well enough along decided the old 330/Bravo that is came with was not suitable for this boat. It wasn't fast enough.
The boat with the Bravo ran 66mph on GPS, which I thought to be pretty damn good for old 330. So I went searching for a replacement powerplant. So I came across in the back of Powerboat Mag ( yes sadly I still have a subscription ), and add for motors, and bought a ZZ502 for 5500 bucks and had is shipped up to Canada. I wasn't looking to spend a ton on the motor, after all the boat is a 89 and I didn't want to get too upside down financially with it. On the ZZ502 I added Imco powerflow exhaust, the merc ignition and a 800cfm holly carb. plus all nice billet hardware like pullies and lifting rings and a crossover water system. For that matter everything on the motor is new.
So I get a guy that is known to be slow but does good work to install the motor, he takes 4 mths ( that is another issue ).
The motor also has a remote oil filer and cooler system.
So the first time we run the boat we notice it has a reversion problem, for those of you that know the P-22 it has the canister mufflers, we had to remove them and get Imco to make us some risers that would fit the boat, that dumped the water a lot farther down the line. Problem solved, another 2k. So we finally get the boat on the water, without a muffler system ( I wanted a sleeper ) and it seems to run great. I mean it pulls like an animal to 4000 rpm then falls flat on it's face. It takes a lot of coaxing to get it to turn 4800-4900 rpm at 71.9 mph..... or a 5.9 mph gain. This is bad enough in it's self, but the oil pressure drops to zero.... so naturally I freak and shut it down, leave it a min, and re-start it and it is at 20 and slowly climbs to 30, then 40 at idle, and it all seems fine. I question the gauge, but it checks out. I then run it one more time, again runs great can cruise all day anywhere from 2200-3500 rpm all day, but lean on it and all hell breaks loose. So the last time I lean on it, it does the same thing, pulls hard to 4000, takes a lot of coaxing to get to 4800-4900 and the same 71.9 mph and then the pressure drops. So I take it to the trailer. Once on the trailer, I notice the dip stick has been spit out and so have a quart or two of oil. I should add that the water temp is highish, and moves around a lot while driveing even at a steady speed. Like if I were crusing at 3200 the water temp is moveing from 140 to 170 with in a few min, back and forth.
Needless to say, I am at witts end and and have loss of the boat for this season. I am not getting much from the guy that I bought the motor from, and he has not called my engine guy back... after many msg's left.

What do you think, I am considerin taking the whole boat and motor to Active Engines in Toronto haveing them pull the motor, put it on the dyno and then problem solve.... and go through it if neccesary till it is right.

Thanks for any help/ideas.
RT

tomcat

If you're close to Toronto I suggest taking the boat to a high performance marine shop first. Some of your problems may be due to the rigging as opposed to the engine itself. I know Speedmaster Marine sends engines to Active, so you could try them. The engine may indeed end up at Active, but it sounds to me like you have some oil and water plumbing issues.

The lack of top end power, dipstick and oil blowing are engine related. Blow-by is caused by leaky rings and/or valves. I don't know whether the short episode of reversion contributed to this or not. There is a possibility that the engine had blow by when you bought it. Did you do any compression testing at the start?

Welcome to high performance boating and Good Luck!

carney

I agree with tomcat. we had a 540 blower motor do the same thing with oil pressure and found the oil pan was to small. new pan fixed problem, as for blowing oil and no top rpm , leak down the motor and see what shape it might be in.

Firewalker

Small oil pan is interesting, it is only 6 quarts.

Tom Cat, I have seen your mock up motor at Teds many times. I just am not a fan of paying big labour bills when I can do 90% of the work myself. I build a lot of 2.5 Merc race motors ( Just won 2 major Drag races ). But I am not a 4 stroke guy, I understand them.... but it is not my forte. Add that my shop doesn't have the height to pull big motors.

Active did another boat of mine with Blower motors, and I was happy with them.

The plumbing is definalty ok. I think there is a motor issue, like a head gasket. I would think this motor would make about 500 hp or at least 200 more than the old 330, I expected 10-15 mph more. Not 6
The motor was brand new in the crate. I have not leaked it down, but the reversion issues were only on the hose and never under load.
I don't recall if I mentioned, but the damn motor is so smooth, and idles like a dream, it just has no go. and the heat and more importatly the oil issues.

RT

RT

PatriYacht

Did you do any spark plug checks to check the carb jetting before you leaned on it? Lean jetting in a high perf engine can cause a lot of nasty problems including damaged rings and pistons and blown cylinder head gaskets. The loss of oil pressure is most likely from high oil temp. What kind of oil cooler are you running? Your engine puts out as much heat and hp as a HP 500 so it needs an oiling system to match. That old 330 system is way to small and will kill your engine in no time.

PatriYacht

There is a lot of good info on this board. Do some searches and you can find good info. Like this http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...ight=oil+lines

Firewalker

The oiling system is from Herb Stotler, it hs a 2X10" cooler.
I don't know that all the plugs have been checked, but the motor was a little on the fat side.
One thing I heard was that if you were over full of oil this would happen, my motor guy says no way.
Also, the one time I did hear from the guy I got it from, he said that foaming oil would cause the lifter to not work right, and that would cause the flat power up top.
What could cause foamy oil, or enough crank case pressure to spit the dipstick and or oil.

RT

PatriYacht

2 x 10 is too small. 2 x 18 is minimum and I would prefer 3 x 18. Eddie Marine has the 3 x 18 for about 200.00. Best price anywhere. If you have a small pan, foaming can be a problem. Worse when the oil is hot. Do you have a windage tray?

PatriYacht

Replace your thermostat with a 140 degree. They're cheap. Replace your impeller with the kit from Merc if there's any question it needs to be. Good insurance. Make sure all hoses are routed correctly and there are no obstructions. What kind of breather set up do you have? Lack of breather will cause excess crankcase pressure which causes oil to pump out the dipstick. Unfortuately, overheating and detonation can cause excess crankcase pressure from damaged rings, pistons or blown head gaskets also. I'd get a leakdown test to make sure everything is ok.

Firewalker

The valve covers are vented to the breather. It has an Imco bypass system on it.... the plumbing is easy and clear.
One thing my mechanic doesn't like in the imco system is how there is cold water dumped directly on top of the thermostat.
Pump is new. I asked about detonation and he said it isn't, but I am not so sure. 32 degrees timing, 9.8 compression and 91 octane.
I have a leakdown tester, just not the time to do it, it isn't at my shop it is at the riggers...... and to get him to do something is BRUTAL.