Reinell 220

Hey everyone I am new here and have a serious problem I can not figure out. I have 1990 Reinell 220 offshore. Came with a king cobra 350 and I've upgraded to a Mark IV 454 and swapped the drive out.

The 454 is bored, balanced, blueprinted and has comp gold rockers and has this cam http://www.compcams.com/Company/CC/c...?csid=448&sb=2. I also have stainless marine exhaust manifolds and it all goes out the back of the boat.

Here's my problem. The boat runs like a champ on the trailer, but when I put it in the water it fires right up and then runs for about 20 seconds progressively blowing more white smoke out the breather tubes until it kills the engine. (It flushes through a sea pump, not the drive. I keep it down a bucket full of water and make sure the water level never falls to the pickup tube level)

I take it home, let it sit, fire it up and again boom, runs like a champ. It's followed this pattern through 3 cams. I thought it was due to too much duration/overlap so I kept decreasing it and it is still doing it!!!! I am supposed to go on vacation in a couple days with the boat and am getting desperate.

Any help is greatly appreciated and I will provide more details if you would like.. (parts e.t.c.)

Thank you.

Reinell 220

apollard

I wouldn't think it's reversion with that cam, not enough overlap there (-3* at .050, and only 54 at seat).

The white smoke is coming out the breather tubes for the valve covers - or am I not understanding your description?

Reinell 220

Thank you for the reply. I don't think it's the cam either. I called teague and they felt the same way. Too tame to cause the problem. I'm thinking maybe harmonic at this point....? I've been running it straight out the back to test the engine before I bolted up the diverters, but I'm going to put them on today and push it through the prop and see if that helps.

You did understand correctly. The smoke comes from the breather tubes, but if you look in the valve cover the engine is filled with the smoke as well.

Again really appreciate your thoughts.

PatriYacht

You really don't do a good job of explaining what the problem is. When you run the boat out of the water, is it on a hose? Does your oil get milky or does the oil level rise when you put it in the lake? It sounds to me like you have a leak inside of the engine like a head gasket. Reversion would be possible if you had leaking exhaust valves but I'm assuming that you had a valve job done by a reputable shop.

FIXX

sounds like the engine is not getting hot enough to boil the moisture out of the engine, just for ****s and giggles put a 160* thermostat in the engine and try running it and see whet happens,,if that dont do it try restricting the water going into the the risers so they can get a bit hotter..

apollard

Really do need as much detail as you can give as noted above. Smoke or steam? If steam, I'd think you would have milky oil with that much steam. I'd look for a leak if that is the case.

Dennis Moore

I would guess that you have too much restriction on the exhaust pipe at idle.


Mercruiser uses exhaust relief holes that allow exhaust gasses to escape when the thru-the-prop exhaust is totally submerged (I realize you have an OMC). These idle relief holes are close to the water line and are designed to increase idle quality.


Maybe your thru-the-transom exhaust is buried too deep in the water (at idle) plugging your exhaust (like a potato up the tailpipe) and not allowing the engine to idle.

Dennis Moore

Reinell 220

(It flushes through a sea pump, not the drive. I keep it down a bucket full of water and make sure the water level never falls to the pickup tube level) A hose fills a large bucket. I put this under the sea pump pickup with a hose connecting the two. Oil does not get milky and also doesn't rise when placed in water. Thanks for your thoughts, it's much appreciated.

Reinell 220

Ok so here's something new. After more testing we've realized that it is sucking water back up through the exhaust but ONLY when the drive is mostly down. As I raise the drive, the problem goes away (white steam decreases and stops completely) Note: When the drive gets 3/4's down the rpm drop and shortly after the steam returns.

To clarify, this is steam coming from the breather tubes. It's just thick and appears like smoke.

I have run it through diverters out the back...through diverters out the bottom....no diverters straight pipe out the back and even removed the wishbone flappers and every time it runs great with the drive up and starts to draw water with the drive down. The strange part is I've tried it with the external drive exhaust boot connected, disconnected and removed. Same result every time.

I noticed the pulley on the sea pump is smaller than most others which would spin it faster and increase the water it draws. Anyone know what ratio between the crank and the sea pump pulley should be?

apollard

On my 454, the sea water pump pulley is smaller than the crank pulley, not sure of ratio and am not near the boat now. But, the Crank pulley is about 8" and the sea pump around 6", maybe a little less.