LakeRacer99

Hi OSO guys...
I am not very familiar with I/O stuff, but I have a problem. We have a 1990 454/bravo 1.
My buddy was running our boat when the hose from the raw water pump disconnected, he told me the boat filled up with water so he took it back to the dock (yes, i think he drove it there).
When I got there he had pumped all the water out with the bilge pumps and I noticed the loose hose.
I reconnected it and noticed the starboard side exhaust hose was swollen and buckled. I replace it and started the motor, it would run but made a squeeling noise during startup. During this time he took the boat out and mentioned decreased performance and sometimes it would not idle and there was the squeeling during startup.
I rebuilt the starter next, and It looked like it had been wet. I cleaned and lubed it and bench tested it.
When I put it on the motor, it made a noise like it was freewheeling and the bendix was not engaging to the flywheel, I have adjusted, removed and reinstalled this starter and almost replaced with a new one, But...
I want to make shure this motor is not cooked.
I removed all the spark plugs and I was not able to turn or even wiggle the crank (this is with all the belts and outdrive on). Should I be able to turn this by hand?
How should I determine if the motor needs to come out?
Thanks in Advance.

Vinny P

You should be able to turn the motor over with just a socket and ratchet on the dampener bolt. This should be fairly easy with the plugs out. Being that the motor starts and runs, it can't be seized up. Did the motor overheat while the hose was off? It sounds like it at least got close, due to the exhaust hose melting. Did you check the oil for evidence of water intrusion?

mcollinstn

1) Pull the dipstick and take a peek at the oil. It should be at normal level and normal in appearance. If it is milky or if the oil level is higher than expected, then your motor has water in the crankcase. It must be drained and the filter replaced and run for fifteen or twenty minutes before draining and replacing the filter again.

2) Loss of performance. If the motor overheated under load, it could have lost a headgasket. If this is the case, you will continue to dump water into the crankcase.

3) Starter. It has an automotive-style positive engagement solenoid. The bendix is not centrifugally actuated. Unless the solenoid is sticking or has been installed incorrectly, you should be having none of the freewheeling issues you describe.

4) Squealing. From your description it could be several things. Belt noise - the belt gets water into its pores and acts like a wet sneaker on a polished floor. Alternator bearing - if it got full of water and was run in it, then this could be a source. Other belt driven accessory - bearing or belt noise... If the squealing is from INSIDE the engine, then that woud be pretty weird. Not likely but stranger noises than a squeal have come from a motor. (Could it be a whistle? Like an airflow leak of some sort?)

The loss of performance is of significant concern. Hopefully that will turn out to be from a wet sparkplug shorting to ground or maybe a wet distributor cap.

The motor should turn over by hand with a normal 1/2" socket. Do take the plugs out to see if you can turn it over and make water come out of the plug holes. And when checkmate says it should turn over easily, he doesn't mean you can spin it with your hand - you gotta act like a man and pull on the wrench (somewhere around 50 ish pounds of force on a normal 14" long ratchet handle). If you do pump water out of the motor, then you will have to take it out of the boat for extensive work because it will have sat with water in the bores long enough for rust to attack the cylinders and piston rings (never ever let a motor sit with water in the bores for any length of time - get it out and pump fresh oil thru it).

If your motor doesn't want to turn over with a ratchet, then remove all of the accessory belts and try again. You may have a locked up accessory that is causing the squealing and the performance loss...

Keep us informed.

m

LakeRacer99

Thanks for the advice so far guys. I am still gonna see if I can get it to turn over with a rachet. There are 3 little bolts on the crank pulley and nothing in the center. Should I get on one of these bolts with a rachet or take the pully off and get at the larger bolt that might be in the harmonic balancer?
Ever since I reinstalled the starter, the motor has not cranked due to a starter? problem or worse? How hard is it to align the starter? I didn't notice any room for adjustment or error for that matter when putting the starter back on.
btw..This motor has sat in this state all winter.

I want to clear up that when I heard the squeeling, I assumed the starter was without lube due to the bath that it took when the boat got water in it. This is why I removed the starter to rebuild.

Thanks,

Big Block Billy

You gotta take the pulley off and then you can turn the crank bolt with a 3/4 " socket. Go clockwise. Hopefully This gets to you before motor gets really locked up if water is in it. Sound to me like it is at least fresh water. Let me know if any problems, I will give advice.
BBB

formula31

or leave the pulley and on and a 3/4" deep socket will get to the balancer bolt, clockwise looking at the front.

Big Block Billy

Yeah but if it has an aluminum pulley which I believe it may, It won't have enough room for the socket unless it the socket is a thin walled 12 point or something. Another thing I have done is to remove the pulley and install some slightly longer grade 8 fasteners and use a wrecking bar between 2 of them at a time. I did this on a 305 motor that was locked up due to rainwater last summer that had sat all year, for a friend of mine. I actually had to kick down hard on the tool at times.I had to work back and forth it was not easy. All of this with marvel mystery, and liquid torch in the cyls. The guy went to pick up pizza for lunch and was amazed 10 minutes later that his motor was running when he pulled in the driveway, he almost $#!+ himself!!! NO BS!!! After doing too much work on the '78 305 last summer incl changing a head, 1 cyl is still low on that side. I got fed up and built a newer 350 for him which is goin in next week with all updated accessories. BBB