Water in my oil, any thoughts?

johnnyandjebus · #1 (**permalink**) 05-08-2010

Hello all

Excuse the long thread but I want to provide as much info as I can

My boat has a single cylinder diesel Faryman engine. It is raw cooled and has separate water chambers in the head and engine block. The water that cools the head is not the same water that cools the block.
Last spring the water pump was leaking water into the engine so the pump was pulled and the seals were replaced. I had no problems after this, with water in the oil.
The boat was put away for the winter and the engine was winterized. Antifreeze was pumped into the engine(when it was in its cradle) But I did not check the oil before the boat was put away. This spring before the boat was dropped in I started up the engine and pure antifreeze came out of the engine.
I did an oil change before the boat was dropped it, the oil that was drained out had water in it. I believe that it was water not antifreeze becuase the oil was grey in colour and did not have sweet taste to it, yes I did a taste test.
The boat was dropped in with fresh oil and the engine ran for approx 10 minutes to get the boat to it's slip. Afterwards I found water in the oil.
Today I changed the oil then connected a garden hose to the water intake bypassing the water pump. I started the engine then turned on the water at a flow rate similar to what the water pump would do. Ran the engine for 5 minutes and shut it down after turning off the water supply. I found water in the oil, it also appears that the oil level in the engine rose as I had set the oil level to be a little below the high mark before I ran the engine but afterward it read slightly above the high mark.

Tomorrow I will repeat the above but only after flushing the engine by doing multiple oil changes to try and remove as much of the contaminated oil as possible. The plan is to do a oil change, run the engine for 30 seconds with out any water flowing thru it, change the oil and repeat as many times as needed to flush out all of the water diluted oil. Without letting the engine over heating.

So my questions.
Other than the water pump what are the possibilities for water getting into the oil?
Given that the water chambers do not pass thru the head into the block would a blown head gasket allow water to enter the oil? I don't see how but...
Is there a correct way to flush out all of the contaminated oil from the engine before I run it with water flowing thru it?

Any thoughts, advice would be welcome.

John

BELLATRIX1965 · #2 (**permalink**) 05-08-2010

Wow - I almost hate to go here, but there is a possibility that your raw water cooled engine has developed a hole in the block from the cooling passages to the lube oil sump? Hope this isn't your problem! Are you in a fresh water body, or salt?

johnnyandjebus · #3 (**permalink**) 05-08-2010

Bella thanks for the reply,

Fresh water, for as long as I or anyone has owned the boat.

John

deniseO30 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-08-2010

hole in block head.... or.. you said your using a garden hose.. full pressure? Is it possible your blowing by the shaft seal/s on the pump? I don't know about the engine but most of would never directly connect a garden hose right to the engine. We let the pump pull from a bucket as the hose fills it.

johnnyandjebus · #5 (**permalink**) 05-08-2010

Denise

I am not sure if the garden hose was the best approach, with that said it was not pushing water into the engine at full pressure. I needed a way to bypass the water pump and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Basically I monitored water output via the transom exhaust to ensure it was "low flow"
The engine did not over heat, I say this because I put my hand on the engine block/head to monitor engine heat, never too hot. Not even to close to too hot. Not exactly an exact science, I know, but if I can rest my hand on the engine block without feeling excess heat I have to assume the engine is not running too hot.

Regardless I am not getting a warm and fuzzy feeling about all of this. Hopefully I will find out more tomorrow.

John

captbillc · #6 (**permalink**) 05-08-2010

you can download a faryman diesel manual free on the internet if you do not have one. you might get some answers there. i don't have time to look it up now. i will check your posts later. i am a retired diesel tech, but have not worked on a faryman.

CalebD · #7 (**permalink**) 05-08-2010

JnJ,
I'm not sure if this will be helpful but ...
With our raw water cooled Atomic 4 engine we can get water back-flowing into the cylinders from the exhaust system WHEN the engine is cranked for more then say 15 seconds without turning over IF the raw water seacock is open. What happens is that the water pump puts plenty of water into the water lift muffler but there is no gaseous exhaust to push the water out so the level can rise high enough to pour back into the manifold and it finds it's way into the cylinders. I'm not at all certain if the Farymann is set up the same way.

The method we A4 owners use to clean up a water-in-the-oil is by doing 3 oil changes in quick succession. This works fine as long as there is no remaining water leak into the oil system.

Use the method Denise mentioned for running the engine on the hard - a 5 gal. bucket supplied by a garden hose with the engine's water pump hose dunked into it works very well.

I hope it is something simple.

What boat do you have and which fresh water body are you on?

bljones · #8 (**permalink**) 05-08-2010

1. Farymann single cylinder diesels only need about a gallon to a 1.5 gallons per minute of coolant flow, so if your garden hose was pumping any faster than that, you weren't doing your engine any favours.

2. Unless you have two water pumps, the water that cools the head is the water that cools the block. On Farymann one-lungers, like most low hp single cylinder diesels, the coolant system is pretty rudimentary as far as the block and head are concerned. Best case scenario, you have a worn pump shaft or seal. Worse case scenario, you have a bad head gasket. Worst case scenario, a cracked block. I'd pull the pump first and give it a look-see.
Is it hard to start? If not, then a head gasket is less likely than a pump issue.

3. Caleb might be onto something, vis a vis oil changes. You might want to do another flush and fill of the crankcase, or two, to eliminate the possibility of residual condensation from winter layup. A couple of quarts of oil is cheaper than a single hour of mechanic's time.

fordo · #9 (**permalink**) 05-09-2010

A bad head gasket would effect the compression and therefore, IMHI, make a single cylinder diesel hard, or impossible, to start. Could water come from bad exhaust manifold, like in an Atomic 4? I don't know the Farymann layout.

ambianceack · #10 (**permalink**) 05-09-2010

I agree with others and stay away from the garden hose direct connection into the raw water intake. As CaleD suggested, I think the garden hose caused a back up on the line somewhere, probably at the muffler if you have one, and water entered the block. Change the oil a couple of times to get as much of the goup out as possible. Change the oil a couple of times through out the season to insure getting all the water out.