Cal 34 A4 Oil leak issue

[SeaGold168]

Hello everyone,

I am a female somewhat new to the boating world. I have owned my Cal 34 for a little over 2 years now, but just started learning to sail last year. Recently I had my mechanic come and do a once over to prep her for sailing this year. She was 2 qts. short of oil, which apparently is a bit much considering that I only ran the motor for about 20 hours last year. There was also oil in the bilge. Obviously I was a bit concerned about how the oil had gotten into the bilge. After explaining the issue to the mechanic, he immediately starting talking about a blown gasket, or a cracked seal. Cracked seal, maybe, but I don't think it is a blown gasket because the oil looks fine, no foaming white stuff, not water in the oil, etc. Also, checked the dip stick for the V-Drive, there appears to be 30 weight oil in the V-Drive. When the mechanic checked it a few weeks ago, he said the oil level was fine. The amount of oil showing on the dip stick shows that the oil in the V-Drive is more than what should be there, and that some of the regular may have gotten mixed in with it.

My A4 is installed backwards, not sure if this is normally how they are installed, but anyway, the back of the motor is the front of my motor when looking out of the boat. In my quest to find out what was going on, I printed a diagram and I took a look at the engine myself. There is an oil leak in the front of the motor on the left aide. It appears to be coming from a round flat piece of equipment attached to the floor that is not shown on the diagram. AFTER running the engine, the oil will start leaking from that area, not immediately, maybe 10 minutes or so after. It leaks enough whereas it makes a straight line to the entrance of the bilge, which explains how the oil is getting into the bilge. It's not a lot of oil, appears to be maybe 4-5 oil qt. container capfuls.

A few questions, 1) can anyone tell me what the problem is, 2) is there a solution that I could pour into the bilge to safely break up or dissolve the oil, 3) Is it an issue that there is more oil in the V-drive, 4) if some of the regular oil has gotten into the V-drive would this cause a problem, considering the gear oil is a different viscosity, and 5) should I be sailing the boat with these oil issues?. Thank you in advance, I appreciate the input.

[jhwelch]

Can you attach a picture of where you see the oil leaking out from?

[Mo]

Lets have a look

Welcome SeaGold,

As JWelch asked can you take some pics. If you have access to a digital camera take some pics of the entire engine from every angle you can get. Also a look of what is in the bilge.

Just a quick note. The oil on these engines are similar to the old cars of the 40s, 50s, 60s....they all used oil on a regular basis unlike the cars of today. Need to get into the habit of checking the oil about every 4 or 5 hours of use and more frequently if you notice it is using oil.

The ONLY atomic four engines still alive are those that had regular maintenance or stored for years. If we don't keep on these engines they are done.

I joke that it's a " Unionized" engine" (my apologies if anyone is offended but...)
-don't ask too much of it
-give it a new perk now and then ... tune up parts.
-talk to it and tell it how much you appreciate it.
-regular maintenance is it's pay....if you don't do it ...it goes on strike.

[Mo]

Lets have a look

Welcome SeaGold,

As JWelch asked can you take some pics. If you have access to a digital camera take some pics of the entire engine from every angle you can get. Also a look of what is in the bilge.

Just a quick note. The oil on these engines are similar to the old cars of the 40s, 50s, 60s....they all used oil on a regular basis unlike the cars of today. Need to get into the habit of checking the oil about every 4 or 5 hours of use and more frequently if you notice it is using oil.

The ONLY atomic four engines still alive are those that had regular maintenance or stored for years. If we don't keep on these engines they are done.

I joke that it's a " Unionized" engine" (my apologies if anyone is offended but...)
-don't ask too much of it
-give it a new perk now and then ... tune up parts.
-talk to it and tell it how much you appreciate it.
-regular maintenance is it's pay....if you don't do it ...it goes on strike or quits.

[sastanley]

SeaGold, Welcome to the group.

The V-Drive versions are definitely more rare. Ed C. has one and just recently did a swap out/rebuild on his, so he knows all the intricacies (sp? ) of the V-Drive.

As mentioned, the best way to get help is to post engine pictures, especially the problem area(s). If you can snap one with it leaking, even better! Alternatively, Moyer Marine has a panoramic engine on their home page..if pictures are hard to come by, we can use that image to get an idea of the leak (no V-drive though..)

It is not dangerous to sail the boat with the engine in that condition..but, it may be unsafe to operate the engine until we have a better idea of what's happening.

As for cleanup..you can get oil absorbent pads (usually from your local marina, or West Marine) - these things absorb oil, but don't attract water. Sometimes, they look like a big white sausage, & sometimes they are simply flat towels. Once you get all the liquid oil out, a degreaser used liberally should clean the bilge up fairly well..we gotta fix the leak first though!

[edwardc]

Hi SeaGold. Welcome to the forum!

I'll try to help with your V-drive specific questions.

3) Is it an issue that there is more oil in the V-drive

The v-drive wont care, but it may splash or leak out of the breather cap on the v-drive. Of more concern is the possibility that oil is leaking from the engine into the v-drive. this would indicate that the real seal on the output shaft tailpiece is leaking. It won't take much to raise the level as the v-drive only holds about a pint of oil.

4) if some of the regular oil has gotten into the V-drive would this cause a problem, considering the gear oil is a different viscosity

Happily, there is no problem with this, as the v-drive can use any of the following:

• SAE 30 Heavy Duty Motor Oil
• Exxon Spartan EP-68 Gear Oi
• APG-80 Gear Oil

DO NOT USE SAE 80 Motor oil or any multi-grade oil!

5) should I be sailing the boat with these oil issues?

Sailing, yes. Motoring, no. With that much of a leak, it would be too easy to run low on oil, especially if the rate of the leak suddenly increased. Not to mention the obvious pollution aspects of dumping that much oil into the bilge, and subsequently into bay/ocean/lake you are on!

[JOHN COOKSON]

Is there any way you can get an oil absorbent sheet or round absorbent thingy between the engine and the bilge so oil doesn't get all over the boat while you are working on this problem? Even a cotton towel is better than nothing. Be careful of oil soaked rags and spontaneous combustion.

If you sail with oil in the bilge it will spread it out even more and the cleanup will be even harder. If it were me I wouldn't sail till I got the bilge cleaned up.

TRUE GRIT

[JOHN COOKSON]

SeaGold
A couple of more questions: What is your oil pressure engine warmed up at cruise RPM? What is your oil pressure engine warmed up at idle? Does the oil pressure gauge hold steady or chatter or kind of bounce around?

TRUE GRIT