I have been running my old A-4 with raw water cooling for 4 years and have never had water in the cylinders. I have also never had the need to close the seacock.
Today for Mothers Day my wife and I were going to go for a cruise and after starting the engine I found a water leak where the cooling water enters into the water lift muffler. The 1 1/4" pipe had rusted through and after removing all of the fiberglass tape it was apparent that I needed to build a new exhaust "hot" section from the exhaust manifold to the water lift.
Went to Home Depot and got all of the parts. The engine started fine but I had a few minor leaks in the system that I had just built. A little while later I could not start the engine. Futzed around for a while until I pulled a spark plug and bingo...found water in the cylinder closest to the exhaust manifold flange (#3 firing).
After freaking out I closed the seacock and turned the engine over until most of the water had been blown out of the top. The dipstick shows signs of a tiny bit of water in the oil. It put a lot of MMO in the cylinders, poured a little raw gas in the cylinders and fired her up. After a bit of coaxing the engine came back to life I opened the seacock and I ran it for about 30 minutes. It ran great.
I then intentionally waited 25 minutes to see if the problem returned and of course as luck would have the cylinder closest to the exhaust manifold exhaust flange was again full of water. I repeated everything but after getting her running again I turned it off with the seacock closed. I am going to start her up tomorrow and I am planning on changing the oil several times to remove any water.
What is going on? Did the new "hot" section of the exhaust cause the water to siphon easier because it is clean and new? I did move the hot water heater hose "T" to the "front" of the loop (closest to the exhaust flange). Do you think the water from the hot water heater is draining back into the exhaust manifold? That seems a bit of a stretch but since that was the only thing I changed from the original set up it seems a likely possibility. I am thinking of changing that setup and moving the hot water "T" back to the "back" of the loop where it originally entered directly into the water lift muffler.
In reading all of the years of people writing in on the forum about water in the cylinders it seems like a lot of people shut off the seacock (before?) stopping the engine and reopen it once the engine has been started. Like I mentioned at the beginning I have never had to do this before and I will of course do this if necessary but that is a bit of a pain. I am truly stumped.
In the end, is it common practice to shut off the seacock prior to shutting down the engine and then reopening once the engine has been started? As always I very much appreciate any help/info I can glean. This website (and Don) have saved me many times in the past. Best regards, Mike
Today for Mothers Day my wife and I were going to go for a cruise and after starting the engine I found a water leak where the cooling water enters into the water lift muffler. The 1 1/4" pipe had rusted through and after removing all of the fiberglass tape it was apparent that I needed to build a new exhaust "hot" section from the exhaust manifold to the water lift.
Went to Home Depot and got all of the parts. The engine started fine but I had a few minor leaks in the system that I had just built. A little while later I could not start the engine. Futzed around for a while until I pulled a spark plug and bingo...found water in the cylinder closest to the exhaust manifold flange (#3 firing).
After freaking out I closed the seacock and turned the engine over until most of the water had been blown out of the top. The dipstick shows signs of a tiny bit of water in the oil. It put a lot of MMO in the cylinders, poured a little raw gas in the cylinders and fired her up. After a bit of coaxing the engine came back to life I opened the seacock and I ran it for about 30 minutes. It ran great.
I then intentionally waited 25 minutes to see if the problem returned and of course as luck would have the cylinder closest to the exhaust manifold exhaust flange was again full of water. I repeated everything but after getting her running again I turned it off with the seacock closed. I am going to start her up tomorrow and I am planning on changing the oil several times to remove any water.
What is going on? Did the new "hot" section of the exhaust cause the water to siphon easier because it is clean and new? I did move the hot water heater hose "T" to the "front" of the loop (closest to the exhaust flange). Do you think the water from the hot water heater is draining back into the exhaust manifold? That seems a bit of a stretch but since that was the only thing I changed from the original set up it seems a likely possibility. I am thinking of changing that setup and moving the hot water "T" back to the "back" of the loop where it originally entered directly into the water lift muffler.
In reading all of the years of people writing in on the forum about water in the cylinders it seems like a lot of people shut off the seacock (before?) stopping the engine and reopen it once the engine has been started. Like I mentioned at the beginning I have never had to do this before and I will of course do this if necessary but that is a bit of a pain. I am truly stumped.
In the end, is it common practice to shut off the seacock prior to shutting down the engine and then reopening once the engine has been started? As always I very much appreciate any help/info I can glean. This website (and Don) have saved me many times in the past. Best regards, Mike
Comment