Grey sludge
Hi all, this is my first post! I am particularly interested in this issue as well.
I bought my engine used from a scrapper in Wilmington ca, I heard the engine run and all seemed fine, I was transporting the engine to the Bay Area to install in my ericson 29, the guy said he had to drain the oil before loading it into my SUV in case a tip over would spill the oil out the flywheel, so he opens it up and this nasty grey sludge comes out, when I remarked on that, he said not to worry he'd pressure washed the hell out of the engine some water must have gotten in....... Ok so I'm much wiser now. I think.
After my install, and some fresh oil, the engine ran well enough for perhaps 3 hours, eventually it bogged down and quit, refusing any coaxing to start. And this grey ooze in an unstoppable flow started filling my bilge.......eventually I got around to tackling that mess, and I pulled the engine, it's now in my garage.
I pulled the head , and it showed signs of a failed gasket between 3 and 4, had it mangafluxed, pressure tested, and skimmed 5 thousandths, it tested fine on all accounts! I had to replace some studs but got it retorqued, with a new gasket without any issues I did have a slightly stuck valve on number 4 but it snapped back into position with just a little persuasion.
Compression is 80 on number 1 and 2, and 79 on 3 and 4.
I took apart the carb and rebuilt it, took off the engine plate on the alternator side and cleaned out the cooling galleries, and pressure tested the water system, water pump by itself, ok. Engine to the thermostat outlet, ok. Exhaust manifold, ok.
And then the entire system all connected, using an air hose and pressure gauge it held 10psi without any loss for hours ( that's as high as my gauge goes).
Assuming I have fixed the leak, I have run the engine on my bench, perhaps a total of 1/2 hour now, it started up immediately, but only stays running at 1/2 choke, it will stall if I open it up; unless, I open the throttle, then the engine revs up startlingly fast, and I have to control the throttle very carefully. If I slow the engine to what I feel is a nice idle speed it gets very rough and stalls.
This happens with the trans in gear or neutral.
I've fiddled with the mixing screw without much if any response, from nearly all the way in to 3 turns out! Pulling the plugs ( motorcraft A22) as supplied by the scrapper, shows a fair amount of soot on 1,2,3, and surprisingly clean on 4. Looking at the oil, I can't be 100% sure there isn't some water in it, either from failure to get all the old gunk out, or an unresolved leak, it's very slight, if there is water in it.
I have an electric fuel pump, and electronic ignition (still has a ballast resistor)
New seals and impeller, in the water pump. And the motor as supplied doesn't have a thermostat, ( is that needed?) it's raw water cooled in the delta.
I guess that's the background info, what else do I check to ensure a sound leak free water system, and how do I fix the idling, choke, issue?
Thanks for reading this far!,,, any help will be much appreciated! Cheers!
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