Engine Oil Problem - Lt. Grey & thick like pudding

[Ted Massey]

I have a Westerbeke 13 HP, 2 cylinder diesel, in my Cape Dory 27(1983). We have been out only 3 times this year. Last time out our oil pressure dropped off and we shut down the engine. The next morning we checked the oil and it was very light grey, very thick (thicker than 90 weight oil - about like pudding) and over full. My yard say's they have never, in 35 years, seen anything like it. Haven't been able to pump it out yet. Engine has closed loop cooling.

Any ideas what it is?

[darmoose]

ted,

sorry to tell you this, but i have been there. you got seawater in your engine. what you have to do from here depends on how much and how long. when it happened to me it was a blown gasket and it required a repower.

good luck
darrell

[Tom in Cambria]

Darrell is exactly right. That must be some yard that has never seen seawater in the oil. It can also back up from the muffler if you crank for a long time without the engine starting. It takes the pressure of the exhaust gasses to clear the water out of the muffler otherwise the muffler fills with seawater and backs up into the engine. What happens is the seawater goes through the heat exchanger and then is injected into the exhaust gas. The muffler fills with seawater and then the exhaust builds up enough pressure to spit it out the exhaust pipe. That's why you get a spurt of water out the exchaust in pulses rather than a steady stream. If the engine isn't running and pushing out exhaust gas, the water just builds up in the muffler and backs up.

[Parfait's Provider]

Seems like hydrolock might be a possibility and that would have blown whatever the weakest link was and probably damaged mechanical parts. Did it get hard to start? Could be a bad head gasket that got very bad when the engine was turned over. Oil pressure probably went south when the gasket blew out even more and opened up oil passages to places that oil shouldn't go and water passage too.

I'd start with a different yard.

[Paul Grecay]

You definitely have seawater in the crankcase...I had the same problem. But all is not lost....pump it out...put in new oil....light 19 wt....run it awhile and then change it again. But before that, find out how the water is getting in. Believe it or not, even when sea water finds its way in, the oil forms and emulsion and continues to protect the polished bearing surface on the bearing and cams....but not forever. Places to look for seawater intrusion? Water pump, head gaskets, exhaust system (do you have a bad setup for the water lift muffler?), crack in cooling passages in the head, etc.

I had this problem and after working on it awhile, I wound up repowering. I hope you don't have to do it.

[Boyd]

Hi All:

Seawater intrusion is a possibility I wouldn't discount at all. What others have said about the exhaust water injector fitting being clogged is a real possiblilty.

Another source of grey sludge as you describe is antifreeze from the glycol/water cooling side. The older style Westerbeke exhaust manifold has cast iron end plates and an aluminum body. The differential expansion and contraction from those parts makes a seal impossible to hold for any time. The glycol/water mix circulating in the manifold gets into the engine by running past the exhaust valves and down the cylinder walls. The glycol/water system is pressurized and this will happen when the engine is off.

I suggest taking a oil sample and sending it for analysis. The results should help sort out the source of water, and the direction of fix. From my experience I suspect the exhaust manifold is more likely the problem. Westerbeke uses really good head gaskets and they dont fail often. It usually takes a sever overheating problem to cause a head gasket failure.

Another source of sea water in the engine is the raw water pump. It shares common seals and shaft with the oil sump. However the quantity of water getting into the oil is usually small and you should see a pretty major water leak under the pump.

As others have said, drain it, flush it, and find out the source. If the engine will still run she is not too far gone and may have many hours left. A compression test can help you find out how far gone it is.

If its damaged beyond running then this engine can be rebuilt in place for much less than a replacement. You may not have to pull the block. Been there done that and it worked.

Boyd
s/v Tern
CD30 MkII
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

[Mark Yashinsky]

be careful doing just a flush of the engine. The salt in the seawater or the glycol and other additives in the antifreeze is VERY damaging to the bearings in the engine.

[Chris Reinke]

Ted - I would suggest a phone call up to John Paine at Hansen Marine (800-343-0480 x 131). I have found him the be the most knowledgable engineer around and always helpful. He worked with me on evaluating my M30 and his suggestions were always honest and not a sales pitch.

I ended up pulling my motor and driving it up to Marblehead so Hansen could work on it over last winter, but hopefully you will not need such an extensive fix as I did.

[Joe CD MS 300]

I was just reading about this about a month a go in Don Casey's "Complete guide to Sailboat maintenance".

If I'm remembering correctly assuming you correct the water intrusion, flushing the contaminated oil requires a series of oil changes something like this with ever increasing run times:

Change oil, crank engine with fuel killed so it wont start for about 60 seconds.

Change oil, start and run engine for ten minutes.

Change oil, run engine for half hour.

Change oil, run for two hours.

Change oil, change again after 1/4 of the normal change cycle.

Change again after 1/2 of the normal change cycle.

Then back to normal changes or something like that.

You get the picture. If what he recommends is significantly different I'll correct. Good luck.

Joe

[Oswego John]

Joe,

That's basically what we used to do, with one slight variation. I suppose that the more times that you change the oil and run the engine, the more pudding you'll remove

The variation that we did was to use a clear, flexible tube which was inserted down through the oil drain access to the lowest point in the oil pan. Since oil floats on water, any water/oil mixture would sink in the pan under the pure, new oil. We would siphon the grey mixture until pure oil would appear. Then top off with new oil.

We would turn the engine over by batteries several times, not actually running it, trying to flush the oil passages of the contaminated oil/water mix, give the mix some time to settle in the pan and siphon again.

We had success raising several submerged boats and restoring the engines to working order. I'm not saying that contamination has no effect on an engine. I guess that depending on circumstances, it isn't the end of the world. Some times you might luck out.

Sometimes a quick flush out will do. Other times, a minor rebuild will work. And then, again, sometimes a repower is in order. Whatever, remove any contamination as soon as possible, especially salt water contamination, and go from there.

Good luck,
O J

[Wayne Grenier]

The technical term is that your oil has "emulsified"-either with coolant or salt water-the 1st question is whether this is a fresh or raw water system-and if its anti-freeze or sea water in you oil-if you are running seawater cooling only then its a simple question-if you have a coolant system see if the level is down or if the coolant is contamainated-then you have got to find what the problem is and whether its worth fixing-the board had pointed out the potential problems-from a head gasket to the exhaust systemI don't know how many hours are on the motor or whether its worth saving-let us know what you find out-

[Sailing Soldier]

I had the very same problem with my Volvo. It was simple the head gasket.

If you're handy, it's really not that big of a deal. Change the oil & filter before you start it up, then as frequently as possible until the oil is "clean" after running.

Don't panic...

[Ted Massey]

Just to let you know, I had the yard replaced the raw water pump, and after much work to get the thick oil out, the engine appears to be running good now. Changed oil 2 or 3 times. The oil is now fairly clear and the level is holding. Thanks everyone for the great technical advise and quick response! Wonderful!!!

[Joe CD MS 300]

Sounds like the fix wasn't to bad. You might wan't to change the oil & filter 1 or 2 more times "failrly clear" might not ne good enough.