96 5.7L Captiva - water in oil and zero compression on #5

96RinkerCaptiva212

Hey Guys! While researching on the net I found this rinker forum so figured I would sign up! Last July, I bought my first boat which is a 96 Rinker Captiva 212. LOVE the boat. I picked it up from a guy my wife and I went to school with. The previous owner before him was also from our hometown so the history on it is pretty clear. 340 hours as it sits right now. I would explain us 3 owners as "mustang guys who keep their stuff clean and also run things hard", haha. I'm more of a gear head then those guys but the boat was IMMACULATE for a 96. Always kept in a heated garage. Anyway that's the history, now for the problem.

Ran GREAT last season, no issues. I winterized by opening up pitcocks, running 5 gallons of auto antifreeze from a jug into the muffs, then choked out the engine with fogger through the carb lightly to try and make sure it distributed to all cylinders (timed it so there was maybe a pint of coolant left in the jug so as to leave coolant in the block). Stored it away (ohio) and pretty mild winter really. Probably 20's at night here and there but nothing major. I did NOT open up the bottom coolant hose as after talking to tons of boaters around here and videos, everyone said they don't mess with that. When I went to get the boat out of the barn, the dust cover was soaked with gas right at the gas cap. Super odd. I went to haul the boat home and kept having gas come out of the cap. I found the gasket shrivelled inside the cap and it was moving around freely. I put a washer behind the gasket so as to push the gasket into the filler housing. That worked, no more fuel spill. Also of note is I was 99% sure I had 2/3 tank and put stabilizer  in accordingly. At season start, I had a full tank. I thought maybe I was mistaken or gauge was off in the fall. No way that much moisture could have built... we're talking many gallons worth of moisture to dang near top a tank off. But, am I 100% postive, NOOO. This spring, I changed oil and filter, engine fired first click on the muffs. 

Ran for 3 days this season GREAT, no issues, hesitations, hard starts. 4th time out I had 7 people with me for the first family day on the  water. It was a hard start from the get go. Cranked for 10 secs or so and it fired. We take off and I can feel a power loss but thought well I do have 7 people on board. Cruised at 3500 for about 2 mins and kept losing power to the point I realized I was almost WOT at 3500. Thought my throttle cable stretched at first but started hearing clicking, popping then I shut the engine down. Exhaust was smoking, oil pressure was good. Fired it back up and limped it to a cove where I could never get it started again. Got towed back to our mooring buoy. 

Everyone and their brother told me it was the water separator filter (fuel filter). I went ahead and changed that. Poured the contents out into a pickle jar and there were a ton of debri (assuming filter is doing it's job) and then brown fluid which separated from the fuel. But yea, now it has a new one on and couldn't get the boat started again. 

I know, super long post. I will post the current test results in a reply to this.

96RinkerCaptiva212

Now for the meat and potatoes:

Cylinder, Compression, Leak Down %, Notes:

Driver bank (blown headgasket?)

2 - 90 50% air out #4 plug hole
4 - 110 25% air in cyl - good?
6 - 110 50% air out #2 plug hole
8 - 110 40% air out #6 plug hole

Pass bank (blown gasket or cracked block) 
1 - 150 30% air in cyl? Good?
3 -110 45% water bubbling, 5 spark, exh
5 - dead 70% air out exhaust port (seems promising)
7 - 150 25% into cylinder - good?

Ok, so every time I get #5 up to TDC, the  motor kinda locks up on me. Not sure if I'm hydrolocked, I've never had experience with that. Definitely water in this cylinder, plug hole is rusty and top of piston has rust from water contamination. Or, maybe a valve broken or dropped causing the piston to hang up slightly near TDC. I dunno yet. Currently rigging up something to do a block pressure test so I can have the info to either pull the trigger on a Rapido longblock, or if I'm about to just get some headwork done, new gaskets and slap it back together. 

What I feel good about is that no cylinder presented an air sound or gurgling sound out of the dipstick tube. So I guess no popped piston or maybe bad rings? 

Let me also just say I've done engine swaps, setup rear ends, some manually tranny work, installed superchargers and ur general engine work. I have NEVER actually torn into an engine before. I'm green here but also mechanically inclined. 

Also had a friend offer me his entire 5.7 260hp engine (same as I have) for 50 bucks.. yes 50 bucks, lol. But he had a similar problem with water entering a cylinder and lets just say he has extra cash laying around so he said screw it, didn't tear into it to see what happened, and just bought a I think 320hp 5.7 from Jegs. I feel like, yea 50 bucks, but also a major gamble. I mean, it might be worth the 50 just to have extra parts laying around. 

Anyway, any thoughts, letting the cement set up on my pressure device now and will have those numbers today. Looks like you just put 15psi into the block and see how long the pressure lasts. 

96RinkerCaptiva212

and, here is my rig job for the block test. The silicone failed on me last night and again this morning so I went back to Home Depot and dang near threw a shoulder out trying to put a 1" pvc fitting into a 1 1/4" air hose, lol. Cemented it together but you guys get the idea. I'm not even going to say what this thing actually looks like, haha! 

zaverin1

Zero compression is bad and no way will it come back until engine is taken apart. Valve or actual piston could be the culprit.
Water in the oil could be related or unrelated but still no good.
intake has to come off to check the heads 
then block.

96RinkerCaptiva212

zaverin1 said:

Zero compression is bad and no way will it come back until engine is taken apart. Valve or actual piston could be the culprit.
Water in the oil could be related or unrelated but still no good.
intake has to come off to check the heads 
then block.

Thanks sir - if this block pressure test seems good, I'm going to pull the carb/intake and then the heads to get a visual. If the block test reveals something nasty, I guess it's time to just pull the whole thing and grab a longblock. With the price to refresh a block and heads, you might as well just get a LB from Rapido it looks like. $1550 for a LB and $150 shipping. I'd say a fresh of a block could easily hit the 1200 mark with parts, labor and gasket sets. 

Also, I need to research this riser acetone test. And I need to figure out where this exhaust shutter is to see if maybe it brought water in on a quick shut down. Is that in the Y somewhere? Do I have to pull the outdrive to get to it? 

Cableguy Greg

The flapper (exhaust shudder) is on the exhaust is at the top of the Y pipe where the lower rubber boot is connected to the Y pipe.

96RinkerCaptiva212

Cableguy Greg said:

The flapper (exhaust shudder) is on the exhaust is at the top of the Y pipe where the lower rubber boot is connected to the Y pipe.

Thanks! Doesn't look too bad then

96RinkerCaptiva212

OK guys, block test pumped water out of the #5 (dead) plug hole. Does that solely mean cracked block? Or head gasket possible as well? Guess I will start pulling the carb/inktake now to get to the heads. 

Dream_Inn

At this point, I think you still need to take it down to the head off to know for sure.  If you are really lucky, it may still be a gasket.

96RinkerCaptiva212

Lol,  I don't even know... something fell down the intake? 

96RinkerCaptiva212

Not what I expected (perfect valves).  3rd from the left is the dead cylinder (air coming out exhaust port)

zaverin1

If your spark plug still intact then it could be just a combo of rings,cylinders and piston 

Black_Diamond

Ouchie. You had water in those 2 middle cylinders  hard to tell if you had a detonation problem or it is really just corrosion that letgo once you started running 

96RinkerCaptiva212

yea dunno, trying to weigh out what to do next. Still need to check exhaust flapper health once I get block pulled. 

1) Rapido remain long block for 1850 plus 150 shipping
2) Hone or bore out my current block cylinder walls, new rings and pistons - punch 30 over? Not sure what price could end up being here.. 180 for gasket set. Maybe I should have NAPA check my heads out to make sure there isn't more damage.
3) Go shop craigslist and get another 350 and slap my intake and carb right back on it and just go back on the water

96RinkerCaptiva212

had a friend say I might have had some corrosion come out of a water jacket and fell into the cylinder.. That's scary. That would mean I shouldn't reuse my intake then. I see no way I dropped anything down the carb. The flame arrestor has been on the whole time other than me fogging it for the winter.