Another sad washer story

[DooC180]

I hate to say it but it looks like I got taken big time... the c180 I just bought (60hr) is missing both cermic washers! So now what?? I hate to be married to this boat but I can't let it sit in the yard and rot either.

Can I drain the oil and replace the oil pumps with the engine in the boat or do I have to pull the whole thing out??

 

[Coastiejoe]

Can't answer the boat question, but in a ski you must pull the engine to clean out the parts from the lower case and the oil screens.

 

[Tytan]

Pull the engine.

Working on the engine in a PWC is a PITA the boats are much worse as you have to be in the engine bay as well.

 

[ski-d00]

It's up to you whether you're willing to take that chance. I always recommend to pull the motor and clean and go through everything but some people will take the risk and hope for the best, or they just intend on selling it right away but they don't tell me that. More times than not, the engine does not last very long and does major damage when it goes.

If you catch a broken ceramic washer right away, in theory, you can just pull the pto housing and clean out the remains and all is good. However, this is rarely the case.

 

[DooC180]

Besides oil pumps what else should I plan to replace? Any additional gaskets/hardware I should look to replace while im in there?

 

[pwgsx]

Do you have all of your needle bearings? Usually they get lost in the engine as well if both washers go. Timing chain and gears might be chewed to all hell as well.

 

[DooC180]

All the needless (under the gear) appear to be accounted for and its actually spins very smoothly. The gear just has lateral play from the space created by the missing washers. I won't know about timing components until it is removed and torn down but it does run currently. Well enough I suppose, without having full power, however it only revs to 6600. I only say that slightly optimistically relating it to a cars timing chain/gears where damage is very evident by listening to the motor, if it will run at all. I guess time will tell...

I found a dealer that gave me a phone quote of $600-1000 to split the jugs clean it out and replace the oil pumps. The range obviously dependant upon how much damage the tech finds.

2 other local dealers/independent marine shops didn't even want to touch it. One suggested that it will never get clean enough to run reliably again and I needed to buy an SBT shortblock or the pieces of ceramic will show up and find their way through the galleys and take out a rod bearing (s).

Assuming they hold true when I show up, I am thinking for $600-1000 at a dealer I will just save myself the headache of figuring out how to hoist the engine and let them do it for me.

 

[Chester]

Do you have all of your needle bearings? Usually they get lost in the engine as well if both washers go. Timing chain and gears might be chewed to all hell as well.

If it's just the washers that fail, the needles from the needle bearing are too long to fall out.

All the needless (under the gear) appear to be accounted for and its actually spins very smoothly. The gear just has lateral play from the space created by the missing washers. I won't know about timing components until it is removed and torn down but it does run currently. Well enough I suppose, without having full power, however it only revs to 6600. I only say that slightly optimistically relating it to a cars timing chain/gears where damage is very evident by listening to the motor, if it will run at all. I guess time will tell...

I found a dealer that gave me a phone quote of $600-1000 to split the jugs clean it out and replace the oil pumps. The range obviously dependant upon how much damage the tech finds.

2 other local dealers/independent marine shops didn't even want to touch it. One suggested that it will never get clean enough to run reliably again and I needed to buy an SBT shortblock or the pieces of ceramic will show up and find their way through the galleys and take out a rod bearing (s).

Assuming they hold true when I show up, I am thinking for $600-1000 at a dealer I will just save myself the headache of figuring out how to hoist the engine and let them do it for me.

The debris isn't that hard to clean out and will not take out a rod bearing. Good call on having the dealer do the job. Make sure you have them replace the timing chain as a piece of washer might have gone through and streched the chain slightly. Better safe than sorry. When a timing chain breaks at full speed, it does a lot of damage.

Chester