HELP - Water Coming Out of Air Filter - Boca Grande, FL - HELP

[chadlaroche]

yanmar 3hmf.
while tightening down a leaky clamp today underway I noticed water coming out of air filter.Not a drip but a good steady dribble ???? Very concerned about this I finished repair and stared motor back up.No issues with power or anything. but white smoke at high rpms. looks like Im fogging for mosquitoes. dead calm so I had to motor another 4 hours smoking to Boca grande fl .
Ideas ? anti syphon valve ? cant find one .no water in oil, good oil pressure running cool. Cracked head out of no where? I'm stumped and scared4 days into a carribean journey and motor poops !

[gettinthere]

are you sure it was water? Did you smell it? Fuel?

[DeepFrz]

Salt water or cooling fluid? And was the water coming out before you tightened the clamp? What clamp did you tighten?

[Chief Engineer]

Not enough information to hazard a guess at this point.

[atoll]

white smoke generally means water in the fuel,though water coming out of the air filtercould possibly be sea water siphoning some how back from the exhaust,when the motor is stopped,possibly anti siphon blocked and has allowed salt water in to cylinders.
though check fluid coming out of air filter is it fresh,with anti freeze or salt or diesel?

[chadlaroche]

I was tightening a shaft clamp,nothing motor related. The marina failed to tighten it when they put a new shaft in. I understand why as I had to drill a hole in thenfloor to gain access to put a nd tighten clamp Down.
My yanmar has anti freeze and it's green so it wasn't antifreeze coming out it was seawater. .I'm being towed to the sanibel island area of Florida by captiva. Place called York marine came up under a google search. Over the phone they summarize something head related, cracked head or block.guess I will know more when I get the bill.of course there first suggestion is new motor since seawater has been in the cylinders but I still have no water in oil. The only place I can see seawater coming in contact with engine would be the heat exchanger n thats n thats a far cry from the intake side of engine. So anyone in this area dealt with York marine ?

[atoll]

unlikely via the heat exchanger as this is a closed system.
where as via exhaust,through cylinders and out the air filter,unless the engine is a very old one and raw water (salt) passing through the a crack in the piston liner/block.
be interesting to find out what is actually happening once you have see the engineers. best of luck
atoll

[Chief Engineer]

How old is the engine?

How many Hours? (estimate)

They should pressure test the cooling system.

Stay on this board.....

How old is the exhaust elbow.

I will PM you later

[chadlaroche]

900$ tow bill for 16 miles. Glad I have Boat US ! Mechanic came on board today n looked at he's going to do an injector test on my injectors at his shop.#3 didn't have a loss of power when he cracked the fuel line while running. Did have seawater in the #2 cylinder but motor started right up n ran. He took the exhaust mixing elbow off n too his shop too. He's theorizing a bad elbow. At the back the water blasts out pauses and blasts again .he seems to think the elbow is dirty causing a pressure build up that forces water back through the head. He ll come back Monday n do a compression test. So maybe just maybe I ll get out of this with a bad mixing elbow n injector. In the mean time the tow service dropped me off marker 1 south of st James city and I'm pretty much exposed all the way around to the wind and the highest traffic of boats I've ever seen. It's gonna be a rough couple of days but I don't care if my motor is good

[chadlaroche]

so ...bad exhaust setup been has been leaking water apparently for a while back into cylinders. Compression of 150,250 and 350 on cylinders. #1 piston has some scouring .Marina says needs to be rebuilt. AT A COST OF $7,000 does sound a little high for a removal and rebuild ?? Hes pushing repower at 10k but I only paid 10k for the boat !

[Mardav]

Nationwide parts distributors in Jacksonville, FL, with whom I have no affiliation, had a complete 3 cylinder rebuilt Marine Yanmar diesel for my 9KW Kohler Generator for $4,000 delivered to Orlando (they sell on eBay under some other name too). R&R was $2,000 (had to pull up floor iin my ACMY) if that means anything.
I would get a second opinion and qet a quote on how much just to R&R the engine, then shop some prices on remans, since a local rebuild could take forever and the estimate is just that. Why $10k for a 'repower'? how much of that is the engine and how much is labor? A Major Overhaul kit from Yanmar is around $600 plus machine shop work and general labor should bring a local rebuild in closer to $2,500 plus R&R I would think, but your options may be limited down there as to qualified mechanics, I don't know. I would call Yanmar and see who is the authorized warranty shop there, they may be a good second opinion, that's how I found the guy I used; he was quite good actually.
Good Luck, hang in.

[chadlaroche]

thankyou Mardav. I thought it was high and everybody on the island says they do good work but are high. They are the local yanmar person and the owner worked for Mastry in tampa for 16 yrs. He said himself parts were 1200$ so unless theres some special labor above and beyond a normal engine rebuild I guess Im getting it for 5800 in labor. Motor was out in the first day in the yard .....

[motion30]

Is it me or is there a LOT of problems with yanmar diesels motors?

[sailstoo]

There are a lot of problems with Yanmar diesels because there are a lot of Yanmar diesels. IMHO Yanmar is one of the better mfrs. of marinized small diesel engines. They've become almost an industry standard. My 28 year old Yanmar 3GM just keeps on rollin' along dependably and inexpensively (at least so far).

[motion30]

I have considerd that fact. just seems decent service is hard to come by There was a thread last year where the owner could get no support from dealer or manufacture maybe that is all motors sad