The case of the intermittent water cooling system

[brownoarsman]

It is a curious arrangement. I called the company and they were pretty helpful despite this being their busiest day of the year. He suggested that the flange was probably corroded to the coupling and that this would be the best thing to focus on, and confirmed that nothing else should be in the way now that those bolts are out. I think disengaging any part of the coupling from the shaft or other part of the coupling would necessitate a new one. So, lots of pb blaster eye dropping - a task I know well from marathon!


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[brownoarsman]

Thanks for all the help throughout this process, everyone. A couple of weeks ago, after months of applying penetrating oil, the prop shaft slid free. Yesterday, I painted the bottom and had some extra time to lift the engine out!

The water jackets in the manifold are visibly split - though I think this might have been the result of trying to free the epoxied-in manifold bolts with a blowtorch, as I inspected the business end of the manifold pretty closely with bright lights back in April as I cut gaskets to fit it and applied RTV to it, and it was fine then. The corrosion between the head and the block is strong enough to hold the engine entirely suspended without any supporting bolts (I put the remaining bolts in with a half-inch gap as insurance in case the head and block did separate).

To get her out, I levered the front up with a chain hoist and a chain between the two front mounts, slid some two by fours under, and then it was an easy job of hauling her forward (while keeping the rear mounts on the tracks) until I could pull her out all the way with the hoist. The wood beam I had the hoist connected to slid easily along the companionway top, so I could easily reposition the engine on to the railroad ties I had set out.

Next - lifting the engine into my truck with the main halyard, fixing the shaft in place, and splashing! Thanks again for all the help - and happy to have gotten closer to solving the mystery!

[brownoarsman]

After several months of dripping PB blaster around the head/block seam and down the bolt holes of rusted in bolts, I finally gave up and took a series of shims and a pry bar to get the head, more out of curiosity than any hope the engine could be resurrected. Now that I'm in, it doesn't look too bad though except for the occluded cooling ports that you'll see above and below the bores and around the remaining studs. So, can an old universal 5411 with
-a totally split wet exhaust manifold
-occluded cooling ports in the block and head
-what looks like rust between the piston bores due to a leaky gasket (perhaps)

Be saved? Or should I just stick to the outboard...



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