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Hello,
I had a breakdown on the lake the other day (cracked head ...but not due to heat) anyway when I shut down the engine I could smell gear oil when I opened the engine hatch. I checked the reservoir and it went from full down to the add mark. I thought I had a leak but nothing can be found in the engine compartment. The hose from reservoir to the transom is intact and there were no signs of oil in the water behind the boat. When I got it home I noticed a slight white glazing here and there around the cap on the upper drive.
I pulled the drive to check the impeller (which I had replaced about 4 months ago and the boat has ran fine since) and drained the gear oil first. Oil looked nice and clean ...no water in it.
When I separated the upper and lower unit about a half a cup of oil seaped out the side. (I can't ever remember this happening when I changed the impeller before and I change it every year) I turned the upper gearcase upside down to look and it looks like it was leaking down from where the splines connect together.
I can tell there is a seal right where the lower shaft enters the upper shaft and it sets in a groove right there and it shouldn't be hard to replace, but I can't seem to be able to find the MC number for that seal anywhere.
It doesn't look or appear to be damaged (I bought my SE116 in 2006) and I am wondering if that is the seal that is leaking or is there another seal further up that I need to replace.
Also what is this whiteish coloring on top of the cap? Is this thing overheating?
When I run it on the muffs the water would pump fine in and out of the boat and the boat would hold 165 degrees rock solid. And it has ran fine for the last 4 months so I feel sure the impeller was doing its job of getting water to the engine.
When it quit on me in the lake the temp was 165 then it would drop down to about 120 for a while then back up to 165 for a while then back down and back up but it never went above 165. It continued to swing up & down like this and finally lost power and died.
I thought I had blown a head gasket but after pulling the heads (4 yr old remanufactured heads) I found that they had 3 cracks ... all the cracks were where the head shop had welded previous owner cracks in the exhaust valve facing. So that, to me explained the loss in pressure (which caused the temp gauge to drop out) and why, after the engine decided it couldn't run with 3 cylinders leaking in water it died.
But I wanted to be sure after smelling the gear oil and noticing a drop in the gear oil reservoir that nothing was wrong with the impeller or drive.
Could something like that have caused the drive to overheat? I would think as long as the impeller is functioning it would also cool the drive properly.
In your opinion should I just replace the seals at the splines and try it or if I pressure test the upper gearcase would the only 2 holes I need to block off be the one between the upper and lower gearcase (the one sealed with the quad ring) and the hole from the reservoir? If those 2 are blocked off and I pressurize it from the fill/vent plug it should then hold pressure ... is this correct?
Thanks for any and all advice ... sorry to be long winded but I wanted you to have some background on this.
Kirk
I had a breakdown on the lake the other day (cracked head ...but not due to heat) anyway when I shut down the engine I could smell gear oil when I opened the engine hatch. I checked the reservoir and it went from full down to the add mark. I thought I had a leak but nothing can be found in the engine compartment. The hose from reservoir to the transom is intact and there were no signs of oil in the water behind the boat. When I got it home I noticed a slight white glazing here and there around the cap on the upper drive.
I pulled the drive to check the impeller (which I had replaced about 4 months ago and the boat has ran fine since) and drained the gear oil first. Oil looked nice and clean ...no water in it.
When I separated the upper and lower unit about a half a cup of oil seaped out the side. (I can't ever remember this happening when I changed the impeller before and I change it every year) I turned the upper gearcase upside down to look and it looks like it was leaking down from where the splines connect together.
I can tell there is a seal right where the lower shaft enters the upper shaft and it sets in a groove right there and it shouldn't be hard to replace, but I can't seem to be able to find the MC number for that seal anywhere.
It doesn't look or appear to be damaged (I bought my SE116 in 2006) and I am wondering if that is the seal that is leaking or is there another seal further up that I need to replace.
Also what is this whiteish coloring on top of the cap? Is this thing overheating?
When I run it on the muffs the water would pump fine in and out of the boat and the boat would hold 165 degrees rock solid. And it has ran fine for the last 4 months so I feel sure the impeller was doing its job of getting water to the engine.
When it quit on me in the lake the temp was 165 then it would drop down to about 120 for a while then back up to 165 for a while then back down and back up but it never went above 165. It continued to swing up & down like this and finally lost power and died.
I thought I had blown a head gasket but after pulling the heads (4 yr old remanufactured heads) I found that they had 3 cracks ... all the cracks were where the head shop had welded previous owner cracks in the exhaust valve facing. So that, to me explained the loss in pressure (which caused the temp gauge to drop out) and why, after the engine decided it couldn't run with 3 cylinders leaking in water it died.
But I wanted to be sure after smelling the gear oil and noticing a drop in the gear oil reservoir that nothing was wrong with the impeller or drive.
Could something like that have caused the drive to overheat? I would think as long as the impeller is functioning it would also cool the drive properly.
In your opinion should I just replace the seals at the splines and try it or if I pressure test the upper gearcase would the only 2 holes I need to block off be the one between the upper and lower gearcase (the one sealed with the quad ring) and the hole from the reservoir? If those 2 are blocked off and I pressurize it from the fill/vent plug it should then hold pressure ... is this correct?
Thanks for any and all advice ... sorry to be long winded but I wanted you to have some background on this.
Kirk
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