Hydrolock? ? ?

Can someone please explain this to me!

I took my boat out for the first time last weekend and i was running fine. It started up no problems after a long winter in storage. I left off the throttle and was just sitting in the lake letting it idle and messing around with my stereo. I was then making my way back to the landing and i throttleed up and i heard a knocking, that is the only way i know how to explain it. So i let off the throttle and checked everything out that i knew of. I didnt seen anything wrong so i started out again and i heard the same noise. I checked all the guages and everything was good, oil pressure, battery and temp. So i had no idea what was up. I got back to the trailer and took it in to the dealer to lok at it.

I just heard back from them after they looked at it and they said i had a bad headgasket and as well the engine might be hydrolocked due to the knocking they think it may be a rod or something.

Im very new to all of this, So if someone has any insight as to what i may be looking at to fix this or even if my insurance may help cover that would be great.

Thanks

Matt

I should also add that this is happening to me at the worst time. Im getting married in three weeks and im also trying to sell this boat. I guess im just running into a string of bad luck. I hope this doesnt end up costing me an arm and a leg.

Thanks for your help!

If you get water in the cylinder and the piston moves up it tries to compress the water, which it isn't designed to do, the pressure builds to an extremely high amount and something has to let go, your head is bolted on and tight so that won't go anywhere, so the next option is your rod breaking which can make a loud knocking sound.

thats what i was hearing was a loud knocking noise. coming from like the bottom of the engine area. So is this going to cost me alot?

Thanks for your response

Liquid does not compress, thus something has to give. It can stop the engine from rotating, bend or break a rod, break a piston.

Sorry to hear, it's a bummer.

Yeah it may not be a cheap fix, if you can get a buddy who knows whats up to help or DIY you'll save alot but you're pretty much looking at a full rebuild i think, you gotta pull the motor to drop the pan and see what got damaged in there...that sucks its a newer boat too, I wonder why the head gasket would let go, did it freeze in there and maybe the ice busted out a piece of gasket?? maybe froze and cracked the head??

just got word from the mechanic and it needs a full rebuild. there goes a good chunk of change. But i gotta fix it cus im selling it. If i only knew how to work on engines! ! !

I guess i might have bought the boat with a bad headgasket and they also said that the engine looks like it has overheated before. I never noticed anything out of the norm while i was using it last year. So im at a loss here.

Thanks for all your input.

how may hrs are on the eng.?

307 hours. I bought the boat last june and put 30 hours on it. Then took it to the dealer to have them winterize it. Took it out this spring and boom!

dude, that blows. It didn't overheat while you were out?

I would check your impeller and everything the dealer are supposed to do. Hoses all hooked up, etc. Kinda funny that it just does this first time out after running fine last year.

if it's as bad as it sounds, you are looking at pulling the engine and flipping it over. if you have one bad rod and everything else is fine, it won't be too bad. But the labor on teardown and rebuild is where it will kill you. you could be spend thousands in labor alone on this EASY.

FWIW I just rebuilt the top end of my mine and it wasn't that bad. The bottom end is obviously more work, but can be done by regular old people. Start thinking of who you know that has some engine experience. "boat mechanic" is french for your about to get F'd. And I wouldn't trust my dealer at this point. The boat was running when you took it to them.

I wouldn't trust that dealer either. Here are the facts as you've told them.
1. The boat ran great.
2. The dealer 'winterized' it.
3. You take the boat out and it's F'ed as soon as you throttle up.
4. Same dealer tells you you need a new engine and now notices that it looks as though it was overheated while not noticing it in the past.

A bad head gasket will not cause hydro lock while at idle. It may bleed some water into the cylinder but that water will get pumped through or boiled off. Since boats typically don't have pressurized cooling systems they can can run with small water leaks for much longer than a car.

A few questions.

Did the boat show any signs of overheating or ingesting water(milky oil) before it was 'winterized'?

Did the dealer fill the engine with an antifreeze mixture after their winterization?

Is there any other evidence of overheating like paint peeled off exhaust manifolds.

This sounds very fishy to me and that dealer could be just covering his butt. I would get a second opinion and then find an independent, and non marine, dealer to do the rebuild.

300 hours is about the same in a boat as 18,000 mile in a car. NO WAY should a head gasket fail on it's own or simply from overheating. It would have been very obvious to you that the engine was getting extremely hot unless you don't pay attention at all. I'm not suggesting that the dealer really didn't 'winterize' your boat and that the, what must have been a large, water leak was caused by a crack in the block or head just that I wouldn't trust that dealer.

Good Luck

Listen to John. I agree with him.

I guess im just up a crick here. I dont exactly have a lot of time because im just trying to get rid of this boat. I have a buyer and now im just trying to get it fixed and sold.

I will not be buying from this dealer again. They have lost all my trust. I bought the boat sight unseen because i trusted the sales guy and my dad had bought many boats from them in the past. But now that this happend im thinking i might have gotten a bad boat or something. The dealer where i am having it worked on is the dealer who did the winterization. This is my first inboard and im a newbie so im not sure how everything works i just drive the boat and take it to the dealer if anything is wrong. I guess i take the easy way out.

When the mechanic told me what was up i was pretty mad cus i used the boat for a total of 30 hours last summer and now i have to put x amount of money into it just to get it sold after not even using it this summer for a mere 30 minutes. Time is not on my side either becuase im gettingmarried in two weeks and was planning on having this all taken care of before that so tha is why i took it in right away and told them to get working on it. If i would have had mroe time i would have def taken the boat to another place to have it checked out.

Im at witts end though cus i just want to get out of this boat and fast.

Thanks for everyones advice.

John i wish i would have had more time to check this out and i would haev taken what you said and did some investigating.

thanks

You are pretty much hosed now because the dealer has the motor apart and has zero incentive to 'notice' freeze damage. This is a pretty valuable lesson though about learning how to do basic maintenance yourself. I would suggest finding a used engine instead of having your rebuilt if it's not too late. That's what your boat has now and I would not trust the same mechanic to do the rebuild.

i would go load whatever they took off in the bed of a truck and get out of dodge. pay the labor and start over elsewhere.

I would also go to the dealer and maybe bring your dad as he has an established relationship there and ask them to allow an independent inspection of the block and heads. Tell them you believe their diagnosis may not be correct and you want to inspect for freeze damage which they would be responsible for seeing that they did the work. Freeze damage would likely be very easy to spot. If the mechanic claims that you need a new head or block you'll have a very good argument that they are responsible. Just showing up and showing that you are not just going to bend over for them may get them to offer you a discount that you won't get any other way.

better yet, take a copy of this thread with you over to the dealer to let them know that there are (other) potential clients in MN that will be doing their homework and you would hate to have them find this in the archives of WW..