Know of an engine rebuilder in the Seattle area?

Its been awhile since I've been on WakeWorld since my boating season ended so abruptly last summer, but I'm hoping that you guys can help me out.

Here's the scoop-

I have a 2004 Supra Launch 21 with only 95 hours on the Indmar motor. I bought the boat last spring with only 70 hours on the motor. In August the motor began running very rough and I took the boat into Bakes Marine in Issaquah to have the issue diagnosed. They ran a compression test and discovered that two cylinders on opposite banks from one another were only firing at roughly 5 pounds of pressure vs. the 175 pounds of pressure they should be running at. (These were cylinders 3 & 4.) They ruled out blown head gaskets since there was some pressure and said that the issue was probably a flatten camshaft and may require a rebuild, but they would not know for sure until the motor was pulled. (That is an 8 hour job and not worthwhile if they’re not doing the rebuild.) They also added that the oil looked free of water and that it wasn’t a cracked engine block.

Bakes Marine does not do rebuilds and they recommended that I have the boat winterized and gather estimates from other shops and mechanics during the slower winter season to have it fixed then. -So here I am gathering estimates in what I hope is the slow season aside from the Seattle Boat Show.

What do you guys think of the symptoms? Is a rebuild required? What am I looking at in terms of cost? Do you have any shops or mechanics that you recommend? The boat is in storage, but can be taken out anytime and worked on. I just don’t want the interior to be ruined by this major job.

How much is the dealer asking for to fix the problem.

The reason I ask is getting a NEW motor is around 5k
plus install. Its not that big of a deal to take the old one out and throw in a new one.

Just hope that the Fix is cheep and deal with what ever happens to your interior later no big deal.

IMO its better to get a new motor and just be done with the problem like what your talking about.

Im guessing you sucked or burnt a valve mabey, thats a $3500 dollar job and if a new motor is 5k then it would seem like a new motor is in your future. Just hope its not that, sorry for the bad new's

Question. Did you just happen to replace your spark plug's/tune up your motor just before it started running bad? I was thinking mabey you put the wrong spark plugs in the boat in it burnt a valve and thats why you have little to no compression?

Bakes rebuilt my brother's MC 190 engine.... a Ford 351, like 10 yrs ago. I think the mechanic from back then, Spencer, has since moved on. They did a great job though, that boat ran the Catalina ski race in 2004 - 2006.

Get in touch with Scott at Morgan Motors & Marine in Issaquah. Their over by GI Joes & great engine builders.

Interesting diagnosis on the camshaft. also interesting that these cylinders are on the inside and opposite each other.

more opinions. flatten camshaft should still mean you have SOME compression from no valves opening at all. unless they got hot and stuck somewhere along the way...

So, new camshaft and valve job should be nowhere near new engine costs.

Winston, go talk to Doug Ebi at Eastside Services. He is an awesome mechanic. He works on everything from custom hotrods to boats to heavy-duty industrial rigs. He is right behind the new Seattle MasterCraft building.

http://eastsideservices.com/

Not that it matters but the chevy on the homepage is my dad's friends old car.

Grant - I've considered getting a new motor, but I'm really hoping that I can have the issue fixed for less than those costs and be confident in the work that is done.

The Bakes shop checked and replaced the spark plugs to be sure, but that didn't help. They said without pulling the motor that it was probably caused by overheating or bad or low oil at some point in its life... I babied that boat for the 25 hours that I owned it for. Who knows.

Keep the advice coming!

Winston could they have tuned up the motor before all your problems started and replace the plugs with diffrent plug's like a hotter range than the stock range? This is how my friend fryed his motor

Lose of compression will be caused by a couple of things. Your engine has, in a sense, 0 compression on 2 cylinders. Worn cam lobes would cause lower then normal compression and engine mis, but unlikely 0 comp. You are looking at stuck valves (bent valve stem or binding guides), dropped valve seats, broke valve spring, or holes in pistons (from pre-ignition caused by lean fuel mixture) or from a dropped valve.

The tech could have narrowed it down to the block or valve train by doing a simple cylinder leak down test while he had the plugs out. This can be diagnosed with out engine removal. At most, remove the valve covers.

We take both our x-star and Donzi x-18 to the kenmore marina for winter, the Donzi goes there for any work and they do an amazing job and we will mostly bring the x-star to the MC dealer in issaquah. A pace that is a little far down in kent is called Blood Enterprises, we had our 69 chevy redone there, and they did an amazing job, check their website, I'm pretty sure that they will do any kind of motor I'm not 100% sure though. Our Chevy is the blue station wagon on the home page in the line up if you look.

95 hours is not much for an engine at all. To bad you dont live in Az I am a mechanic and we could probably fix it farly cheap as long as the cylinders are not screwed up.

However if you have someone get the two cyls in question at top dead center and then apply low pressure compressed air in the spark plug holes you should be able to listen for air passing somewhere. if you pull the oil dipstick or fill cap and feel air coming out then you have piston or ring problems and that could be very expensive

If you have air coming out of the exhaust pipe or the intake (remove filter to better listen for air leaking) then it is valves which will not require the engine being pulled. Remove the valley cover and then the valve train (rocker ams,and rods) then you can remove the heads. From this point you can inspect both the valves and the pistons. If the pistons dont have anything stuck in them, holes or if the cyl walls dont have scratches or gouges then your lower engine is fine. put a little bit of oil in the cyls and turn the engine over by hand not with the starter the oil should be pushed up and out the top if it runs straight through to the pan no good that is bad news.

next check your valves Lay the heads with valves facing up. Fill with oil if it drains through bad valves (valve jobs are cheap hope that is what it is)

Anyway you may not have to pull engine. Also most vinal can easily be removed so that you wont mess it up.