1985 2001 with 454 - dead

Hey guys! New here, from Denver.

Got an '85 2001 barefoot edition 454.

Nice boat, great shape, new vinyl.

Last night the boat died.    454, idling good, feels good sounds great. Idle thru no wake zone, give her 3/4 throttle, and she pulled hard for 3-4 seconds, then made an awful noise, and shut down. Checked all fluids, and coolant was all of a sudden empty, oil was very full (well over full) not milky but did appear to have some non-oil bubbles in it. I poured a gallon of distilled water into the heat exchanger, and then I found green coolant leaking into the bilge. Started couldn't turn over the engine, nor could I with a breaker bar.

Got her back to the dock, and took her home. It was too late last night to do much, but today I'll get in there and start troubleshooting today.

I assume hydro locked, and possible cracked head.

I'd love some advice.

I'll post in this thread as I make progress!

Here she is!

That's my plan when I get home this afternoon.

In a worst case scenario, would a 454 from an RV work? or would that just be a giant pain in the ass, and not really workable?

shierh wrote: There is a heavily discussed big block thread in the last few months.   Engine rotation from the RV will be Left hand. Suspect you have right hand presently.    Rebuild it if it isn't cracked. (oil level being high is a concern) Oil being overfilled,   drain it out and see whats at the bottom of the pan.   Likely antifreeze and it did not have time to mix with oil yet.

Yeah I suspect it's right hand rotation. I'll check when I get home.

Thanks

I may look into ATK engines as well

Hopefully I didn't crack the block, and I can just rebuild this one... I'll know soon.

Something on the engine tag doesn't add up to me.. It doesn't have the X (indicating freshwater cooled), but it uses coolant, and has a closed loop cooling system with the heat exchanger and the seawater intake with strainer that dumps to exhaust after the heat exchanger.

Am I missing something?

Ian,
I too would like to welcome you to CCfan. Keep us posted with what you find.

Regarding the "X" missing from the engine tag, there's a possibility that the fresh water cooling was added. Kit's are available.

8122pbrainard wrote: Ian, I too would like to welcome you to CCfan. Keep us posted with what you find. Regarding the "X" missing from the engine tag, there's a possibility that the fresh water cooling was added. Kit's are available.

Interesting. I'll have to try to track that down. I'd really like to know if it was added.

Hopefully it rotates smoothly once the spark plugs come out but with that much water/coolant in the pan you had a really big leak.
The bad noise you mentioned may indicate much more damage. I have heard engines water lock and not make any bad noises, they just locked up. You could reverse them with a pry bar and they went backwards fine.
Any lock up caused by hydro lock will usually bend a connecting rod.
Sorry, I hope you find something minor.

MrMcD wrote: Hopefully it rotates smoothly once the spark plugs come out but with that much water/coolant in the pan you had a really big leak. The bad noise you mentioned may indicate much more damage. I have heard engines water lock and not make any bad noises, they just locked up. You could reverse them with a pry bar and they went backwards fine. Any lock up caused by hydro lock will usually bend a connecting rod. Sorry, I hope you find something minor.

There's more. It's bad. After I freed the hyrdrolock I tried to turn over the motor.... it turned over fine... but it made some real angry noise when it turned.

Found this delightful thing in cylinder #4



And it was #7 that was locked... and with those being on L and R banks respectively, I suspect it's all ***************ed up inside the block.

I don't visit saltwater... well not anymore, now that I'm in Colorado.

But Colorado is strict to limit ANS in clean lakes, so boats have to get decontaminated when moving between bodies of water.. and the freshwater system makes the decon process much easier for the Park Rangers to perform, and quicker for me as a consumer.

Which way does this engine turn?

Only Asking because some 454s in those boats turned left, and are a radically different animal regarding heads, cam, block, etc and would require care to keep the same performance.

The short pylon seems odd, for a barefoot special

Found this delightful thing in cylinder #4



When we pull plugs like this in the Funny Car (and often) our Crew Chief usually hollers "She's coming apart boys, tear her down"   

Duane in Indy wrote: "She's coming apart boys, tear her down"

Yep. Starting the teardown today!

Ian wrote: Just as I suspected. Motor is shot. Who's got a recommendation on a place to order a new one?

What did you find?

Ian wrote: Just as I suspected. Motor is shot. Who's got a recommendation on a place to order a new one?

Try Jim at 207-252-099 six. I believe he has a RH 454 that came from a PCM.