Hydro-lock!!

Well, I picked up the '76 tique and brought her home yesterday. Today was the maiden voyage. I ran the boat for a solid hour or so and stopped for a swim. When trying to restart, she was hesitant to start buy showed no sign of water ingestion. I ran the boat for another 30 minutes and stopped again, sat for a few minutes and tried to restart....LOCKED. Got a tow in and pulled a couple of plugs and water came shooting out. Where should I begin? I pulled the plugs and she'll pump the water out...then what?

I'm thinking the only way for BOTH sides to fill is through the intake manifold? The pan doesn't have any water in it

Does sound like the water is entering from the exhaust. An intake problem to fill her up that fast with water would mean she isnt gonna run very well. Might have cracks in the risers or manifolds.

If I read things right you are pretty young. Do with the boat as you want. If you love the boat you bought you can just make the repairs and lick your wounds.

BUT, the previous owner had a moral AND a possible legal obligation to advise you of the problems with the boat, even if he sold it to you "as is". Witholding pertenant information regarding the condition of the boat is the same thing as misrepresentation. (I equate it to theft and fraud.)

If you are up to a legal fight, I think it is reasonable for you to contact the previous owner and offer him two options: 1) Refund your money plus out-of-pocket expenses you have incurred and take back the boat, or; 2) Pay to have the boat repaired. Get your agreed solution in writing. If he agrees to pay for repairs, get an estimate covering all needed work, send him the estimate, and ask for a check and get it, before you give the repair shop the "go ahead".)

If he does not agree to either coice you have a decision to make.

(As a matter of practicality, if he offers you a refund less your expenses you may want to accept.)

In my mind, even if he did not know of the problems he still has a moral obligation to make things right.

What happened is not your fault. Don't take that attitude. The owner should have told you of the known problems.

The fact that you are young and inexperienced makes what he did even worse. Legally, I think your inexperience puts you in even a better position. (I am no lawyer but I have been around the block.)

I think you are looking at some hefty repair bills and I don't see how the previous owner could not have known of the water leak problem (there is a chance I am wrong about this but I doubt it.)

I apologize to all on the forum for my rant. I just don't want to see an unsuspecting kid get S_____d.

If you decide to sell it and walk away, don't do to someone what this guy did to you.

This is one area most people overlook when buying a used inboard. And running one, then switching it off, then restarting after a few minutes will tell if you're trying to compress water. That would be a good test before actually pulling each spark plug out.

If its the intake, you'll spend less money. When you pull it off, you should see clean streaks or rust on the inside, signs of water.

check exhaust manifolds and risers first. if water is in the cylinders it more than likely came from the exhaust

You could pull your exhaust manifolds and pressure-test them just to be sure. It would be easier than changing an intake.

Mine will run all day on the hose without filling the cylinders...I'd like to hear the outcome

You do have the rubber exhaust flappers on the back of your boat right? With the flappers still intact. They stop water surges (waves) from entering the exhaust

I might be wrong, but I think you need those flappers installed. Without, water can wash up and over the riser into your exhaust manifold, and then flow into your engine cylinder if one of the valves (intake or exhaust) are open. Then when you try to start hydro-lock! I bet that is your problem, I've never seen a ski boat (inboard) without those flappers!!!

I've ran mine with a missing flapper with no problem. Yes water can back up if you have only exhaust hose and no riser on the manifold but if you have mufflers and/or risers I doubt it happened that way, the baffles in the muffler and the risers would prevent this from happening and you would have to spend a lot of time going in reverse to make it happen.

And yes if the timing is off enough or the timing chain has jumped, then the exhaust valve can be open and suck water back into the cylinder on the down stroke of the cylinder.

If a valve is open so bad that water could be sucked in, then the opposite valve would get hit by the piston. Also, the riser on most boats is higher than the water outside the boat. Maybe if the rear of the boat is facing the lake in a boat house and strong waves pound the back, water could/might enter without exhaust flaps. All of the early CC boats came without flaps. If you have a stock Ford intake, water goes from the heads to the intake at #1,4,5,and 8.

After looking at the distributor, the previous owner looks like he had a hell of a time with the timing. There are several marks on each cap...some are scratched out and relabled with marker. Seems like he pulled the distributor and mixed up the firing order. He confirmed this but I haven't gotten him to say WHEN he did this...has the boat been run for years without problems or is this the first time since relabling the firing order. I'd really like to get this stuff figured out before I start taking things apart

Yater,
Sorry to hear about your boat problems,might I suggest-
before you pull the engine down (Its harder to diagnose
a problem if the motor isnt running)
Blow the cylinders out with compressed air,crank the
motor by hand,if it turns ok try starting it, if it wants
to run, fire it up for 5-10 seconds or so with the raw water
pump disconected and no water running thru the motor.

Im suggesting this so as to get the moisture out of the
engine and clear the valves of water- also to confirm you
havnt bent a rod or two. Pontless doing a top end teardown
only to find you have a bent rod after you reassemble and
spend all that time and money.Also if you end up taking a
couple of weeks to sort this out the moistue trapped internally
will have totalled the motor by the time you get it running again.
If the engine runs dump the oil and throw in some fresh oil,
hook up the hose and run the motor for a half hour or so,
asses the problem from there.


Best of luck