Engine trouble on a 330 Mariner

[mwest74]

Hello all,

I'm a recently new owner of a 95 330 Mariner. Let me apologize in advance for the long post, I have a lot of info I need to put out there.
My story begins like this: Purchased said boat in Tom's River New Jersey from a small dealer/broker. I think it was in his marina for about 2 years. We went up looked at the boat, had it surveyed and hauled, and decided it was a "good risk" and purchased it. It is our third boat.
After some work we(my wife and I) decided we needed to get her out of her current situation at the marina in New Jersey and move her to our home marina in Chesapeake City, MD about a 10 to 12 hour run. Our journey began a couple of few weeks ago. The boat which we named Off$hore Investment was running great, aside from a nuisance low oil pressure alarm on the port engine which the surveyor deemed to be unreliable/intermittent, and I subsequently disconnected while underway. We(me and two friends from work, who are all licensed A&P helicopter mechanics) made it all the way to Long Beach Island/ Beach Haven, NJ when we noticed fluctuating RPM's on the port engine. We noticed a water leak from the exhaust on the port engine. It was spraying all over the engine compartment. I shut the port engine down, wrapped it with some Flex-tape(its amazing stuff, you should carry a roll for emergency repairs). When I attempted to restart the port engine, it would crank twice, and then click, click, click... At that point we got a little closer to the shore than I wanted and subsequently ran aground, stalling the starboard engine.
After some four letter words, we attempted to restart the starboard engine and discovered that all 12 VDC power on board was dead. I was able to get the genny started and after grounding on two more sandbars were towed into Beach Haven. After we tied up and connected shore power for about 5 minutes the starboard engine fired up no problem. The port engine never did start again, exhibiting the same symptoms dockside as it did underway.
I have my theories as to what happened(bad alternator on stbd. engine, bad connection on the pos. battery cable on #2 battery). The mechanic at the yard keeps telling me he needs a little more time " to work things out" on the port engine. I'm just afraid the port engine ingested water from the leaking exhaust and washed out the cylinder(s). I'm willing to take all suggestions as long as they're free.
Engines are 350 Crusaders with around 300 +- 20 hours

[tomschauer]

Welcome to the forum.
The port engine issue does not sound good. I hope the surveyor was not on the payroll of the broker dismissing a low oil pressure alarm as a nuisance. That should have been a big red flag.
If these are raw water cooled engines that spent their life in salt water, yes you may have ingested water. If so, the starboard won't be far behind. Replace the manifolds asap.

Best wishes!

[Viper]

I agree with Tom. You simply can't dismiss an alarm without doing some diagnosis first. There are a lot of possible failures here but water ingestion from bad manifolds is pretty typical in salt water applications after 5 years. Hope that is the failure and not something related to oil pressure.

I wouldn't allow them too much time "to work things out." If she ingested salt water, you want that out of your engine ASAP.

Keep us posted.

[bud37]

When the surveyor deemed the oil pressure alarm " unreliable/intermittent", was that based on an opinion or had they had a mechanical gage on there?.I think if you lost the engine based on the oil pressure there would or should have been quite some noise involved to say the least.If you do get it running again then that mechanical gage to check/verify would be the first thing to do IMO along with the proper checks for water intrusion. Good luck going forward.

[mwest74]

So, let me clarify, The engines are FWC Crusader 350's. The alarm on the engine wasn't working during the survey or sea trial. Oil pressure never fluctuated on the gauge and the temperature never went up( checked with an infrared thermometer and the gauge). It remained at normal operating temperature the entire time and continued to run fine for another 3 hours and was idling fine before shut down. The alarm came on about 2 hours into the journey after going through Barnegat inlet. There were no other signs of anything peculiar or strange noises just the fluctuating RPM's. Like I mentioned there were three experienced mechanics on board, one being a licensed Captain. So the alarm wasn't dismissed haphazhardly. A satisfactory compression check was done was done on both engines.
I've emailed the marina back this morning asking for an update on the winterization status as well as where they are on the port engine. I have also began thinking a rebuild or replacement on the port engine.

[bud37]

Good stuff,yup you had enough experience there to id a catastrophic failure......... quite honestly after reading your update there, you may just have stirred up crap in the fuel tank and all you have hopefully is a clogged anti-syphon valve .

[Viper]

Ya could be anything, more diagnosis required.

[Viper]

Any update on the port engine?

[mwest74]

So, as it turns out, it wasn't the engine at all. The transmission apparently developed a leak. All the fluid drained out the raw water side of the oil cooler. The fluctuating RPM's were caused by the transmission about to seize up. To top it off, I think the alternator gave up the ghost at some point during the "voyage". That's why I wasn't able to get the stbd. engine restarted until after the generator was running for a while. Anyway, worst case scenario, I'm looking at $10-12k for a new transmission and oil cooler.

[bud37]

Quite the story and turn of events, that is some bad luck right there.....good luck to you going forward.