Engine swimming in oil.

peterbird

peterbird

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I have a sealine s24 with Volvo diesel ad31-P engine. Through the winter months I have occasionally started it up but not gone anywhere. I have been down today and decided to check the engine bay. The engine is sitting in 2 to 3 litres of brown black thickish oil, similar to that slushing around in the engine.
I have checked the engine oil and pressure both are fine. Trim appears to work fine. There is no obvious signs of split pipes or oil spraying anywhere.
Any one have any suggestions on what it might be or where to look?

Peter
 
If it has leaked that much oil while simply standing idle it can only, as far as I can see have leaked directly from the sump.

Clean up and inspect all around the sump for signs of leaking. There is i believe a plug in the very bottom of the sump... I'd ceratinly be looking at that.

There is no provision to fits a oil drain pump is there? I think the normal method of draining is with a oil scavenger pump via the dip stick hole. Other wise look at that too

If however it has leaked while you have been running it occasionally during the winter .... a very bad practice BTW... you will have to run it after cleaning it all thoroughly and watch very closely.

For the sake of the engine in future change the engine oil and filter at the end of the season, run it long enough circulate the new oil and reach full working temperature. then shut it down, Perhaps drain the seawater side of the cooling system as described in the owners manual and then do not run it again until preparing to recommission the following year.
 
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is it all oil?

I take it that you have dipped the engine to ascertain any oil loss? just a small amount of oil on top of water that is laying will look like the exon valdiz. Before you start taking the engine apart try my suggestion.
 
Thank you for your replies.
Climate change has not affected the Algarve yet! One of the bonuses of living here.
At first I thought it was water ( we have had a lot of rain recently)but when I put my fingers in to it I realised it was pure oil and not diluted.
The next thing I did was to check the dipstick, which registered oil on the maximum. Therefore my assumption is the oil has not come from the engine. BUT it does look like engine oil.
Incidentally I start the motor so that I can drop it in and out of gear to keep the prop free. I had an incident some years ago when the prop jammed because of so much **** growing around it.

Peter
 
If it is oil and hasn't exited the engine, it must have come from somewhere. Not familiar with the S24 'bits', but could it have entered the boat from the drive? Leaky bottle of engine oil stored in the engine bay? (Running out of ideas here...)
 
On the AD31, if it's not engine oil then it can only be from the trim or PAS pump. The PAS pump can be used with engine oil if memory serves (which it may not :eek:), so maybe this is your bilge oil. The alternative in the PAS is ATF, which is red when new, mebbe brown when old?
 
Last month I had a Diesel lift pump fail (the lift pump NOT the injector pump)

This caused Diesel to run down the outside of the engine and into the Bilge. I did not notice it for ages, and its a pain to get rid of.

I am fairly sure the AD31 has the same type of pump as my kad42's

Put your hand down the side of the engine and see it the pump is wet with Diesel
 
Problem diagnosed, eventually

As Omega2 suggested oil on top of water can give you totally wrong impression, a good 95% is in fact water, the rest I suspect is from a sloppy mechanic. I cleaned it all out about 3 weeks ago, took it for a blast and no problems.
Arrived this week and engine bay is full of water. First mistake, we forgot to turn the batteries off. When we got on board I could hear the water pump going, so I checked the inspection hatch but no problem so I took the floor panel out. The shower sump motor was completely covered in water closer inspection revealed the contacts were corroded and the pump was not working. I found the shower head was leaking and running into the shower, because the pump was not working it was overflowing from the pump box and sloshing about finding it's way into the engine compartment.
So shower head replaced and connections to pump fixed and all is well.
Thanks for all your suggestions.
 
Just diagnosed a similar problem - we went out for a short trip on Saturday and lost around 3litres of oil. I couldn't see the leak without a lot of examination, but it seems to be coming from one of the oil pressure senders.

At the same time, I noticed both sea water pumps are leaking. It never rains, but it pours..... :o(

Cheers,
Paul

PS - where was everyone this weekend? Warm, sunny, flat calm, and there was no queue going out of Port Solent, and very few boats at all....
 
dragoon said:
Just diagnosed a similar problem - we went out for a short trip on Saturday and lost around 3litres of oil. I couldn't see the leak without a lot of examination, but it seems to be coming from one of the oil pressure senders.

At the same time, I noticed both sea water pumps are leaking. It never rains, but it pours..... :o(

Cheers,
Paul

PS - where was everyone this weekend? Warm, sunny, flat calm, and there was no queue going out of Port Solent, and very few boats at all....
Click to expand...

I think the current diesel prices are putting people off going out untill the weather gets a lot warmer, im looking at £5.00 per mile now on the plane..... OUCH!
 
volvopaul said:
I think the current diesel prices are putting people off going out untill the weather gets a lot warmer, im looking at £5.00 per mile now on the plane..... OUCH!
Click to expand...

I wondered if that may be the case. I've slowed down a lot, and typically only run at displacement speeds. That said, with the amount of lube oil the boat used at the weekend, it didn't really matter how fast I was going, I was spending money at an unnecessary rate : - )

Incidentally, I took the T-piece off today that houses both oil pressure senders/switches. It looks like it was leaking (badly) on the thread where it mounts to the block. I'll reseal and refit. Any tips on what to use for refitting? PTFE, one of the Loctite products, or anything else?

Cheers,
Paul
 
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