water in the exhaust

[patricklehane]

i currently have my powerhead disconnected from the drive shaft housing on my mercury, so that i can remove some of the calcification from the engine. I have taken the exhaust manifold cover off, but whilst cleaning, i accidently got some water down the exhaust, as i had the engine upside down. what should i do?

thanks a lot

 

[orizaba]

if its petrol,take the sparkplugs out and turn the engine over,until no water comesout,if its diesel ,bit more of a problem its either remove glowplugs if it has them or injectors,as above with care.watch out when you spin the engine cos all sorts of crap could come out,aalso if diesel watch out for copper sealing rings under the injectors

 

[patricklehane]

ok, its petrol which is good then, i have taken the spark plugs out, no more water is coming out, it is just damp in there. Excuse my ignorance (i dont know how i got this far with the engine) but will the water not have got any where near the pistons etc, and by simply removing the plugs and draning the water out will that be the end of the matter? I have pretty limited knowledge, and have only attempted this because of the ridiculous price i was quoted by a boat yard.

thanks very much for your help

 

[orizaba]

the water will have got on the pistons but by spinning the engine over before attempting to start it you should be ok.once you have spun the engine over,clean any water from around theplugholes,replace the plugs and gently run the engine, if it does not start it maybe due to some residue of water on the plugs,take them back out ,dry them or warm them up then try again.the reason you have to remove the water is because it locks the engine up when you try to start it,if for some reason you are unable to start the engine put a small amount of oilor even diesel in the plugholes turn the engine over by hand ,this should stop any corrossion problem,i assume it wasordinary water that got in there,
it might also be a wise move to change the oil filter and engine oil just in case any water got int the sump

 

[michaelh]

I'm guessing this is an outboard. If its 2 stroke then just spray some oil into the cylinders and turn the engine over by hand. If you have taken the manifold cover off the pistons should be visible through the exhaust ports. This will coat the pistons etc until you are ready to reassemble. If it's a 4 stroke you still want to get oil in there but you will need to get it in through the spark plug holes.

WD40 works well for first application but there's nothing like some nice sticky oil for keeping everything rust free.

If you can spray through the carburetter throats, then this is also good since it coats the needle bearings on the big ends.