Yanmar sail drive coughing - any ideas?

[[2574]]

Engine was running okay, then stopped. We bled fuel system, seems clean, no dirt in filter. Tried to start, ran for three minutes, then very white exhaust emmission, then stopped. Left it for a while and started with white smoke.

Are these obvious symptoms of anything? (Impending death maybe?!)

TIA

Rob

 

[ShipsWoofy]

Lots of white smoke 'steam' can mean water in the fuel or water getting into the combustion chambers.

Go for the water in fuel, do you have a remote tank you can jury rig to test the engine with fresh fuel.

The other, cross fingers and hope not, could be knackered head gasket or worse.

I could of course be way off the mark so I await other responces.....

 

[capricorn]

As Wooft says, white smoke is generally steam. Cylinder head gasket perhaps or worse (and hopefully less likely) a cracked head.

Have you seen this site www.yanmarhelp.com, FAQ ,very good for common engine problems. The forum is generally excellent but currently unavailable. Site is run by a guy called Dave who's is marine engineer for a Yanamr agent (Marine Power on the South Coast) I believe. He will respond to emails and is very knowledgable and helpful.

 

[snowleopard]

white smoke, as the others have said, is water. apart from the possible causes mentioned so far is the possibility that it is steam from the cooling water, i.e. too little coolant being delivered and therefore boiling. when starting up, check for adequate water flow and if i't less than usual, look at your water pump.

 

[LORDNELSON]

Check that you have full cooling water circulation, look at sail drive water inlet and outlet holes, see if sail drive is suffering from electrolytic attack which is inter alia stopping/reducing cooling water flow

 

[ParaHandy]

the far better yanmar help forum is in the usa here

do a search on "yanmar white smoke"