Water in engine - where did it come from???

[timbercreek]

We have a Century with a Merc 140 - Checked the oil the other day and noticed a milky color to it so we changed the oil and filter, ran at idle for about 2-3 minutes to warm it up and changed it again. Ran again for a few minutes and noticed no water on the dip stick - all of this out of the water.
Then I put a set of ears on the outdrive and turned on the hose, ran the engine for about 3-4 minutes and notice very milky oil coming out of the valve cover breather - it was disconected from the carb at the time. No external cracks in the block or exhaust manifold can be seen, compression seems to be good, will check asap.

So the question is where might the water be coming from any help would be great.
Oil has been drained again and ATF/oil has been added

Thanks - David

[Preformer 40]

Head gasket or manifold leaking,whens the last time you changed the manifold?

[Dave 65]

It certainly sounds like a head gasket. Most of the time you wont get the water in the oil from a intake gasket.

[timbercreek]

Has the original manifold as far as I know - 2nd owner. We will pull the head and take a look.

[Frosty]

As oil pressure is higher than water pressure it would be more likely to be the other way round. I am not familiar with the engine, does it have wet liners? oil cooler perhaps.!!

[timbercreek]

Well I removed the exhaust/intake manifold today and it and the gasket "looked" fine, though there was an area of rust below the manifold on the outside of the block as well as around one of the freeze plugs. The only rust was in the water jacket of the manifold, none was in the exhaust or the intake area.
Next I removed the head and there was water in most of the threads of the head bolts are. The #3 &4 pistons had a bit of water in them. The freeze plugs where still in the head, no visible rust. The head gasket had a section missing between the #2 and 3 cylinders, but i didn't notice any place that was missing to alow the water into the pistons. the was milky oil in the lower area of push rods near the cam.
Could it be just the head gasket after all ??

Thanks,
David

[Titanic]

I had the same problem on my 4 cyl. 140 H.P. My head gasket failed also between the 2 an 3 cylinder. Upon close examination the head had actually became slightly hollowed out (junk) and even worse I then detected a slight crack between the cylinders. The depth of the crack was about 1/16th of an inch.
I have found no way to repair this. Does anybody know of a fix for this. In your case though, hopefully you blew the head gasket and everything is alright. Although I would probably have the head resurfaced and the valves ground as long as you have the head off.

[Frosty]

Skim the head and rebuild it. You just might get away with it. It will cost you nothing but the skim and a gasket.

[Dave 65]

If you have a crack in the cylinder a good engine shop can test it and fix it. I craked a 454 and split the valley. cost me three hundred and its good as new.

[StianM]

Originally Posted by Titanic

I had the same problem on my 4 cyl. 140 H.P. My head gasket failed also between the 2 an 3 cylinder. Upon close examination the head had actually became slightly hollowed out (junk) and even worse I then detected a slight crack between the cylinders. The depth of the crack was about 1/16th of an inch.
I have found no way to repair this.

Depens where the crack is.
I woud asume if the crack is in the cylinder liner you will nead to replace the liner, but if it's in the block it can be welded or samed.

Welding nead to be done by removing the crack and fill it up by the weld and meak shure you don't leave anny tention in the weld or area around.

Seaming is done by dilling a hole in the end off the crack and you make threads and put in a bolt witch you grind down until it's level with the block.
Then you drill a new hole in the crack witch overlap the previous one and you continue like that until the whole crack is seamed together by treads and bolts.

I would allways recomend a new block since I don't think it would cost that mutch when you reuse crank, top, istons and so on.