Hey everyone, im helping a buddy out with his 2.3L Ford motor thats in his fourwinns boat. Story goes, he took it into a marine shop and they ran test saying that it was a bad head gasket. They was gonna charge him 1000 dollars for the job. He told me this and i said no man let me take it apart and see whats going on.

His original complaint was steam coming out of his oil fill cap. I thought maby the PCV valve but he said no that wasnt it. Well as i was taking it apart i found the pcv valve and it looked pretty sad. So i continued taking everything apart and i got to the head, pulled that off and the head gasket is fine. Everything looks great.

So what do you guys think was creating him to have steam coming out of his oil fill cap? Im not 100% sure if he said he had water in his oil, but im pretty sure he is saying its steaming. No white film on the oil fill cap tho. Im thinking only the PCV valve was bad. Need some .02 cents please

Also can i get parts like gaskets for that motor from autozone, and just say the motor was out of a certain car with a 2.3L ford? Thanks

Sounds like you're on top of it. Steam is just moisture in the crankcase. Whether its from condensation, or mechanical failure. Boats are more likely to have build up of condensation because of infrequent use. Because you have the head gaskets off, you've gotten down to the major possible problem. I doubt its anything warped or cracked (you said there was no white stuff on the cap) just continue with your repairs, and replace the pcv valve and make sure the hose isn't plugged. The only other thing I can think of, would be a possible coolant leak in the intake manifold area (from the boat conversion)

the way this boats cooling system is set up is it sucks water in from the drive. I will have him get all new gaskets. Yea i will also check the hoses to make sure they are ok, good idea i didnt think of that and im glad u brought that up. Pistons look great, from what i can see, the bore still looks nice with the cross hatch, must not have very many hours on it. The owner before my buddy was the original owner, but he liked to do stuff the wrong way, he was a rigger. So im going to go through the whole thing and do everything right. Thanks for your help

Just be careful cleaning up the mating surfaces for the head/block. Did the gasket just come off smooth? Make sure you get all proper torque specs and use quality gaskets. Good luck.

So a recap, this boat was blowing steam out of the oil fill cap, once it warmed up. Well he had it quoted and they said it was a head gasket. So i tore it down and the head gasket was fine. So i took everything down, cleaned all the mating surfaces, cleaned the head, i use a gasket remover wheel on my angle grinder, does wonders. Well i was going over the block and i felt something hold the grinder back a bit. So i looked and wouldnt ya know it. A crack inbetween the second and third cylinder. So now im looking for new blocks. Is there anything i can do to maby fix it temporarly so he can sell it?

Wow that sucks...

you might visit some salvage yards for interesting looking rangers.

Might sleeve it, but that would probably cost more than it's worth.

Gunner

yea we will take a look around the junk yards this coming weekend. This sucks cuz i was looking forward to putting it back together!

Wow, that blows. At least those 2.3's are fairly common, no? Good luck with your search. I don't think there's anything you can do about that.

So because the crack is mostly on the mating surface would sleeving it keep it from smoking? What I mean does the head and block tightened togethor keep the crack right over the passages sealed?

Might sleeve it, but that would probably cost more than it's worth.

Click to expand...

Well the crack doesnt go but 2 centimeters into the bore. Its mostly on the surface. I wonder how it happend, im gonna have to look at the water pump. Head looked fine BTW I checked that first

OK i found a 2.3L out of a ford ranger, has the 8 spark plugs, but im not using the head, just the block from this donor motor. Ok now with the Overhead cam (I am NOT fimilar with) How the heck do i time it so that the pistions match the way that the cam has the valves open? i sure with the cam was in the block....