4.3L Oil in the Bilge but no water in oil
 

So I had my 2007 SX19 de-winterized an took it to the lake. It ran great with no issues at all. Until I got home and pulled the bilge plug to drain whatever water had accumulated during the day. The water was oily and black. Of course this concerned me quite a bit so i checked the dipstick and the oil leve was ok and looked normal. I decided to take it to a friends small lake today and run it and see if I could see where it might be leaking and it appears to be coming from under the engine somewhere. I can see water dripping while it is running and again the water is oily. I'm not a mechanic, but would assume that if it was leaking oil, then there would be water getting into the oil. Any ideas what might be going on? I'm taking it to a mechanic tomorrow to have him check it out but wanted to see if anyone else might have had this occur to them. Thanks.

Dave

Re: 4.3L Oil in the Bilge but no water in oil
 

Not sure if you fixed this yet, but I was talking to my boat mechanic and he told me that he had 5 boats so far this year that people thought they had cracked blocks due to oil in bilge and all 5 turned out to be a leaky oil filter or a pinhole in the oil filter housing.

Re: 4.3L Oil in the Bilge but no water in oil
 

I also had a oil issue this year, in that it was coming out the valve cover tubes up to the carb. and then coating the engine. Found it to be the mechanic who changed my oil had put in an extra quart! Removed one quart and shazam, all is good.

I hope you identify the leak.

Re: 4.3L Oil in the Bilge but no water in oil
 

4.3's tend to leek over the winter , especially with full synthetic oil. Check your oil filter gasket and drain plug ...dont get to worried about it as long as your dip stick if reads full and no water in oil your ok ,,,,but you do want to get it clean it tends to make a nasty mess in your bilge area.

Re: 4.3L Oil in the Bilge but no water in oil
 

Thanks for the input and I hope it turns out to be that simple. I took it to the mechanic last week and he looked and said it was either leaking around the oil pan or the timing belt cover. He said it should be fine to run during the summer but to keep some oil handy so it didn't get too low and then bring it back in the Fall because he would have to pull the motor to fix it. That was encouraging so we took it to the lake this weekend and I ended up putting 4 qts of oil in it over 2 days of driving. Needless to say, I'm taking it to him this afternoon to repair. He quoted about $650 to fix and I figure a new motor would be close to $2k or more. I will let you know what the outcome is.

Dave

Re: 4.3L Oil in the Bilge but no water in oil
 

Just a quick question. Where is the oil filter on this motor? I see what looks like an oil filter to the left of the motor, when looking from inside the boat, and felt around on it to see if there was any oil but it was clean. Is there another filter somewhere down under the motor?

Dave

Re: 4.3L Oil in the Bilge but no water in oil
 

When you start getting BP executives looking at buying your boat as a possible oil source, you know you've got too much oil in the bilge.. :rolling_laugh:

Re: 4.3L Oil in the Bilge but no water in oil
 

Seeing that you mention that the oil was black, I would wonder if it is oil that was lost in the bilge when the boat was winterized. Its not hard to lose control of an oily filter and upend it in the bilge. The same can happen if your old oil is removed through the drain plug and the plug is dropped or the oil misses the drain pan. Can your oil be sucked out through the dipstick tube?

Shabah 198SE