I was ready to go yesterday by about 2:00. The boat was ready and I was just unhooking the shore power when a gust of wind hit me. I stopped, looked up, and suddenly twenty knots was blowing white caps through the marina. The runways at San Carlos Marina are basically one boat length wide plus three feet, so I knew I wasn’t going to get out of my slip without risking some ugliness. I plugged the shore power cord back in and went below to pout.
Around seven the wind died down to manageable levels and I decided spur of the moment to get the hell out of there before dark. I wouldn’t be able to get the fuel I needed to make it to Mazatlan, but figured I could swing up in Topolobampo at the halfway point to get what I needed.
Getting out of the slip was still a pain in the butt. In reverse the boat would kick the front end so violently to port that I couldn’t get turned around. It would kick out to port and before I could get a burst in forward the same direction the wind would push the bow back around. I was wedged between boats in front and behind me for a full five minutes. It was like trying to back out of a parking space with your steering wheel stuck in a hard right turn. I crabwalked down the runway like that until I could make my escape. I’d taken a picture right before I cast off and another as I was exiting the marina. Eleven minutes elapses between the two in what should normally take thirty to sixty seconds.
I motored out with a close eye on the engine temperature, though I wasn’t really expecting trouble. I’d convinced myself that the root cause of the previous days overheating was the use of water instead of coolant in the system. I’d run the engine at the dock for an hour at pretty high RPMs without issue, so surely I’d be all right. My only real concern was that I wouldn’t in fact have enough fuel for the 180 mile trip to Topolobampo.
Two hours out the engine looked good—running at normal temperature. Then ever so slowly it started to climb. I willed the needle to stop moving, but it didn’t listen and I was forced to shut the engine down and turn around. There was five knots of wind and I was sailing at 1.5 knots. I figured I’d spend four hours creeping back in the direction I came from and then bob around until first light when I could get back in the marina.
Then it occurred to me once again how much I dislike San Carlos and that the idea of being stuck there with a f-ed up engine was the exact nightmare I’d had the night before. Guaymas! A light bulb went on. I was the same distance away from Guaymas as I was from San Carlos right at that moment. I made an achingly slow one-hundred-eighty degree tack and sailed for a new place I didn’t want to really be.
Before I’d shut the engine down I’d seen something that I really wished I hadn’t seen. Coming out of the cylinder heads emission valve was water. Or coolant. Or whatever. Point is, nothing should be coming out of there except maybe some oil. Once the engine had cooled I took a closer look. The expansion tank was dry—completely devoid of any coolant. Then I uncapped the oil fill on top of the cylinder head. Inside the cap was a goopy white mess. That can’t be good. Somehow I just knew that Bar’s Leak stuff was a bad idea, despite the many claims to the contrary.
I changed the milky brown oil, filled the engine with coolant, and sailed right up alongside a fishing trawler in a temporary anchorage before firing the engine up and anchoring for the night. At three a.m. I fell asleep.
It seems like it would suck to have this happen at night, in the dark, but I was so thankful it did. It was so ridiculously hot that I ended up taking three showers outside during the night. Not rinses, but showers, complete with soap and vigorous armpit scrubbing. If it had been mid-afternoon I surely would have melted.
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This morning I woke up refreshed from my three hours of sleep, raised the anchor, and proceeded to motor cautiously to a completely empty Marina Fonatur Guaymas. Oh how I wish I were in Mazatlan right now.
11 Comments on “Trouble”
That bars leak can sometimes help with a pinhole radiator leak, but the only fix for a head gasket leak is a head gasket. Take the head off and have it checked at a machine shop to make sure it is just a head gasket and not a cracked head.
And make sure that they (if the head is determined good) resurface it before putting the gasket on/reassembly. Believe me, you don’t want to do this again….:(
My heart goes out to you Pat. Boat “isues” (especially engine) are are real pain. We keep doing it, though, because it is all worth it in the end.
Bummer! It definitely sounds like a bad head gasket. I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t know but be sure to get the gasket ordered so Ali can bring it back down. Even if you don’t need it now, it’s a great spare to have on hand. The reason I say “even if you don’t need it now” is because I’ve experienced both the problems you’re citing and it wasn’t the head gasket. I was losing coolant through a chafed-through hose in a spot that I could not readily see and, at about the same time, the seals on my fresh water pump failed allowing sea water to enter my oil pan turning the oil milky. Symptoms looked like a head gasket but it wasn’t. However, I now have a spare head gasket on board. Mexicans can improvise a lot of gaskets but the head gasket isn’t one that is easily jury-rigged. Good luck, Pat.
Engines, like boats are stupid.
I am sorry you are having to deal with this now instead of in Mazatlan. I hope you can cobble together a fix enough to get you on down the road where you can have a little more time to figure this all out. And where you will also have AC. AC is NOT stupid, its brilliant.
Hang in there.
You are much better off in Guaymas than San Carlos to deal with this problem, within walking distance of many machine shops and suppliers. I feel for you man. Good luck. ps I know exactly what you mean about Marina San Carlos and the entire area in general…
Would a compression test help determine if its a head gasket?
Pat: We really feel for you. Mike says, “You could possibly loosen the radiator cap to relieve the pressure off the cooling system, but only run it for short periods of time. The engine may still suck coolant in on the intake stroke and expel combustion gases into the cooling system on the power stroke. This may, however, reduce the amount of lost coolant.” Good luck Pat–you’ll make it somehow. You always do! Safe trip and wonderful reunion with Ali and the kids!! Love, Mike and Lorraine
As I’m sure you are aware, you my friend, have a blown head gasket. If you plan on some long distance cruising in the future I would recommend buying a new head and two new gaskets. Install the new head and gasket and send the old one out to be tested and resurfaced and then carry the old head and spare head gasket with you. A head gasket can be changed in a half a day by a good mechanic, a whole day by a bad one. It’s actually not as big of a job as everyone fears. At least it’s on the top of the engine and not down in the bilge.
Pat, you do not necessarily have a blown head gasket. I have the same engine and there is a gasket between the exhaust manifold and down pipe that can leak coolant directly in through the exhaust valves and fill the cylinders with coolant. It will appear to be a blown head gasket by mixing with engine oil via the cylinders.
It takes a serious overheat to blow the head gasket on these engines, so be sure it really is a head gasket before pulling the head. I know all this from experience in Mexico when after replacing the head gasket, I was still getting water into the engine. I replaced my head gasket while under sail for no reason when a Coors can McGyver fix would have gotten me to PV. But now I know I can replace the head gasket while sailing through the night.
Thanks for the info. Ken. I’ll look into it.