2003 DF140 Oil Cooler

[acarr83]

I have found several other threads about this online, but having trouble narrowing the info down to meet my specific situation..

I noticed an oil sheen behind my boat the last few times I had it out, but i didn't think it was leaking quite as rapidly as it was.
I read that the oil cooler was a common cause of issues like this, so i pulled my oil filter and immediately noticed that my oil was a milky color.. :-(
Pulled the oil cooler apart and found a ton of salt/corrosion.  I wish I could buy a new oil cooler, but i'm trying to get as much done as I can without spending any money at this point.
Had to use sandpaper to get a clean surface in a lot of places, but it's looking a lot better at this point.

My main concern is.. how bad have I screwed up my engine by running it on this lovely saltwater/oil milkshake?

Once I put the oil cooler back on, I'm thinking about draining the oil, refilling with cheap oil, running for 30 mins or so, then drain and fill again.. to get rid of all the salt+oil mix.
I just hope I haven't damaged or corroded my bearings/crank/pistons/etc.. 

Also, I can't even begin to describe how frustrated I am with Suzuki for this poor design or the shop who last serviced my boat in the spring (this was the first service since I've owned the boat)... The tech told me I had "emulsified oil" in my tell tale water line, and that he cleaned it out, but didn't elaborate any further or clue me in to any cause for concern, so I had no idea this was going on.  
After 5 minutes of reading forums, I'm up to speed.. Shouldn't someone who does this for a living be aware of this possibility?
The only reason I took the boat to a shop instead of doing it all myself was to make sure someone's trained eye was going over everything, to find if there were any gremlins hiding out, etc..
All of this with less than 500 hours on the motor.. 

oil cooler:



where oil cooler meets block:


inside of oil cooler, not doing much cooling:


after rinsing:


after cleaning with sandpaper:

[Juan]

Wow. That's a lot of corrosion. Hopefully someone who knows more than I do about Zukes will chime in but I'd be buying a new oil cooler and changing the oil as you planned if it were mine. I'm guessing that the seals have been leaking for quite some time, contaminating the oil and causing the corrosion and as the corrosion built up, the oil pressure drops allowing even more water in and making it even worse. Good luck

[acarr83]

yep... I think the new oil cooler will be happening at some point, I was just hoping to make it a few more months, and a few more trips to the sandbar...

I know I'll need address the dreaded "exhaust plug" at some point as well, before it turns into a huge issue.

I want so badly to be a Suzuki fan, but some of these designs were just not made to last..

[gtightline]

Sorry to see this. If you can't trade it in for a new engine, then your only recourse would be to run it, drain it and run it again, repeating the process until you feel that you have cleaned it out as well as you can. When there is water intrusion, and especially salt water, into an engine it is usually time for a rebuild....Hope it works out for you and that no damage was done.

[Juan]

Sept 4, 2016 13:27:13 GMT -6 acarr83 said:

I was just hoping to make it a few more months, and a few more trips to the sandbar...

You may be able to put a band aid on it until you have the time to change the oil cooler. I don't recommend this, but I know a guy who had the same problem with contaminated oil. After finding and fixing the cause, he drained the crankcase then filled it with kerosene and let it sit for a day, then drained it and filled it with oil. He said the kerosene removed any water that might have still been in the crankcase. Personally, I think he didn't need to do that and if there were any water still there, it would evaporate when the engine warmed up.
Since you've cleaned up the oil cooler, you could replace the seals or put some 3M sealant on them and put it back together, run it a little and check the oil for contamination.

[freezerfiller]

Your idea to put some cheap oil in there and run it and change it soon is a good idea. Hard to say whether you've hurt the engine, even good compression won't tell you if the bearings have been damaged, but if it's not knocking or smoking, then you are probably good. And don't wait too long on that exhaust plug. I've heard that you don't want to wait for you to have to address it...

[acarr83]

I stopped by today, reinstalled my freshly cleaned oil cooler, and drained almost a whopping 2 quarts of milkshake from the drain plug... :-(


I drained and reused the old oil filter, but topped it off with new, cheap-o oil and ran it on the hose for 20 minutes or so. I listened closely but couldn't hear any knocking/tapping sounds at all.

I drained this oil, and it was a bit more milky, thin, and full of water spots than I expected it to be..
I don't think I'll ever be able to trust that old oil cooler again, even though I did install new seals on this one, but it was next to impossible to remove all traces of corrosion/residue from the surfaces.. so I'm just going to bite the bullet and buy a new one before I waste any more time and effort on it..
After looking at prices of repowering, I think it would be wise to take every precaution I can to ensure I can get some more life out of this one.. 

After I get that installed, I still plan to install a fresh oil filter and fill with cheap oil at least 1 more time, before putting the good stuff in it and dropping it in the water.

[gnrphil]

I'd run it 3 times with a new filter and oil every time, it'll take more than once to get all the water out.

[gtightline]

I know this is going to sound old school, but it wouldn't hurt to add Marvel Mystery oil each time you run and change the oil while in the process of trying to clean everything out. That stuff really works and will get into places where regular oil won't...and as Gnrphil stated it will take several times to get that engine clean as you can get it. I personally wouldn't trust it until all you get back is exactly what you have put in (color and consistency). Salt water is bad news, it's not the water, it's the salt deposits that are left behind once the water has evaporated..... Just my 2 cents.

[985crabs]

Wow. That thing looked awful. You did a great job cleaning it as best you could. However, if you still have water intrusion I wouldn't run that motor again (fresh or salt) until that oil cooler is replaced and your oil remains unadulterated. Oil and water are not good bedfellows (as the pictures clearly indicate)and should never come together. You have no way to gauge what internal damage this is causing or has occurred already. Unless you want to rebuild or re-power, I would pay now and play later.

Advice worth everything you paid for it.

[acarr83]

I completely agree! I went ahead and bought a new oil cooler for $175 on boats.net and got free 2 day shipping. Just installed it tonight, with a cheap fram oil filter, filled with cheap wal mart oil and ran on the hose. Need to drain and fill again tomorrow and see if the oil comes out any cleaner.

Thanks to everyone here for your help, I will keep the thread updated if anything interesting happens. Hopefully I caught it soon enough to avoid any severe damage.....

[acarr83]

After a few cycles of fresh cheap-o oil, I still noticed a white streak in my the very last bits of the oil when draining.. At this point I figured I just need to run it under a load a bit, to hopefully evaporate any remaining oil.
I took it out on the water this past saturday and it ran great. I took it easy to begin with, with a max of 3500-4k rpm, but twisted it up to 5500-6000 on the way back home.

I had a bit of a scare when i started the engine to head back home from the island.. I noticed my oil light on the suzuki tach was blinking.. I've never seen this, so I instantly thought it was a low oil alarm. I popped the cowl off and checked the oil, but it was perfectly fine.
A quick google search from my phone showed that it should be the maintenance reminder..
I pulled out the kill switch lanyard and pulled it out 3 times, and sure enough, the alert went away!
Nothing like an oil light to give me a heart attack..

Now I'm planning to warm it up and drain out the oil 1 more time, then fill with Castrol Synthetic Blend 10W-40 and a suzuki OEM oil filter, then probably change it out for the gold-laced suzuki oil in the spring... still keeping my fingers crossed that it keeps ticking!

[freezerfiller]

Sept 22, 2016 13:05:49 GMT -6 acarr83 said:

I noticed my oil light on the suzuki tach was blinking.. I've never seen this, so I instantly thought it was a low oil alarm. I popped the cowl off and checked the oil, but it was perfectly fine.
A quick google search from my phone showed that it should be the maintenance reminder..
I pulled out the kill switch lanyard and pulled it out 3 times, and sure enough, the alert went away!
Nothing like an oil light to give me a heart attack..

Yeah, nothing like a little paranoia to keep the heart rate up! Funny how that always happens. It does sound like you are going to be in good shape. That new cooler was a good move.

[acarr83]

@southern Cross - the only reason I would be inclined to buy suzuki oil would be the pages upon pages of THT threads that speak to the corrosion inhibiting factors of gold dust that is inevitably included in the manufacturer's oil...  Beating_A_Dead_Horse
I have no personal experience either way, and I'm certainly open to using auto grade synthetic or blended oil, but I run my boat in 100% saltwater, so I assumed it might be worth my while to have some additional corrosion inhibitors in the mix.

Also, what I have read in regards to the oil cooler's necessity was that Suzuki used the same block for the 90, 115, and 140, but bored the cylinders for the 140 and added an oil cooler to keep it cool..
I checked my manual and confirmed that the bore is 84.0 mm for the 90 and 115, and 86mm for the 140.

I definitely considered the option of hacking 1.5" or so off of the oil filter stand, which would make the oil filter fit flush on the engine, and finding a fitting to join the two ends of the cooling hose together, but didn't want to run into a high temp alarm with a boat full of people in the middle of July

[acarr83]

that was total sarcasm on the "gold dust" comment, since it's a bit pricey in my opinion ;-)
The only reason I've considered it would be the anti-corrosive properties.

There's a good chance the oil cooler is just as useful as the steel exhaust plug on these motors.. an after-thought that causes much more trouble than they are worth..

[Flight Deck]

I have the same issue with mine, identical to your's. Have a new cooler on the way. Think I caught mine before water intrusion into the oil. Found a blown gasket on the cooler. Just wondering, is there a special secret to taking the cooler apart for inspection. Afraid mine has too much salt build up. I also am from the Cape Fear area--Southport.

[acarr83]

From what I can recall at this point, I just had to give up on attempting to reuse the old oil cooler.  With a new one on the way, I just used as much force as was necessary to pull the old one apart.
Once I pulled it apart and saw all the corrosion/build-up, I was glad that I went with a brand new one.

I'm glad to say that after all those oil drain and fill's - she's still humming along. 

I can't say that I've had a ton of faith in it since all of this happened, but I've put a few hours on it (not as much as I'd like..) and it's still humming along, for now.... 

Glad you caught yours early!

Also - reading back through this thread, someone mentioned the exhaust plug... That one ended up biting me in the rear.. I got the old one patched over at a local shop for around $200.

[freezerfiller]

I try to help.

[keith1961]

Hello, any tips on how to disassemble the oil cooler so i can change out the gaskets ?  thanks

[freezerfiller]

I'd guess there is some sort of snap ring holding it together, but based on what I've seen from this thread, you might consider getting a new one.