Roger Long
Senior Member
We bought our boat with an old ONAN MDJE 7.5 that we know is probably going to be replaced before long. The question is whether it will get us to Florida.
There are some fuel, oil, and coolant leaks that I haven't yet located so the drip pan is a mess. It was full of water with oil on top when we picked up the boat and there was a big clean up. The unit starts easily but goes through oil fast. Exhaust looks good.
After a few days of running, I found the drip pan full of grey mousse that looks exactly like what came out of my sailboat engine dip stick when the head gasket blew. It seems to be mostly water since spill pads don't soak up much of it. Paper towels do much better. It's so thick that an oil change vacuum sucker won't lift it.
The dipstick oil looks normal and I stuck a plastic tube deep in the oil sump bringing up no hint of water or anything that looks like the mousse. Oil looks great. Oil pressure is usually around 60 but the gauge ends at about 63 and is sometimes pegged there.
Is it possible that the vibration is just mixing up the stuff in the drip pan into this thick emulsion? I'm resigned to going through a lot of paper towels and doing a lot of clean up until we get south but wondering if something else is going on.
There are some fuel, oil, and coolant leaks that I haven't yet located so the drip pan is a mess. It was full of water with oil on top when we picked up the boat and there was a big clean up. The unit starts easily but goes through oil fast. Exhaust looks good.
After a few days of running, I found the drip pan full of grey mousse that looks exactly like what came out of my sailboat engine dip stick when the head gasket blew. It seems to be mostly water since spill pads don't soak up much of it. Paper towels do much better. It's so thick that an oil change vacuum sucker won't lift it.
The dipstick oil looks normal and I stuck a plastic tube deep in the oil sump bringing up no hint of water or anything that looks like the mousse. Oil looks great. Oil pressure is usually around 60 but the gauge ends at about 63 and is sometimes pegged there.
Is it possible that the vibration is just mixing up the stuff in the drip pan into this thick emulsion? I'm resigned to going through a lot of paper towels and doing a lot of clean up until we get south but wondering if something else is going on.