Suzuki 175 Water in oil

[CaptainD]

Hi All,
New to this site, currently have 4 zukes, set of 10' 175's and a set of 08' 150's on another boat. Already had catastrophic failure of one of the 175''s at 2700 hours, needed the boat back in service quickly so was replaced right away mid summer with a 2017 175. Seems to be possibly same problems on the other 2010 175 recently, water in the oil. Service dealer says water in 2 cylinders and low compression in one. Lost cause?Worth a rebuild?Worth ordering a new powerhead? Or start from scratch? Where are you guys finding any water intrusion? Read a little before signing up today and seems I might have company. Been asking around can rotted bolt holes in oil pan be the culprit? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Best Regards-D

[artdf175]

see if anything in this post is helpful
Art

http://www.suzukioutboardforum.com/s...5-results.html

[CaptainD]

thanks

thanks Art, had you ever found water in the oil during 100 hour service on that motor?

[artdf175]

no have not had water in the oil
however remember both the exhaust and the water passages are molded internally into the oil pan design
I don’t know for sure what years Suzuki failed to properly treat the inside of these passageways but mine there was two holes that corroded through. about the size of a quarter
depending where you are located, the ability to find a really good mechanic would determine whether you tear it apart or get new power head. With the hours you expressed I would lean to a new powerhead


I would be my guess from your description it sounds like you had a major head gasket failure
Art

[CaptainD]

thanks Art, you've been very helpful. Haven't decided which direction with this 2nd one with water in oil, but plan I think is to to tear down the first one to see where the failure was. Some other guys we work with are getting 5-6000 hours plus out of these I wanna know the how and why with some help from Suzuki guys, thanks again

[artdf175]

fishing guide?
my rebuild was over $5k
after the work my engine was putting out significantly more power
before this the engine ran well despite all the problems we ended up finding

did you ever have valve clearances checked?

Art

[CaptainD]

no haven't checked valve clearance yet, but is a good idea. The local Suzuki dealer has suggested possible powerhead zinc failure and them not either doing they're job or too much electrolysis for them to handle maybe, not sure yet. We'll know more once we break that one down I guess?

[CaptainD]

and yes some fishing, some of a lot of everything

[Moonlighter]

Captain, I think what Art was getting at was, the valve clearances need to be checked after the first 200 hrs an dthen periodically during the engine’s life. Not adjusting any that are out of spec will contribute to a shorter engine life.

In a commercial setting, internal and e ternal zincs should be checked and probably changed at least every 6 months, and if experience shows they are getting chewed up then increase the frequency of change. If there is that much electrolisis that zincs dont last more than a few weeks, there must be some stray current somewhere, either on the boat or from nearby boats/marina.....

We have commercial fishermen operating in our area and I know they routinely get 5000-6000hrs, I saw a report of one that had over 8000hrs on a DF140A, Suzuki bought the motor back from him stripped it down to see what it looked like, put it back together with minimal changes and sold it to a rec guy who is still using it.