www.iFourWinns.com

So, I was up on Lake Mohave (just below the Hoover Dam) and I started to notice that my VP 5.7 was running rough at lower RPMs. I took it in to my dealer when I got home and they diagnosed that it was in my #6 cyl. After a compression test they felt it was my exhaust valve and ripped my engine open to have a look. End result - blown head gasket on both sides, melted valve seat on the #6 exhaust and appears that water had been in the cylinder for some time as the cylinder appears etched.

My Boat:
2002 Funship 214
5.7 Volvo Penta w/ 200 hours on it
Regularly serviced.

My question to the group here is: Has anyone heard that Volovo Pentas have a head gasket issue?

I'm not looking forward to the bill to rebuild/replace the block and machine the heads.

Any advice?

Thx.

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2002 Funship 214
VP 5.7 GX Si
2003 Tahoe

probably caused by detonation, bounces the head and ends up taking the gasket out between the 3 and 5 as well as 4 and 6 cylinders. pretty common on small blocks. bad gas will do it every time and its becoming more and more common with the ethanol in fuels.

You could have any number of reasons that happened. I don't think it was ethanol though. Ethanol has been in gas on the west coast for quite some time. (MTBE was banned in 2000 or so and replaced by ethanol) Leave any oxygenated gas in the tank for more a year and you could get detonation problems.

Have you ever replaced your riser gaskets?

Instead of rebuilding that engine, You might be better off with a long block engine. either way it's not going to be cheap.

http://usengine.us/marine.html provides marine long blocks and you probably have similar places in SOCAL that have similar deals.

Whether you replace or rebuild you probably should also replace the exhaust manifolds and riser/elbows if there's any question about them. (If you've never replaced the riser gaskets you need to break them down and have a look. Leaking riser gaskets will allow water back into the cyls thru open exhaust valves immediately after shutdown.....if that happens right before you put it away for the winter or other long period of time the water sits in the cyls until you start it.

Good luck,

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1987 Four Winns Liberator 211, formerly OMC 460 King Kobra powered, replaced in 2006 by a 1997 Mercruiser 454/Bravo III

Definately not a Volvo Penta head gasket issue. The block is GM, and unfortunately these things happen. Could happen on a Merc just as easily. I did have a similar thing happen to our engine just after we bought it. Plan on about 3 to 5K to replace it.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy