quick question - light smoking from exhaust - Lucas oil

tk416 · Post by **tk416** » Sun Jul 10, 2011 1:17 pm

Hi there...

Just wanted to ask a quick question... I've got an F25 with 318. There was a very slight knocking, so I added half a bottle of Lucas Oil Stabilizer and topped off the oil. Ran it for a few hours yesterday and she ran great and the slight knocking was gone... I did notice however on my return trip that I was smoking out the exhaust a lot more than I've ever seen when I had the engine running at around 2900rpm. Lower the speed and on idle there was no smoke... ( it was white smoke). Temp stayed steady at 140...

This morning, I started her up and let it come up to temp. Had it in neutral and put the engine to 2900 for 5-8 min. NO smoking...

I'll go out later this afternoon and see if she does it again. The question would be, is it possible that the Lucas has something to do with the smoking and it should just burn away?

Secondly, I've noticed that when I start the boat at the dock, she takes just half a second to catch and start. After I've ran it for around and hour and anchored off anywhere for a few hours, I go to start her again and she takes a good, 4-5 sec of cranking before firing up. This happens even when I switch it to the 2nd battery which is fresh and charged... ANy ideas? Is it normal?

wowzer52 · Post by **wowzer52** » Sun Jul 10, 2011 11:00 pm

White smoke=water/coolant vaporizing in the cylinders?=head gasket/crack?, intake manifold gasket/crack?, water cooled exhaust manifold gasket/crack? process of elimination, Prowlerfish, what do you think?

Torcan · Post by **Torcan** » Sun Jul 10, 2011 11:10 pm

Are you sure it was smoke and not steam? I noticed my F25 will steam sometimes at high speed, and be gone when I throttle back.

tk416 · Post by **tk416** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:47 am

It may have very well been steam... I noticed yesterday that it was not smoking/steaming... Looks like I have a small exhaust manifold leak however... Just another thing to put on the list for the winter...

Another quick question... Does anyone know the best way to do a rudder alignment? I noticed the rudder will go 45* left and only around 22* to the right...

wowzer52 · Post by **wowzer52** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:27 pm

Mine steering was the same way when I got it. To fix it I centered the rudders, disconnected the pushrod then centered the steering wheel and reconnected the pushrod and redrilled for the keeper pin. That gave me the same turning radius to port and starboard.