Best plan of action post sinking?

[Peter G]

I’m back on here looking for some advice. <br /><br />I last posted about my boat back in October 2019 looking for advice on rebuilding my 6BTAs. They were not in great condition but would still start up and run for a short time. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit and the mechanic I had lined up passed away in the middle of all of it before starting the project. In the mean time, I got a job overseas for 2 years and left my boat with a friend on a different island to take care of it. He took good care of it except 2 weeks before I returned home there was a freak rain storm that dumped a record setting amount of rain overnight (can’t remember the exact figure) and due to the low freeboard and bilge pumps not keeping up, the boat went down in the slip.  Luckily the slip is pretty shallow so he was able to just put pump the water out at low tide but none the less seawater was above the engines. 

The same day, he drained the oil pans, bled the fuel lines, pulled the injectors, and pushed diesel through most of the lines. The starter on one engine was shot but the other one still worked. The next day he was able to get the port engine started and running but after transferring the working starter to the starboard engine, it wouldn’t roll over at all. It seemed seized so he pulled the injectors again and poured marvel mystery oil in the cylinders and let it sit for a few days. It rolled over then but did not start. After that, he sealed the engines with a diesel/marvel mystery oil mix in all the lines and cylinders in an attempt to preserve the engine. I’ve been busy so its been a few months since all this happened. I’m hoping I’m not too late. 

Obviously its hard to tell without seeing the engines in person, but would I be wasting my time getting these engines rebuilt? At this time I simply can’t afford $70-80K in new engines. Any suggestions on my next move?  <br /><br />*I haven’t checked the transmissions but they were drained and had new transmission fluid and filter placed. 

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[Tony Athens]

Until you have the time to pull the head on the “suspect engine” and assess rust damage, you need to protect the engine as best you can with lots of #2 in the cylinders.  As to the engine that is running, fresh oil and a start up every week or so using fresh water on the seawater side.. If the engines have milky oil, you need to address that. Pull the valve covers and look for water /rust?

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