Video of 1957 35 hp please help

[fisherman6]

That engine sounded and acted like it was knocking and seized at the end of the video. I could not tell for sure if it jumped out of gear or sneezed hard in the middle. If that engine has gone through that seizing routine more than once, I’d have a hard time believing it didn’t suffer some damage from that. Scored pistons seem likely. I sure hope that powerhead is getting enough water from the pump to keep it cool. I don’t see any smoke from the powerhead in the video, so maybe not an overheat? Possibly not enough oil in the mix as was also mentioned before? If that knock and then brief squeak as the engine came to a stop was crank bearings (yikes!) It’s going to need some attention before it gets run very much. I may be all wrong, but that video sounded like the engine slowed to a screeching halt due to excessive heat / friction and locked up.
-Ben

OldJohnnyRude on YouTube

[opposedtwin]

Agreed. He has never confirmed whether it’s pumping water or not. The 1957 35 is NOT forgiving when it comes to being overheated. The 25/30 block was bored to make for 35 hp. As a result, the block walls are thinner than their predecessors and very prone to overheating. I have taken about 10 of these powerheads (1957 35 hp) apart and 7 of them had the top cylinder roached due to insufficient water flowing around the top cylinder. The cylinder walls were scored and the blocks were junk. All 7 had dried up, bent-vaned impellers. In that video, the clicking toward the end indicates the overheating and seizing.

Dobber, please confirm whether or not the motor is pumping water. You can demonstrate that to us with a video at idle. Also please confirm you’re running 24:1 (gas:oil).

[billw]

Yup, cooked and seized. Not much doubt about it. That’s why it popped out of the water when it stopped, as he said earlier, in another thread. If it were oil related, I don’t think he could restart it, by now. Videos are hard to gauge as far as sound goes; but I thought it was noisy as soon as it started and got progressively MORE noisy, until it locked. Also, I am not even sure it was running on two cylinders when it WAS running. And it did seem to pop out of gear once, in the beginning; although he has different gears now. Let’s see…..carry the four and…..his current mechanic should charge him $1,647,998 to fix that motor now.

Long live American manufacturing!

[joesnuffy]

I hate to say it but I also observed the motor running and it was noisy at the first of video and very very noisy at the end of video when the engine just stopped all of a sudden and I thought I heard you say wt?. I would do a compression check first on the cylinders to see what its compression is per-cylinder to see if engine did in fact lock up and to help see what kind of shape its in. It sounds like it overheated do to lack of water circulation or lack of oil in fuel. The only other thing I can think of is you leaned out the high speed needle to much. You said you turned it way in and back out a bit so what you thought was it jumping out of gear may have been the motor severly sneezing do to lack of fuel at high speed rpms that would be great because the engine may not have seezed up do to overheating but to lack of fuel which is not great but better than to overheating. If you get it to run again make sure it is pumping water as it should. Anytime I start any of my outboards I always make sure they are pumping water which for most of mine is usually not more than 60 seconds if not I turn them off immediately and find out why they aren’t. Hope that helps,

Joe

[nj-boatbuilder57]

Now that this seems to be a real issue, I would like to apologize for my "troll" posting. Yes, there are a ton of forum trolls "out there", but apparently the OP isn’t one.

Again, my apologies.

[Chris]

It’s really hard to tell from the vid, but it does sure seem that the motor is slowing down without movement from the throttle lever (the little lever that replaces the tiller). The vid shows it about horizontal for a bit, but then it’s about 10:00 for a good range in RPM with eventual shutdown.
I agree with the other comments here, we need to see if there is water coming out the back end. Sure seems like it’s overheating.

Dobber, also, you’ll want at some point to hold that high speed lever (the one at the bottom) and loosen the screw with a standard screwdriver and rotate that lever to the 12:00 position. (Be sure the mixture screw is not rotating when you rotate the loosened lever) It is currently hitting the cover, and that is not a good thing. As you’re aware, that adjustment needle is independent of the outer cover. Needs to be able to vibrate separately. This will make adjustments easier.

Once the water pumping (or not pumping) has been put to rest, and if it’s still doing this, a good full throttle adjustment of that same high speed needle is in order.

[Mumbles]

quote NJ-boatbuilder57:

Now that this seems to be a real issue, I would like to apologize for my “troll” posting. Yes, there are a ton of forum trolls “out there”, but apparently the OP isn’t one.

Again, my apologies.

It takes a good man to fess up. Well done!

[fleetwin]

OK, watched the youtube video, and did see the engine jump/buck just once. I realize that you can’t judge much by the audio, because it surely can be deceiving, but the engine sounded loud and rattly to me. It looks like the lower cover weather strip seal is missing, perhaps the noise is just the motor cover rattling around….
I did see the engine jump/buck just once though, could be for many reasons. Try having an assistant run the boat while you gently place your hand on the shift lever. The shift lever will buck back at the same time as the engine jumps/bucks if it is actually jumping out of gear.
But like others have said, be sure you have the correct fuel/oil mix and the engine is pumping water….
I sure hope that I/we are totally wrong about the engine noises that we are hearing on the video, so sorry that you have invested all this time and money into this engine. Would love to see all the pricey repair invoices…

[Monte NZ]

After reading all the posts and watching and playing the video several times, during which I listened very carefully to the sound of the motor, I feel too, that the motor was seizing at the end of the video. I feel too, that it’s got to be lack of lubrication or a cooling problem.

I had the misfortune to have my 1963 40hp Big Twin seize years back. This was caused because the young chap at the garage forgot to put any oil in the tank. As luck would have it, it was the only time I had not done the fueling up myself. The sound the video brought back unhappy memories of that experience…….the sounds on the video are very familiar!

One thing I did and you might like to do, is to put a small torch bulb soldered to some fine wire, down through each of the spark plugs and slowly turn the flywheel. It won’t cure anything, but I found it helpful in showing the damage to the bore.

In the OMC workshop manuals they mention using Thermomelt sticks to check if the motor was operating at the correct temperature…….it might be worth giving them a go……..I have used them successfully.

MonteNZ

[frankr]

It seems like this has been going on for some time. I’d have a hard time believing that it would survive that long if it were seizing due to lack of oil. Usually one time and you’re out if that is the cause. Maybe twice. You might get a few more cycles if it is an overheat situation, but that has its limits too. How can that mechanic that’s been messing with it not realize what’s going on? Kind of boggles the mind.

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