The Great Muffler Mystery (May 1993)

From the time that we purchased the boat, 1987, the engine seemed to run rougher than expected and after a sail that involved significant heeling, the engine would be hard to start. On these occasions, we would find the engine oil to be “milky” (we found out later that this meant that there was water in the oil). We would change the oil and the go on to repeat the process many times. At one point, we thought that the cylinder head gasket was leaking and went through the trouble to, needlessly, replace it.

It was not until 1993 that we found the root cause of the problem! We had an occasion to examine the forward end of the Vernalift muffler. We saw the word “outlet” printed on it. At that point we realized that the muffler had been installed backwards at the time the boat was built. This caused water to collect and return through the engine exhaust manifold and valves into the crankcase when the boat was heeled. We reversed the muffler so that the engine exhaust went in the inlet and and the water/exhaust-gas combination went out the outlet. Problem solved: the engine runs smoother and we have not had water in the engine oil since that time. Just a shame that it took fourteen years to solve the mystery.

The view on the left, from a Columbia Yacht Corp. drawing, shows the correct routing for the engine exhaust. The drawing also shows the internal parts of the Vernay waterlift (#7) with the inlet pipe in the correct position. This helps to explain why the engine ran roughly. The exhaust is under water with the muffler reversed. The photo on the right is of the forward end of the waterlift after we reversed its position in the boat. This view shows the inlet, engine, side of the muffler.