I have a 1980 Catalina 30 with an Atomic 4 gas engine and I'm finding a lot of oil in the bilge. Has anyone experienced this before? I'm wondering if I need to replace the engine or if this is a common issue that can be fixed? I want to be able to go on long trips (costly) and need to be able to rely on the engine. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Oil in Bilge (Atomic 4)
- Thread starter Clarizio
- Start date
Your #1 job before anything else is to find the exact source on the engine of the oil leak and go from there.
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 23,263
The goal of every cruiser I know.
As @Ralph Johnstone Clearly identifies, find the source of the leak. With old engines like the Atomic 4 there are likely more than one.
Check the oil level, are you loosing a significant amount of oil in a short period of time? If not it may be a minor leak. It is easy on a gas engine to check compression and determine the state of health of the engine. A sailboat is a perfect hybrid if the engine fails you can always get back to dry land with the sails. If the engine is not burning oil, and it has been running good in recent months there is no reason to overly worry about reliability. If something does need fixing, it is a lot easier to do it at the home dock.