c85 water in cylinders

[MakoB]

My 1995 c85 yamaha started to overheat a few months ago. I took the water jacket off and cleaned it, removed the head and cleaned it and cleaned around the cylinders. There was a lot of white to brown waxy material in the passages. It ran fine for a few days but then started to miss. I have removed the head, which had more of the waxy stuff in it. The cylinders contained a water/oil emulsion. I cleaned it out, put on a new head gasket and fired it up again. It ran fine for a few minutes then started missing again. Again the cylinders, all 3 had the white emulsion.
Anyone have any ideas? I'm getting pretty tired of buying $40 head gaskets.

[Ken]

Mako,
Could you be getting water in the fuel?
Do you have a fuel/water separator filter?
All outboards should have a fuel/water separator in the fuel line now that we have ethanol blended gasoline to contend with .
Good luck [img]smile.gif[/img] ,
Ken K

[MakoB]

Thanks Ken, The fuel is in a see-through tank with no water present. This has occurred with multiple tanks of fuel. I've checked the built in separator/filter and it's clean.

[MakoB]

Thanks Ken, The fuel is in a see-through tank with no water present. This has occurred with multiple tanks of fuel. I've checked the built in separator/filter and it's clean.

[MakoB]

I guess the oil/water emulsion formed in the cylinders must polymerize to the waxy substance in the water jackets. The problem was cracks in the head, extending radially from the spark plug hole in all three cylinders. I changed out the head this morning and it seems to run fine now.