79 ski nautique ford 351 commander, wont start

I just picked up this 79 ski nautique and the previous owner turned it on and brought it to idle in front of me. sounded pretty good to me at the time. After buying it, i took down and put it in the water without the drain plug and got some water on and in the engine. ive replaced the oil and i replaced the starter which got jammed and was locking the rotation. some water managed to get in the cylinders and i got it out. ive since replaced all the spark plugs, wires, points, and condensor. She still wont start. doesnt even hiccup. it just cranks and cranks. im not sure if theres something wrong with the water system and that could be causing water to get into the cylinders? its hard for me to diagnose since im more familiar with car engines and the cooling system is so strange to me.

The manual says theres risk of water pump damage if i start it without the water attachment turned on, but it seems like water may be part of the problem. i just dont understand how water can get into the cylinders. but im new to marine engines.

Also ive noticed water building up in the battery box, does this mean i have wet foam? i have to remove the battery to get the water out.

I will post pictures tomorrow of the boat and engine.

Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.

Check for spark, if no spark, use a voltmeter to trace the fault.

Sorry to hear of your mishap. Happens to everyone once!

***************! reverse rotation! that makes a lot of sense. I mentioned that to the mechanic that was working on this, but he said all fords were reverse rotation and subsequently disregarded the info. Plus I noticed that everything seemed off as soon as we put in the starter. thats when i decided to replace the electrical.

Additional clues that lead me to believe this is the big problem im having:
I thought it was wired for LH rotation firing sequence when we started taking everything apart, but after testing it with the new starter, it seemed like it was RH rotation for the firing sequence, so we set it up that way.

Also, if Im cranking the engine over backwards, could that be why water was getting in the cylinders?

Thanks for the tips Waterdog!
Any suggestions on where to get a reverse cranking starter for this motor?

Do you still have your old starter?

This is getting a little dicey, because there are a couple things going on. It's a little bit of a chicken-egg problem. Two possibilities come to mind:

A.) Your old starter was fine all along, but was jamming because water in the cylinders was causing hydrolock.

In this scenario, water got in there from being sunk (how deep did the motor go during the drain plug incedent?) or some unknown way.

B.) Your old starter actually did jam for an unknown reason.

But, spinning the motor the wrong way, with the wrong new starter, was causing the engine to create suction during the exhaust stroke (which it would never do if it was spinning the right way). This exhaust suction caused it to draw water into the engine through the exhaust.

Waterdog wrote: 1988 and older Correct Craft used right hand rotation engines. Right hand IS reverse rotation. L/H = Std rotation. A good Starter/Alternator rebuild shop can rebuild yours. SKIDIM (discount inboard marine) or E Basic Power on the internet will have r/r starters.

That is very false info! my uncle has a 1987 CC Martinique B/R with pcm 351W 1:1 tranny. its a LEFT HAND ROTATION ENGINE! out friends have a 1988 Martinique B/R with PCM 351W and its a RGIHT HAND ROTATION EGINE. my aunt had a 1988 PCM 351W that was also a LEFT HAND ROTATION ENGINE. PCM made a couple right hand rotation engine because ford made them. ford had too many right hand rotation engines so they started making pcm use them. they only made a couple in every batch sent to boat manufactures so CC just threw the few they got into any boat with a 351w

TRBenj wrote: 89Martinique wrote: Waterdog wrote: 1988 and older Correct Craft used right hand rotation engines. Right hand IS reverse rotation. L/H = Std rotation. A good Starter/Alternator rebuild shop can rebuild yours. SKIDIM (discount inboard marine) or E Basic Power on the internet will have r/r starters. That is very false info! my uncle has a 1987 CC Martinique B/R with pcm 351W 1:1 tranny. its a LEFT HAND ROTATION ENGINE! out friends have a 1988 Martinique B/R with PCM 351W and its a RGIHT HAND ROTATION EGINE. my aunt had a 1988 PCM 351W that was also a LEFT HAND ROTATION ENGINE. PCM made a couple right hand rotation engine because ford made them. ford had too many right hand rotation engines so they started making pcm use them. they only made a couple in every batch sent to boat manufactures so CC just threw the few they got into any boat with a 351w Nope, Andy was correct. If your Correct Crafts had LH engines and LH props, then they were repowered at one point- they didnt come from CC like that. The RH prop is one of their trademarks, and it required a RH engine to do so until the 1.23 came out in '89. Of course, PCM made tons of lefty engines for other makes prior to that (including Supra). There were only a few exceptions until recently, when some of the v-drives started coming with lefty's. These include: -Dealer installed HO 454 boats from the mid 80's (LH only) -1960's Skylarks I cant speak to the models from the 50's or earlier.

Sorry but no. my uncle has the Martinique that my grandpa bought brand new! custom order. and it was never re-powered or anything. and my aunts. they had it for many years and bought it with low hours. never touched the engine. they were original untouched 351W LEFT HAND rotation engines from PCM.

Wow, you must have the only 2 original lefty Fords that Correct Craft installed between 1960 and 1988. Super rare!!!

I believe automotive vs. marine view the engine in opposite directions. Marine is viewed from the flywheel- I think automotive is viewed from the crank pulley.

watermonkey wrote: Ok i just bought the correct starter from skidim. http://www.skidim.com/prodinfo.asp?number=RK122014 Damn! you guys are great! i know this is gonna fix it. hopefully i didnt fug anything up too bad... Thanks everyone for the helpful tips. I cant wait to tell my neighbor the mechanic that ive probably figgered it out. hes been helping me diagnose the issue. The thing is i want to get a good understanding of the motor myself and not have to rely on external mechanics for the simple stuff.

Wait!!!

That looks like another Left Hand (Standard) starter.

Don't you want a Right Hand (Reverse)?!

Better double check.

Bri892001 wrote: watermonkey wrote: Ok i just bought the correct starter from skidim. http://www.skidim.com/prodinfo.asp?number=RK122014 Damn! you guys are great! i know this is gonna fix it. hopefully i didnt fug anything up too bad... Thanks everyone for the helpful tips. I cant wait to tell my neighbor the mechanic that ive probably figgered it out. hes been helping me diagnose the issue. The thing is i want to get a good understanding of the motor myself and not have to rely on external mechanics for the simple stuff. Wait!!! That looks like another Left Hand (Standard) starter. Don't you want a Right Hand (Reverse)?! Better double check.

LOL, correct- that is the wrong starter. SkiDIM should have the proper one (CCW for a RH Ford Windsor), but if youre ok with a rebuilt one, you can get one from db electrical for $91. I dont have any experience with them, but with a 1 year warranty, it seems like that price would be hard to beat.

Waterdog wrote: Gary, Your cam card firing order is 1,8,7,3,6,2,4,5 The PCM Manual in the reference section saz reverse rotation

Yea you'd think so if it's on the card right? But Crane got it wrong it really is 1,8,4,5,6,2,7,3. Took me awhile in the days before internet to figure that one out.Ended up pulling the valve covers and turning it over by hand,soon as I got to the 3rd one,bingo. Needless to say I was upset

Here are some pics. i see now that it clearly states on the label Opposite Rotation is RH . For some reason my assumption was that it was left hand. My first mistake was buying the part from Napa. Obviously now i know that was a bad idea. But i was excited and in a rush to get it going cause we had a big lake weekend.

Now, i believe i finally have the right part on order.
ARC70201 STARTER KIT RH FORD 302/351 Permanent M1 http://www.skidim.com/prodinfo.asp?number=ARC70201

got the new starter in and it still wont start.
it turns over but doesnt seem to fire.
i tested that i have spark but it's a little dim.
any tips for troubleshooting the issue?

Thanks snobsessed!