9. I am getting steam out of the exhaust when running, but the temp guage says 140 to 150 degrees. I did a compression check and the results were 120 psi on two, three, and four, and 90 on number one. I am thinking of a crack in the head or something with the head gaskets. Any ideas?

I don't believe that your steam is caused by a crack in the head or a defective gasket. In these cases, the water would first go through your combustion chambers, and you would surely be reporting on poor running of the engine. However, you could have developed a small crack in your manifold water jacket.

If you really are ingesting a small amount of water in through the manifold, it will be rather serious, since it will cause a very thick caramelized brown goo to form on the stems of intake valves and cause them to stick rather soon.

In terms of other possibilities, are you sure that what you're seeing is steam? In the early part of the season, it is rather common within our northern operation locations for people to report a "vapor" coming out with the exhaust on their boats. This is simply a matter of warm moist air cooling and condensing behind the boat. The problem goes away as soon as the weather warms up a bit.

It would also be important to observe whether or not the steam persists from the first time you start up the engine, or if it only starts after the engine is fully warmed up. If the steam only starts after the engine is fully warmed up, your cooling water flow may have reduced somewhat and is no longer sufficient to keep the hot section of the exhaust system cool where the engine cooling water enters the system, and a small amount of steam may be developing right in the hot section itself. - Updated: November 4, 2003