chriscorso

Morning,

Went boating this weekend for the first time this season. All was well for about 20 minutes. Granted, still had a blast on the water for the duration of the weekend, but I had fun with only my starboard engine functional(8 MPH at 2k RPM, actually made for some really nice slow paced boating).

I was cruising along around 42 or 43 MPH, 4000RPM on each engine(150 degrees water temp and about 65 or 70 PSI oil pressure). The port engine stalled. I throttled back and took a look at the engine, all looked fine. So, I started it back up, no prob.. I starting to accelerate again and at about 3k RPM, same thing. Port engine died. So, I took a look again and everything seemed ok. I tried to start it and no dice. It would turn over for maybe 1/2 a crank each time I tried. I am a little nervous that maybe something mechanical failed and is binding up the engine. I checked the oil...clean and does not smell burnt, no signs of water in it. This being the case, I am hoping it is not a mechanical failure binding things up. I am curious though, can something in the drive fail which may cause this? If so, would I have heard something out of the ordinary first? I would expect mechanical failure at 3500+RPM would've made some seriously disturbing noises.

My first course of action tonight is to put a breaker bar on the crank of each engine and turn it by hand...I just want to see if the port engine is actually tougher to rotate. I am hoping I will find it is not. I am hoping that my coil went bad(caused the engine to die) and that my starter or possibly the cable to the starter happened to go at the same time. I know, high hopes, but I prefer some cheap easy fixes instead of a rebuilt engine or drive.

Cheers,
Chris

ve3lt

It might be something simple.
First off I hope your a good mechanic? Are you handy with tools? If not get a buddy to do it that is familiar with engines ( I have been working in them all my life so it is second nature to me.)
If I were you I would pop off the valve covers and lood for something simple like a bent pushrod or something like a missaligned rocker. This may be why the boat will not start???
Another thing is your idea of turning over by hand with a bar is a good one. Try to gently rotate them and if it catches rotate it backwards. If you do get a binding then you may have a problem with a bent rod, bearings or who knows??? Could be serious. Watch carefully the rockers while you crank slowly and make sure all sixteen of the rockers are moving. (Once I had an engine that the cam broke in half inside the engine and only the front half was rotating! That was hard to diagnose!)
Lets hope it is simple like a bent pushrod or even a popped valve. At least it would be easy to pop a head off and change the valve as long as it did not damage the piston.
Good luck and lets hope it is not a big dollar item.

chriscorso

Hi,

I haven't had a chance to mess with it yet. I am an ok mechanic...mostly messed with cars until now. That is pretty wild though...cam shaft broken in two! I'll be sure to update with my findings. If there is any serious breakage, I'll post pics.

Cheers,
Chris

chriscorso

So, I just tried manually turning both engines with a torque wrench on the crankshaft bolt. I definatley have a mechanical failure. The good engine took about 50-60 ft lbs to turn. The other engine took well over 130 ft lbs to turn. Major bummer, but these things happen.

I am curious though, is there anything between the engine and the drive which might bind up and cause something like this?

Cheers,
Chris

chriscorso

Turns out, the problem was in the upper half of the drive. It appears it ran low on fluid or water got into the fluid. The bearings had all seized up. End result, from now on, each season, I am going to put new fluid in each drive. I suppose I should've been doing that anyhow...live and learn. Total for the repair was about 900 bucks.
Cheers,
Chris

Full Force

iTrader: (5)

I always check drive fluid when the boat is out of the water, never hurts. Also put drive showers on them and they will stay cooler and fluid will last longer, I change mine every season.

gbcoker

OUCH !!!!!!!!! That's alot of fuel & Beer