Glad its almost the end of the season. Just put new seawater pump impellers in this thing less than a month ago and today the center seawater pump housing decides to crack/come apart due to sucking in a bunch of sand. Thought I was deep enough when I started that motor but lesson learned. Only noticed it when I saw the temp gauge passing 210! Shut that motor off and popped the hatches and of course there is water and sand all over. If that wasn't enough, now that motor doesn't want to start, just clicks and I think the starter slave solenoid is bad. Whomever from Mercruiser decided to mount that thing underneath the black shelf that the circuit breaker and main harness plug mounts to should be shot! Even worse is that all my MSD stuff mounts on top of that black shelf. Got the seawater pump out and everything that needed to come off to get to that solenoid by the time it got dark. Tomorrow morning at first light its under the hatch and get that solenoid out and go run for parts. On a good note, she did get up on plane no problem on the two outside motors and I cruised back to camp at 3800 rpms and around 50 mph still.

I hope it is just starter related !

No water in oil, didn't get past 210 and it was running when I shut it off.

Phewww. Could you tell I was nervous for you ? LOL.

Just think.. A $25 impeller, a $40 plastic housing protects $30k + of motors. It's called Planned obsolescence... for the consumer to spend more $, when $100 can save $30k. if it's designed to work. The pump could be made electric for instance. I had the same problem a few weeks ago. hit some sand, got everywhere, impeller is fried, engine got bit hot, not to 200, shut it off, and it took some time before it was "happy" enough to start again. Could be a guardian thing, or just being hot. But after I cleaned, flushed, new impeller and housing the motor is just fine. But.. unless you catch it fast enough, these things could be catastrophic. Glad we both paying attention.

Try to turn the motor by hand before you pull the starter. When the motor cooled down it could have sucked water in from exhaust. Ask me how I know. You may just need to pull the spark plugs an spin it over. If salt water ? Do it quick. Artie

Good thing it sounds like you caught it.

On a second thought maybe transom pickups are better as they aren't as deep as drive to be grabbing this stuff. Would people be better off with a transom pickup over the drive for this?

My friend did the same last year and a month later spun a bearing in the same motor. Coinsedience? Maybe. Maybe not. Engine builder said the oil may have gotten way to hot and broke down? I'd change the oil while you're in there. Hope everything turns out ok! Good luck brother!

I just find it odd that it picked that exact moment to have what appears to be the starter slave solenoid go bad. Have never had an issue with that motor starting before. There is no water in the motor though. The starter doesn't even attempt to engage, so it is definitely not getting juice. I stuck my garden hose in both hoses off the seawater pump and back flushed the drive and the motor. Man there was a lot of sand in this thing. It has -2 shorties on it and with the drives up those nosecone pickups make a good sand sucker.

Sounds like something got too damn hot. I'm no mechanic and could take guesses all night. I sure hope you get it resolved tomorrow. Keep us posted.