According to Throttleman Randy, warning horn came on at 190 degrees, engine went into shutdown at 200 degrees. And that's the way it is programmed. Mercury scanned the engine computer after the race. They are looking into the matter.

Before anyone makes smart remarks: A racer's reflex is to ignore all buzzers and warning lights, and to go as long as the engine is alive. Even if all the gauges go black, driver and throttleman will go on as long as the engine turns. Especially when you can practically touch the finish line.

I saw that race and Typhoon ran awesome. That boat accelerated hard down the back stretch and around turn 4 kept just walking away. When they shut down just before the finish line I thought maybe they just miscalculated the finish but then heard about the overheat problem. That boat ran awesome for it's first race and the conditions were pretty bad.

Some suggestions on the cooling problem. Do you know what kind of water pressure they are seeing? We had a problem with one where the water pickup on the nose cone wasn't passing enough water to keep water pressure up. We opened up the pickup a little more and haven't had the problem since.

Just a thought......

I know it's frustrating but it was a great showing for it's first race.

Ccarlos: I don't know, but all parameters before and after the incident are stored on the engine computer, and were read out by Mercury personell right after the race. The computer might shut you down, but it also keeps a record .....

I SAY TAKE THE **** OFF FOR GOOD,I CANT SEE
A TRUE RACE BOAT WITH A CLOSE COOLLING
SYSTEM.LET THE SALT WATER RUN THROUGH AND
NOT THE COOLANT,THE MORE PARTS ON THE MOTOR
THE MORE CHANCES OF FAILURE IN A RACE.ABOUT
THE APBA COMMENT ON THE KILL SWITCH,I DONT
BELIEVE THAT A BIT SPECIALLY WHEN THE RACE WAS
COMMING TO AN END

This is where the computer comes in: By reading out its memory, one can clearly show whether some dumb eff pulled the switch - as alleged in the press release - or whether the computer decided to shut down because the cooling got too hot.

Let's face it: Saying someone pulled the kill switch is the offshore racing equivalent of saying he's a blazing idiot. This has no place in an official press release.

Since Merc doesn't warranty the motor once is run in a race anyway, just disable limp mode. Let the racers decide if the win is worth the motor, not the computer.

The closed system allows the engine to get up to the proper temps. A cold engine just won't make the same power.

Closed cooling is the way to go as long as it's done the right way.

Mike: Could you expand some more on your 2nd statement?

Peconic, what I think Mike is saying is that those systems(borrowed from lesser engines) are operating at their absolute maximum peak design limits. There's no margin of safety.

All the HP-3 Vortecs are closed cooling system. I don't think any of the teams running the GM engines with the closed cooling had any overheating problems other than raw water pick up problems when they first came out.