1994 Baja Outlaw
 

I had an oil change in lower unit done and afterwards I took the boat out and it overheated. Took it to another mechanic for overheating. He pulled the heads and sent out to have them reworked. After put back together, cannot get boat to plane and will not do more than 4200 rpms. Runs great at idle. He also said he had found a partially shredded shop rag in the lower unit. Could a piece of rag be sucked into the cooling system? To date cannot get water to circulate through engine. Replaced 2 water pumps. Out of ideas and out of cash.....The boat ran perfect before all this...1994 Baja Outlaw with 502 Mercruiser....any advice would be appreciated.

ok, I'm going to start and hope some other guys have ideas and more questions like I do.

1. You had the out drive fluid changed and had no problems before the fluid change?
2. What drive do you have? I assume its a Bravo 1? You have to change all the fluid on a Bravo 1 you can't just change the lower unit fluid.
3. So it was overheating and the mechanic you took it to said you must need your heads reworked? What did he do to come to that conclusion for a overheating problem?
4. Who found the rag, the guy that changed the fluid in the drive? or the guy that reworked your heads?
5. I could not see a rag being sucked into the cooling system at all. Do you trust these guys you took your boat to?

Sorry, but a few too many things don't add up here. In order for a simple overheat to require sending the heads out, one would really have to cook the motor big time.

As for changing the drive lube causing a shop rag to get ingested into the gears, there's simply no way to suck (or stuff) a shop rag through either a drain or vent plug - period. And if one did manage to get one in there, overheating wouldn't be the result.

Getting back to the overheat, any good mechanic knows that when you overheat a Bravo due to a raw water pump impeller failure, you need to back flush the system to get all of the pieces back out. Sounds like nobody did that.

And finally, if you overheated the engine enough to cause problems with the heads, one can only guess what kind of damage you could have caused to the bottom end. Of course if your "mechanic" sent the heads out for no good reason, all bets are off.

Personally, I'd find a reputable mechanic and be prepared to shell out a few bucks for them to find out what really happened.

A old boat i had over heated , and i had the heads redone and the boat would idle great on ears and once i put it the water it would start but would get warm and stop , found out that the heads were bad i thinks the guides . Put a differnt set of heads on it and ran fine . find some heads and put them on . I think htg in grand island has some around

How bad did it overheat? Wern't you watching to see if water was coming out of your exhaust? Can't figure out how a shreaded rag gets into the lower. Why didn't you take it back to the first guy? Second guy pulls your heads right off the bat? Sent them out for what? And now for the best question. After getting it back together, you ran it trying to get it up on plane at 4200rpms with no water circulating thru it? What water pump have you replaced twice? Let me guess, first boat? Find a new mechanic! Ask around in your area for a boat mechanic worth a damn cuz the ones your going to don't seem to know what their doing. Why would they let you run the boat after doing the heads without making sure water is flowing as it should, WTF didn't they test run it before letting it go?

You have to take the boat to a marina, or someone that knows how a boat supplies its self with water. Regular mechanic shops do not know about how the water pump on the front of the engine is not a pump. Like already said im sure the raw water impellar is shreaded and pieces are all throught the hoses and need cleaned out. :lolhit:

First, you need to describe each and every thing you have had done, or done to the boat. You have them grouped together, and they may or may not be relative. I have seen major problems on boat, because minor problems were not repaired properly. However, I have also seen novices assume all problems are related when they are not, especially when there are under financial stress and need to point the finger at someone else.

Was the drive fluid changed for maintenance, or because of a problem?

Was the "rag" found in the drive fluid, or fresh water cooling tube?

If the rag was found in the lower, where the drive fuild is, the only way it could be there is with the drive apart. It would also be the only way to find such rag, with the drive apart. The fill and vent plugs are small, about 7/16 of an inch.

If the rag was in the cooling hose, this would cause overheating. However, the drive would have had to been taken off for the fluid change. And a rag would have maybe been stuck in the water inlet joint on either the drive or the transom housing? Would seem strange to put a rag in there, but possible. Was just the drive fuild changed, or was the drive removed for gimble bearing service?

Why were the heads worked? Did you blow the head gaskets over heating? Did you burn down some valves running it hot?

So many factors could be your problem now-

Timing is way off, dist had to come out to do heads.

Rockers were not adjusted properly after head install

New head or intake gaskets are leaking

Spark plug wires are not in proper firing order

Missed det damage to pistons, and you are low on comp

Was ran hot after service because something was missed from original impellar failure.

My advise:

1.Check timing
2. Verify firing order
3. Perform leak down and compression test
4. Find a reputable repair shop, the best not the cheapest.
5. In the future is something is not right do not run the boat, get it fixed before you do more damage.

We learn bad habits from our first cars. Lights come on and we drive, and most times we are ok because the window of the car not being right before blowing up is huge, even when overheating, or misfiring. Now take a high performance boat, that runs high rpms under high loads (like towing 4 cars behind one) and that window of something not being right is very very small. Even more so on your boat, the technology used to monitor your engine is ZERO, what we had in cars in the 70's. A newer 496 MAG most likely would not have let you bliow it up, the computer would have put it in limp mode...much like a car from today will.