Maiden voyage.
 

I just had my first ride in my 1996 AT 32' w/450's. Awesome ride, 2 things I need your help with;

1) starboard engine water temp. Guage would hang at zero, then it would creep up to about 160 and if I pushed it up to ~ 3500 rpm it would creep up to ~ 170 and I would back it down to cool it off (the other engine ran consistatly @ ~ 155. The port side exhaust pipe was warmer to the touch, I could only keep my hand on it for about 3-5 seconds before it got too hot. Water seemed to be coming out the pipe in amounts equal t the other exhaust pipes. Oil temps remained pretty much fixed @ ~ 200.

2) this issue may be related to the first, but there was not much of a correlation. There is a buzzer behind the instrument panel that would turn on and off sporadically (mostly on). All temps/guages. Besides the funky hot water reading, the only other thing that was a bit off was on the starboard oil pressure. it ran at ~ 50. I did check and there is a bit too much oil in the engine and I will look to remove a bit tomorrow....not sure is a correlation here.

Any insights, things to check on?

Thanks!

- scott -

There's smarter people here than me to help with your issues but glad to hear you got the boat and I guess that means it passed the 'hammer test' on the transom for the rest of this season at least! I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice on the temp and oil issues.

Congrats!

RR

Thanks RR!

Sea Pump impeller kit is the first step. Also, take the input water hose off the oil cooler and check for debris.
Those engines should run right at 150-155 on the guage if they have the correct 140* T stats.

Your buzzer is from low drive oil level imo...

I'm certainly no mechanic, but I've owned 5 boats over the last 25 years. I'll give you my 2 cents for what it's worth. One side of my exhaust always runs a little warmer than the other. When I flush my motor, I feel the water and that's always the case. Second, I always run about 10 degrees warmer than my thermostat. I have a 160 or 165 thermostat and I run around 170 to 175. Feel the risers when your running water through them. If they are cool to the touch, you should be ok. Lastly, I agree with jeff32, I would check the drive oil if all the other gauges look good. My buddy's outlaw started having an alarm go off, but all the gauges were good. Ended up being his drive oil. I'm sure someone with more mechanical expertise can shed some better insight into your situation. Good luck, love those AT's

Buy a Infared heat gun . Handiest tool you will ever own.like 50 to 100 bucks.

Well, I learned how to replace a sea pump impeller, fortunately/unfortunately what was in place was in good shape. As best as I could I also checked all water hoses for debris (found none). Next I went on to thermostats which looked kinda rusted up (and rusted in). I pulled them both to see what happened but unfortunately someone previously doing this miss threaded a bolt that holds the housing in place and I no longer get a good seal (probably maybe why there was a heavy silicone application). looks like I need a couple 140 degree thermostats and a tube of some heat resistant silicone (maybe red hi temp permatex?). My engines are the 450hp which I believe are a modified 454, so should I be looking for a 454 140 degree thermostat? Can this be obtained at a local auto parts store?

Assuming the water pump is fine and thermostat is fine, where do I look next to see why the engine heats up? As also suggested, I picked up an infrared heat gun nut I did not get a chance to play with it, what should I be looking for?

I also found I had a drive low on oil but when I filled it the buzzer continued to sound. After trying to find why an engine is running hot, the correlation between the buzzer and temp seems strong.

was the impeller housing in good condition not grooved, also unhook the wire to the t stat housing see if the alarm goes off there should be 2 wires 1 for the alarm and 1 for the guage make sure there not backwards and as griff said did you pull the hoses of the cooler make sure ther is no old impeller peices in there, also could be the water circulator pump having a bad worn impeller i would get rid of them anyhow and put crossovers on, another thing is if you have garden hose hook ups to run the motors make sure the caps are on them good

Dang, you sure have some issues with boats! Ever think about getting into a different hobby?

Ultralight aircraft perhaps? :eek:

Impeller housing was in great shape (but I still swapped it out given I already had it off)

I will check the wiring to the tstat...I recall seeing 2 sensors in the area but only one eyehook connector on each (I need to look closer to see if 2 wires were bound together)..

I pulled off hoses to check for rubber bits but I did not have access to a hose to flush out their connection points. I will do this too.

I need to research more about what you are describing with respect to using crossovers, I can't say I fully understand this yet.



Not issues, learning experiences. :D Collecting stamps is a hobby.

I'll let Mario 'splain it..... "If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." - Mario Andretti

Engine temp - heat gun shows one engine running ~10 - 20 degrees warmer than the other as measured at the tstat housing, the front of the engine block, manifolds and risers. One engine runs ~150 on the gauge, the other shows ~ 160-170 however the gauge does not operate with the engine on for some reason. I obtained this reading by stopping the engine and turning the key to p1 also, when facing the engine the right side seems hotter. I pulled the tstat out of the engine running warm and it is still warm. I do have another set of gil risers that may fit (I think these may have been off a 502 but they both have the same square bolt pattern. How would I tell if a riser went bad? Same with manifold? risers come off easily, but I really don't want to take the manaifolds off, there is very little space between engines and I find lining up those heavy things makes it a real pain to bolt back on. What I thought was odd was that the oil temp read low on the gauge @ ~200-220.One other thing - all of these readings were taken in the 1K -3K rpm range, I am afraid to run the engines harder until I better understand and/or fix this.....Maybe it is normal that one engine runs hotter than the other?

Now for that warning buzzer - My understanding is this goes off if; the drive oil level is low, oil pressure is low or the water temp is > 200. My drive oil level is topped off, oil pressure is in the 40-50 range and the buzzer seems to go off when the engine that gets warmer hits about 130 degrees (again I only get this reading when I stop the engine and put the key in p1 because the gauge is "dead" while the engine is running). I'm thinking a next step is to replace the temp gauge thinking a bad reading (no reading) could also set off the warning buzzer. Obviously this will not make the engine run any cooler, but maybe it will stop that darn buzzer.

Pull the risers and stuff a rag down the exhaust of the manifold. Get a Hacksaw blade and thrash and clean out the water jackets of the manifold.

Duct tape some small hose on your shop vac hose so you can get down in the manifold to clean the cleared debri out of it.

Hopefully your risers are halfway decent shape yet.

Scott, on my boat the gauge sender is brass and has brown wire, the alarm sensor is stainless and has brown w/gray chaser. Make sure these are correct. Did you try swapping these two temp senders with other motor to isolate. I would do this by swapping wires at motors not actually removing and replacing the physical units.

I'm starting to wonder if I am chasing a red herring. Although my drive reserve containers are topped off. I noticed that the reserve behind the left engine has 2 wires hanging below it and they are not connected. I looked all over and could not find a place where these male connectors could connect. One wire is black, the other is sort of a dark brown/purple. The wires are only about 6", any idea what these connect to?

Sounds like that res. is not connected to alarm system. To clarify the alarm system, any fault causes that sensor to ground the system completing the circus, I mean circuit, they are all connected in parallel. The res. tank has 2 wires because it is not grounded to motor. 1 wire connects to brown w/gray wire the other to ground. If tank goes low the circuit is completed and alarm sounds. Think open switch when filled, closed when low. The disconnected wires from the reservoir means it IS NOT connected to the alarm system. Disconnected sensors WILL NOT cause a fault.

Bravo drives? Have you checked the water inlet on the transom?

Get yourself a heli-coil kit and fix that cross thread issue. Silicone is not the answer for this one...

I don't think the threading issue impacts durability, it just makes starting the threading harder. Silicone is because it is cast iron and I did not have fresh gaskets.

I would like to call out Gary (GLENAMY 242SS) for taking time out of his schedule to spend about 3 hours with me Sunday afternoon on the phone trying to figure out why my mercury warning buzzer was constantly going off. After figuring this out Gary started me on a path to figuring out why my starboard engine is running hot. I really enjoy working on the boat.

To OSO - It is really cool to find a community where extremely knowledgable members step forward and offer assistance.

I would also like to thank the Hennepin county sherrif's office for stopping by a couple times to see if I was actually broken down in the middle of the lake (vs. debugging a boat issue)...it is always fun when they circle around you a few times like vulchers. I'd also like to thank about a dozen other boaters who also stopped by. It was nice of them, but it also made me have to climb in and out of the engine compartment every 10 min so it took a while to get stuff done.

Is there some sort of flag you can raise to simply indicate everything is fine, just working to fix a boat :D