engine warning - help

[jeremiah.hough]

we were out this weekend and used the boat all day saturday. we were just getting ready to head in and the engine warning light came on and the alarm sounded about every 15 seconds. i stopped the boat and checked all fluids. temperature and oil psi was good. something did smell a little hot though. luckily we were close to the trailer so we made it in slowly.

i spoke with the mechanic at my dealer and they think the transmission cooler probably has debris in it. the lake did get really nasty as the day went on. they told me to remove the hose coming into the cooler and feel for debris. if it does have debris in it to clean it out as good as i can with my finger then maybe take the other hose off and wash it out. sounded simple enough until i went to remove the first hose. HOLY CRAP! i'm not sure it's humanly possible to get an arm in there and loosen the hose clamp. they obviously assembled it before putting the motor in. Of course the clamp screw is on the opposite side.

I guess i'm just making sure there isn't any other options to try first. i worked on it for about 30 minutes on my lunch with no luck. i'll try again this evening. they suggested putting a fresh water strainer on to help prevent this in the future. any suggestions would be be very much appreciated.

Oh yeah, the boat is a 2014 z3, with the indmar m60 415hp.

[loudelectronics]

Did you check the fresh water strainer first?

[jeremiah.hough]

he didn't think mine would have one. Where would it be located if i did. that would be much easier.

[loudelectronics]

When you lift up the floor there is a plastic strainer on the driver side under the rear seat. It is a clear bowl with mesh strainer. I think it is an option but a very valuable one pretty easy to install yourself as well. Not sure on the indmar motors but in the past there were some small heat exchangers that would plug up and would need to pull the hoses off to clean them.

Did you notice any temperature lights?

[IDBoating]

i'm not sure it's humanly possible to get an arm in there and loosen the hose clamp. they obviously assembled it before putting the motor in. Of course the clamp screw is on the opposite side.

Just unbolt the cooler itself. We have a different engine, but they may be mounted similarly. Our maintenance manual says to remove the intercooler's drain plug, but that's virtually impossible because it's on the engine side, under the engine, at an angle that makes it impossible to see and barely possible to even touch with a finger. But back off a single nut and bolt, and the whole intercooler drops away. Then you can move it around at your leisure using the flexibility of the hoses. At that point it's easy to just remove a hose clamp, pull off one of the hoses, and let everything drain (or in your case, feel around in the intercooler). You could also remove the other hose and then just pull the intercooler entirely out of the boat and inspect it in comfort with bright lights and tools.

[JLG]

There have been a lot of boats at LOTO in the past few weeks that have plugged strainers or coolers. Sounds like Barry has cleaned a lot of them out. Most have been on the west end it sounds where there is more debris from the flooding. I went as far west as Paradise bar one eve while there and almost turned around due to the trash floating.

[jeremiah.hough]

Well i finally got it. Just took a little patience (which i'm not good at) and getting my hand and arm in angles they've never been! Thanks to Barry at Performance for walking me through it. It was completely plugged. i removed the hose from the other end also and backwashed with a garden hose. I will definitely be ordering a fresh water strainer! i put the hose clamps back at an angle where they are more accessible just in case.

[007]

Barry was cursing the lack of strainers on the the Indmar motors. I fell victim over the weekend too. Had to take it to the shop on Monday because I couldn't clear mine. Joe and Barry rock for service!