Motor problems after adding ballast

[strope74]

Has anyone ran into problems with the motor dying after adding fat sacs for surfing? I have an 01 21V Riders Edition, seems to run fine until we load it up with weight. The motor quites and then will only run for 5 to 10 seconds. After limping and paddling for three hours I took the boat into the local Tige dealer, they had the boat for 2 weeks told me they couldn't find anything wrong with it and charged me for nothing. This has happened on two separate occasions, I don't want to make it a third. The first time I changed the fuel/water separator, no luck didn't change anything. Anybody had any similar problems? Any ideas? Fuel pump maybe? Thanks

[chpthril]

Carb or EFI?

What was the fuel level when the problem was occurring? When it happened the 2nd time, did you dump the ballast and return the boat to a level keel and it still didn't run right after 3 hrs? This rules out engine temp and oil pressure. I'm thinking that there may be a leak in the fuel pickup tube, and the pump starts sucking air when the boat is listed over and the fuel level drops after awhile, but after dumping the ballast and cranking the engine a few times, any air in the fuel line should purge out.

did you dealer load it up with ballast and go run it? Kinda hard to duplicate the condition without running the boat under the conditions that is happens under

[strope74]

Its EFI. The gas tank was 3/4 full the first time and full the second time. The dealer didn't load the boat up in thier test tank, so the conditions weren't duplucated exactly. When it happened on the lake, we dumped all the ballast, got the boat level again, the motor would run for 5 to 10 seconds at a time, but didn't ever recover until the boat sat for a couple days, then seemed to run fine without ballast. Air getting into the system somehow would make sense, but probably pretty hard to find. Thanks for your help!

[AdaminMN]

Was the weight on the same side as the fuel pickup? Perhaps you have some water in the bottom of the tank and listing the boat brings it to the fuel pickup.

[dogbert]

What side are you surfing on? Did you have a lot of water in your bilge? I've had issues on my boat where water comes into my bilge through the bilge pump discharge on the side of the boat. The way my bilge pump was positioned, you would have had to have a lot of water in there to get it to run automatically. Once we started going, all the water ran to the rear of the boat and the altenator would start spraying it round the engine compartment.

[TRD]

I agree w/ Dogbert, AdaminMN & Chptril. If you are weighting down the passanger side of the boat your pickup is on the drivers (it seems). Here is what I have to do, when I weight down one side of the boat for surfing (passengers side) We MUST do this while the gas tank is FULL. When you get down so far it get air in the fuel manifold and shuts the engine down and will not start.

What we do is empty the weight out and keep letting the air out until the gas comes out and the engine should start. You may have to do this several times if you are having the same problem we do. Good luck.

My question on this subject is has anyone ever move there gas pickup? What would be involved w/ doing this. I think I may try and surf on the other side before I go to this extent.

[strope74]

Thank you for you suggestions. Everybody I surf with is goofy footed so we are weighting the boat on the drivers side, the same side as the bilge discharge. I didn't notice any water in the bilge, but will take that into consideration next time. How do you get the air out of the fuel manifold? or water out of the fuel tank?

[TRD]

air out of the fuel maniforl - just use the shrader valve at the end. Water in the fuel - I use Marine Stabil for the ethonal, not sure this will fix you problem or not.

I was thinking about forcing myself to switch to the goofy side, but no sense if that side has problems also. bummy, I thought this would be my fix.

Thank you for you suggestions. Everybody I surf with is goofy footed so we are weighting the boat on the drivers side, the same side as the bilge discharge. I didn't notice any water in the bilge, but will take that into consideration next time. How do you get the air out of the fuel manifold? or water out of the fuel tank?

[brockroorda]

I'm gonna go out on the limb and take a guess that your boat is going in to limp mode. (Safety mode). It does this bc you have the back of the boat sunk from ballast and your nose in the air. There is an oil level sensor that is sensing your low on oil near the front of the engine. Try adding about a half a quart of oil.

[Duncan]

I've had issues on my boat where water comes into my bilge through the bilge pump discharge on the side of the boat.

A riser loop in the bilge pump discharge line could help.

[TX2100V]

Did you pull the spark plugs and check for water in the cylinders?

You may have the boat so low that the water level in the exhaust system allows it to easily enter the elbow on top of the riser and then sluice down into the cylinders on the low side. Mercruiser specifies a minimum of 13" (I think that is the number) between the water level and the exhaust elbows.

Mike