Boat chugs, alarm sounds but still runs...

[loudelectronics]

Was just out on the lake and noticed the red light flashing on my dash and under low rpm 1200-1500 the boat would start to surge or die, almost like perfect pass was trying to come on and then turn off. Perfect pass was off. The alarm will also sound. If you give it gas and get the rpm up to 2000+ the boat runs fine and alarm and light is silenced.

My brother said it has happened to him a couple times even when riding under load and acceleration but I have yet to be able to duplicate it.

Anyone have any ideas? I was thinking water in fuel but was not 100% on that as it would clear up right away and not be a problem.

[4bw]

The light on the dash usually indicates the transmission is overheating. Check the trans fluid level and also the condition of the fluid. It should be pinkish red and not smell burnt. Trans fluid that has been over heated is supposed be changed. My guess is something is semi blocking your trans cooler or cooling system. At low rpms you overheat but at higher rpms enough water circulates for proper cooling. Pull off the hoses on trans cooler and check and see what is there. Also if you have a sea strainer clean that. Check for leaks on all your water lines. If all of this checks out, I would inspect/replace the impeller.

Try these things and report back and I am sure someone will have ideas if none of this works.

[loudelectronics]

Planning on checking this out tomorrow. Boat officially died tonight. if let set it will start up and run fine for a bit then chugs again and dies. Starting to think it is the fuel pump.

[loudelectronics]

Boat started right up this morning. Argh. So far everything is checking out from what I can see with out getting into electrical and cooling.

[boatwakes]

Get a fuel pressure tester for fuel injected engines and watch the gauge when it happens.

[loudelectronics]

The HX's have been cleaned. Fuel Filter bowl cleaned, a bit of water in that. But is running fine but as soon as you put load on it like ballast or WOT it cuts power, stutters and dies or runs rough. Turn it off and start it back up and it runs perfect again. Oil pressure at 5500 rpm is about 75-80 psi. 2000-3000 rpm is 55-60 psi.

Any ideas? Totally messed up and at a loss. Just dont get how it works great and then dies and then runs good again. Not easy to problem shoot at all.

[Timmy!]

Get a fuel pressure tester for fuel injected engines and watch the gauge when it happens.

I think this is what you need to do. Might have enough pressure when there is light load.

[loudelectronics]

This would be the high pressure pump correct?

[Timmy!]

There is usually a port on the rail that has a fitting for the fuel pressure pump to go on, you would test it there with/without load and see how much it drops. The other thing you can do is leave it hooked up and see if the pressure slowly bleeds off, if that's the case you might have a bad injector or two.

[loudelectronics]

Think I have to chalk this one up to bad gas. Put 4 Cans of seafoam in and not one issue after.

[Wakeman22]

I was going to say bad gas as that was a similar problem I had last year from the Marina fuel. It kept happening until I started using fuel from town. This year I got fuel at the lake as I thought it would be new and good. However the same issues arose until a ran it out and got fuel from town again. Solution. Buy gas that you know is good and water free.