Motor Died and would not start?

[samsonrollins]

So we got to take our first ride in our 2001 23V that we purchased over the winter. Everything went great for the first 1 1/2 hrs. Motor ran fine, we waked boarded and started and stopped quite a few times. Then we drove across the lake (about 10-15 minutes ride) and turned the boat off and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Decided to wake board one more time before heading in, started the motor rite up and started pulling up the wake boarder and the power started to stall out. Gave it more gas and power continued to drop until the motor died. Cranked over fine and started up for a brief moment but then died.

Tried to get it started for about 5 minutes with no luck (cranked fine but didn't seem to fire). Fiddled with the throttle lever, nothing seemed to work. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and tried again, it stumbled a bit but then fired up and ran fine back to the dock. Sun was going down, very few boats left on the lake and I was getting nervous we'd have to spend the night out there.

My only guess as to what could have caused it was it may have gotten flooded, just not sure why?

Anybody experience similar situation? Any ideas of cause? Thanks

Samson

[chpthril]

What was the ambient temp? Sounds like vapor lock cause by some of the more volatile winter blend still being on the tank. The higher temps cause it to boil off, become vapor, in the fuel system.

[samsonrollins]

It was about 75 degrees out. Yes, the gas we were running was put in with stabilizer back at the end of Feb this year.

[chpthril]

The stabilizer will hel to slow the spoiling, but if it was winter blend gas in Feb, its 4 month old winter blend today, but with much warmer are temps, witch equals higher engine bay temps. I would top off the tank with fresh fuel and change the fuel.water sep filter just for good measure and go run it.

[Ruger761]

Chpthril's right on the money.

I personally just added a 2nd pump (more of a lift pump) to our boat due to vapor locking when we hit the 90-100 temps. It would do it almost every time if we sat for more than 30min to an hr. Which is part of a service bulliten from Merc.

[TeamAllen]

Sorry to hear you had a problem on your first trip out. Don't let that dis outage you from your new to you Tige. You came to the right place for your answer! Try a search on this forum for vapor lock and there is a wealth of information. I would find some of the better links for you, but I'm on my phone.

[Ruger761]

Here is the service bulletin I was talking about. Note the first page where it talks about winter grade fuels. New filter some fresh no ethonal gas and you will be good to go until it hits the really high temps depending on where you are located at. Its frustrating when it does it but every boat can have it happen especially with winter fuel or ethonal which is even worse as the fuel ages.


service bulliten.pdf

[boatwakes]

Start with the simple stuff: is there gas in the tank? It's important that you DO NOT TRUST THE GAUGE!!!! To check do this: locate the fuel pressure test port at the front of the fuel rail on the engine, it is a schrader valve with a cap on it (think bicycle tire fill). It is the square tubing that connects to the injectors, supplying them with fuel. There is a rail for each side of the motor and only one side has a test port. Get a rag and place it under the test port after you remove the cap. Turn the key to the "on" position and wait for the fuel pump to prime. Once thats been done, push on the valve like you're relieving air out of a bike tire, but be prepared for fuel to come out (hence the rag). If you get nothing after repeated tries, there is either no gas in the tank or the fuel pump gave up. Either way you have somewhere to start. If you're out of gas, use the same technique to purge the air out of the system before attempting to start again because you need to have fuel in the rails to get fuel to the injectors.
There's also ignition and sensors but there are specific symptoms with each. We had a similar problem happen at Lake Mead 10 years ago but when it ran it was smokey and sooty from unburned fuel, turned out to be a bad Manifold Air Temp sensor which caused the engine to over fuel. Any more specific symptoms will help if the problem keeps occurring. Keep us posted.

[Ruger761]

Boatwakes, one FYI not all are multi port fuel injeciton so some are set up just a little different for your steps on checking for fuel. Not sure what Sams boat has in it. Some 01s can be carb or EFI as well. Be nice if Tige would have stuck with one style of fuel thru the years instead of switching back and forth.

[samsonrollins]

Thanks for the help everyone! We took the boat out again last night for about 3 hours with not troubles. We topped off the gas and it fired up every time and ran strong. I appreciate your advice and the technical bulletin!

Samson