Engine acts like it is vapor locking

[raythompson]

Originally posted by tweirich
Ram enough air in there and you'll need an inter-cooler

There are enough air leaks around the engine housing that I doubt you could get more than a couple of pounds more air pressure if you used 2 two horsepower blowers. All you would get would be a lot of noise.

Getting cool air into the engine housing also requires that you exhaust the hot air. If two blowers are rigged one needs to blow air in, the other needs to suck air out or there needs to be openings to exhaust the air. This would defeat any attempt at boosting the air pressure of the air supplied to the engine. The discharge from the one that blows in would need to be close to the engine.

Then you need to worry about fire safety. If you should ever have an engine fire those blowers would need to stop immediately. Starving the fire of oxygen would buy you a little time. But how much time does it take to grab a preserver and just jump out? Anyway, for safety's sake rethink the plans to try and force more air into the engine compartment full time.

[rpaxton]

Wow Ray!

I think before you go jumping overboard you might alert your passengers! I can only imagine their expression as the pilot suddenly jumps up, grabs a life jacket and leaps overboard. Of course in my mind this all hapens as the boat is still moving! LOL!

[Tequilasun]

If I was in Ray's boat and he leaped overboard, I'm gonna be jumping before he hits the water!

Nicky, you planning on pushing air directly in to the motor or just into the engine compartment?


Maybe your gonna need the blackbox recorder thinga ma jig

[raythompson]

Originally posted by rpaxton
I think before you go jumping overboard you might alert your passengers!

Nope. If they are not observant enough to catch on (smoke, fire, driver disembarks at 40 MPH) then they are probably not smart enough to survive anyway.

Seriously, I would stop the boat by cutting the ignition, grab a vest, tell others, then leap.

I also have a waverunner and it is required to have a fire extinquisher. Now it is located in the front cover, and then in a tube with a screw on top. So I am sitting on a waverunner, with 17 gallons of gas between my legs. A fire starts. I am going to stop, stand up, open the cover, unscrew the top, pull out the extinquisher, move to the back, open the engine cover, then use the extinquisher. Yeh right. I would simply jump off and wait for other boats that notice the signal fire in the middle of the lake. But TWRA says you have to have a fire extinquisher in case of a fire so I do.

I would never, never, attempt to fight any fire in a water craft. I would just get away from the craft and wait for another boat or head to shallow water. The fire will get noticed. The boat gets destroyed and I get a new boat. Insurance even pays for the vessel recovery. Fighting a fire is just not worth the risk. I know from fighting a barn fire when I was a teenager and severely burned my feet. Get the people out and leave the dousing to the professionals.

[Tequilasun]

Originally posted by raythompson
Get the people out and leave the dousing to the professionals.

I could not agree more!

[rpaxton]

I have to agree as well. That is why we pay for insurance!

On this same topic, has anyone looked at the systems that contain a firealarm in the engine compartment and allow you to, either manually or automatically depending on the system, activate a fire extinsuisher that is plumbed into the engine compartment? I know these systems usually have fuel and ventilation shut offs as well.

[rpaxton]

Also, back to the original topic, I took the boat out again this weekend. I fixed the air intake forward of the driver's seat (who ever designed that one should be SHOT.... Tige), and put fuel stabilizer / cleaner into the fuel. When we started up she puffed a small amout of black smoke, idled roughly for about a minute, then ran just fine.

I ran the motor for about an hour at diffrent speeds and trim/wakeboard settings. Shut her down and restarted 3 or 4 times with no problems. We checked the shrade valve on the fuel system, no air, and pulled 2 spark plugs and found them to be the correct color.

The only difference in yesterdays outing, besides the repair, was the temperature was only about 85 and I ran the blower for several minutes after the engine was turned off.

I think we are going to take the boat to a Mercruiser dealer and have them run diagnostics on the motor, unless anyone has any other suggestions........

[NICKYPOO]

Originally posted by raythompson
There are enough air leaks around the engine housing that I doubt you could get more than a couple of pounds more air pressure if you used 2 two horsepower blowers. All you would get would be a lot of noise.

Getting cool air into the engine housing also requires that you exhaust the hot air. If two blowers are rigged one needs to blow air in, the other needs to suck air out or there needs to be openings to exhaust the air. This would defeat any attempt at boosting the air pressure of the air supplied to the engine. The discharge from the one that blows in would need to be close to the engine.

Then you need to worry about fire safety. If you should ever have an engine fire those blowers would need to stop immediately. Starving the fire of oxygen would buy you a little time. But how much time does it take to grab a preserver and just jump out? Anyway, for safety's sake rethink the plans to try and force more air into the engine compartment full time.

Wow, you guys really ran with this one! My intentions are to just make sure I have plenty of fresh air getting to the motor box. I'm not looking to come up with some back woods ram air induction system. The engine compartment only has one 3" blower in it. All it does is exhaust the fumes from the engine compartment. I just saw how the whole air intake "system" was set up and felt I could improve it greatly in a rather simple and cost effective way. I sould have stated earlier that I would like to replace the original blower with something a little more effective, like say a 4" high flow type........or something. My thought was that they (all three blowers) would work in unison. At speed there really wouldn't be any real benifit, but while idling around it would ensure a good steady flow of fresh air into, and, yes, out of the motor box. Thanks for bringing that up Ray. That is an excelent point.

rpax- Glad to hear you fixed that hose. I had a thought over the weekend that had yet to occur to me. When was the last time you checked your PCV valve? Those things should be changed yearly. $10 dollar part that can put your $50k boat on the trailer for the weekend. Let us know what Merc says if you do take it in.

[waterbugs]

additional fuel pump recall

I had a similar problem on an 01 22i with the 330 hp mercruiser. The dealer told me about the distributor pick up but I really felt it was a fuel problem since it only happened after the boat was warm and sat for about 1 hr. I contacted Mercruiser and provided them with a description of the problem and my engine type and serial number. There was a recall for my particular power package and they paid for the repair which was an additional fuel pump located at the water separating fuel filter. The problem was a "hot soak" issue where the 1 fuel pump provided could not overcome fuel vaporization issues. The dealer told me they had never had a Tige vapor lock. Also during my investigation I found out that fuels sold in the US from Sep-Oct to Mar-Apr are actually different in regards to the additives used which affect fuel volatility. In my particular case I had filled the boat in Mar and it ran just fine during the colder weather. However, when I tried to use the fuel up during a hot day in May the boat would not run after the "hot soak". After it sat for a few hours it would run just fine until it was turned off again when the problem would resurface. Boat would start and run until a load was applied then it would shut down acting like it had run out of gas........engine is a 350 mag mpi.......no problems since repair.

[NICKYPOO]

Good point. I always run 92 octane in the boat. The higher octane has a higher vaporization point.

[dogbert]

Wow, you make one comment in jest and suddenly you have thread hijack going on...you guys are obviously suffering from watersports deprivation.


^^
Generally indicates humor may be involved

LOL

[TeamAllen]

Here is the new air induction option for Mr. Nick E. Poo.

[dogbert]

Originally posted by TeamAllen
Here is the new air induction option for Mr. Nick E. Poo.

Dude, that's awesome!

[NICKYPOO]

Haaaaaaaaaaaa. That's so funny dude, I was totally working on something like that for that same picture a little while back, bird catcher and all. That is about the coolest bird catcher I've ever seen though. Only one problem, you forgot the Zoomies. I was also thinking about putting a drag spoiler on it.

[dogbert]

Originally posted by NICKYPOO
Haaaaaaaaaaaa. That's so funny dude, I was totally working on something like that for that same picture a little while back, bird catcher and all. That is about the coolest bird catcher I've ever seen though. Only one problem, you forgot the Zoomies. I was also thinking about putting a drag spoiler on it.

Oh, and don't forget the nitrous oxide...too bad you have the FAE, otherwise you could have afterburners...might get a little warm when you surf though.