boat is running rough

[guedo8]

Woke up early this morning to take advantage of the calm water. Ended up being a waste of time. My boat (2004 22v) started "slipping". It seemed like the engine was having problems getting fuel. There was a good amount of smoke coming from the exhaust which makes me think it is a fuel related issue. Has anyone experienced this before? One thing that I noticed was the bilge pump kicked on multiple times; however, I'm not sure if this is normal because ever since I bought the boat the bilge pump hasn't worked (the shop has replaced it under the warranty every year). So these two things combined makes me wonder if water is finding a way into the fuel. Your thoughts and/or personal experiences with this type of problem would be appreciated.

[chpthril]

What engine (Manufacturer and Hp)

Did you look to see how much water was in the bilge? Only place for bilge water to enter fuel system is the top of the tank, has the fuel level sending unit ever been replace?

Bilge pumps are a pretty simple device, and rarely fail. If your dealer has to replace it every year, you either have a constant leak wearing out the pumps that the dealer is unaware of, or they just cant diagnose a simple 12V pump system.

What color was the smoke and what did it smell like?

[guedo8]

Engine is Mercruiser 350 with 315 hp. Smoke was light grey almost white. At first it looked like steam coming off the water but then you could smell a slight smoke odor (smoke coming from exhaust). Smoke would go away once the boat was shut off. I opened the engine compartment and there was no visible smoke coming from there. The bilge pump wouldn't run for anymore than 20-30 seconds. Like I said I am unaware if the bilge turning on is normal since this is my first boat and the bilge has never functioned properly per my tige maintenance shop. I did notice though that the bilge would primarily turn on when we first started moving. I'm guessing from the water shifting to the back of the boat where the bilge is located.

I've been thinking what could cause my boat to run rough. I think (with my limited mechanical knowledge) that it is a fuel problem. IE fuel pump, bad gas (?), bad spark plugs. I'm not sure.

Luckily it ran well enough to get back to the boat dock.

[jwanck11]

Did it sit a long time before you ran it? What did the temp meter read?

[guedo8]

I had the boat out on Saturday (Aug 9th) and it ran like a champ. This problem occured on Sunday (Aug 10th). I filled the boat up on Saturday before we went out, so the same fuel was in the boat both days.

The temp on Sunday after this problem occured was between 225-250 degrees. I can't remember the exact reading. What temp is it suppose to run at?

Another bit of information is the loud high pitched sound for the shallow water alarm kept going off; although, we were not in shallow water. Not sure if this problem is related or not.

On Saturday when we went out my bro-in-law did some slalom skiing for approx. 20 minutes then we went across lake travis to the cove. Sunday when we went out I put the boat in the water and immediately started filling the fat sacs for some wakeboarding. After I had them all filled my wife was behind the boat ready to go. As she was putting her bindings on I noticed the small amount of smoke coming from the exhaust (which is right under the platform). So we decided to go ahead and give wakeboarding a shot. When we throttled the boat up to pull her out of the water was when it started to feel like it was slipping. So I thought maybe it was the additional weight from the fat sacs (we just bought them). So i emptied them completely which did not fix the problem.

[chpthril]

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The temp on Sunday after this problem occured was between 225-250 degrees. I can't remember the exact reading. What temp is it suppose to run at?



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Dude, that engine temp should be around 170*F Need to inspect impeller or look for restriction.

[illiniboarder88]

yeah, that temp is high. If the impeller flips, couldn't it be hard for the engine to turn?

[dogbert]

That is high, I'd bet the impeller is toast. I've ingested fair amount of debris on Lake Austin this year. It's already cost me one impeller.

BTW, I bet it wasn't the shallow alarm, but the high temp alarm.

[guedo8]

Is this something I can check myself or something the maintenance shop should do?

the impeller being clogged would make sense seeing that I had the fat sacs filled and the hydrilla in Lake Austin is high where I put my boat in.

Do you think all the problems I've described up to this point would be caused by the impeller being clogged?

[chpthril]

Like Dogbert posted, the alarm was more then likely for the hi engine temp. Fix that and go from there.

[dogbert]

Is this something I can check myself or something the maintenance shop should do?

the impeller being clogged would make sense seeing that I had the fat sacs filled and the hydrilla in Lake Austin is high where I put my boat in.

Do you think all the problems I've described up to this point would be caused by the impeller being clogged?

My guess is that it's not clogged, but it's damaged. I'd take it to Charlie at the Ski Dock and have them fix it. I had to do mine a few weeks back and replace both the impeller and the housing. Like I said, there's a fair amount of debris on the upper part of the lake where we normally go, so keep that in mind.

Whatever you do, don't run your boat above idle speed. If you want to try unclogging, I'd remove the intake hose from the impeller and flush water back through the V-Drive cooler and the raw water intake. If no debris flushes out, then your impeller is toast. Even if it does have debris in it, it's possible that you have damaged your impeller because no water was going through.

Personally, it's not something you want to take chances on. Another guy on here lost his engine because a plastic bag got sucked into the raw water in take. He blew the engine.