1990 force 90 hp ran dry, overheat, stalled..now what?

[Osage76]

So I was running my outboard in the driveway at idle speed. I had the lower unit submerged in a container of water that was supplied by a running garden hose. I watched it run with out issue for 20 minutes. Then nature called and I went inside for maybe 10-15 minutes. When I came back outside the engine was off and the overheat alarm was screaming. You guessed it, the water hose somehow came out starving the engine of water.

So the engine overheated and stalled. the head got very hot and melted the pee tube that the water comes out of at the thermostat. and the stickers turned from white to brown so clearly it got very hot.

Obviously I will need a new water impeller, question is, have I done permanent damage to the engine?.. (cylinders, heads, etc...)
The engine cranks but I havent tried to run it:
Compression results
75psi
87psi
100psi

I dont have before numbers but it ran great before thishappend.

I pulled the head hoping the head is warped or maybe the gasket?
The gasket is intact but the cylinder walls are all a little rough on the same spot in all three cylinders at the 7 or 8 o'clock position.

I called a couple repair joints but one wanted 250 just to look at it the other wanted to replace the crankshaft and bearings sight unseen and yet a third tried to sell me a recently reconditiond inside and out wellcraft for 4500...( I am considering the wellcraft ;-) Anyway. What to do about this outboard???/

 

[Stachi]

Re: 1990 force 90 hp ran dry, overheat, stalled..now what?

you should start this thread in the Force outboard engines section....and have pics.

 

[Ahill11]

Had my 50 hp over heat. 40 psi in one and 0 in the lower...lower piston was scored n rings were done. I tore down and rebuild...honed cylinders and new pistons and rings...she's got about 5 hours on her n she's rippin

 

[Ahill11]

If you can do it yourself that's the way to go..shops will bend you over..mostly because they wanna replace it all due to their name being associated with it...wanna keep a good image

 

[pnwboat]

If you're lucky, the rings may have seized in the ring grooves when it overheated. First you need to look at the cylinder walls to see if there is any visible damage like gouges or scoring. If all looks reasonably OK, you can check the rings themselves. You can inspect them by taking off the by-pass covers and turning the engine until the piston rings are visible through the by-pass or intake ports to the cylinder. You can take a small screw driver and gently press on the rings and they should move just a little bit. If they don't move at all then they are frozen in the ring grooves. You can try soaking over night with some Power Tune or similar de-carboning additive and maybe it'll free them up.

 

[Frank Acampora]

Generally, overheating an engine will do no damage. However, overheating until it stalls causes oil to burn off the piston and cylinder walls doing damage to rings, pistons, and cylinder walls. You can try to squirt some oil into each cylinder and try to start it. It may run and idle well but very likely the power output will be lower than normal. If the rings and walls are not too badly damaged compression may rise. If it does not rise then very likely a rebuild is warranted. Oh, and of course, you need a new impeller.

 

[Jiggz]

The original thread is more than 5 years old . . .What the . . ?

 

[pnwboat]

Thanks for pointing that out Jiggz...:facepalm: LOL!