Last month I posted about my 2013 4.3 MPI losing power and throwing an alarm which was one of the "long-beep" alarms which ended up being the code for Low Water Pressure from the Sea Pump. The motor consequently went into Guardian mode and is why the RPMS were limited to 1200 or so.
I bring it to the dealer and they said that they believe it is a defective water pressure sensor, ordered and replaced the sensor on the power steering cooler, and called and said boat was ready as they could not get the boat to act up again on the hose flusher.
I pick up the boat, put it in the water and all is well while tooling around at the launch. As we leave the launch area and start coming up on plane, once again we get the long-beep alarm and the RPMS are limited to around 2800-3000. I open the engine compartment to once again check things out and no apparent problems. No water in the bilge, both risers were warm but not hot. The block itself was still rather cool. To check that I had cooling water pressure, I unscrewed one of the blue "three-point drain plugs" (the one on T-stat housing) and at idle, the engine had a good bit of water pressure. I also opened the round blue handle which opens a drain valve at the bottom of the engine and it had really good pressure since it would hit the forward part of engine bay and splash up. With this, I assumed the engine was getting plenty coolant pressure. I have noticed that since this problem first occured, my water temperature gauge is at the LOWEST reading possible and never moves. We turn around and put it back on the trailer and back to the dealer we go. They hooked up the boat right away to the computer this time and it was showing a "Time to close loop" fault code which the tech didn't recognize right away but then it once again shows the "sea pump low pressure" alarm and the ECM is showing the sea pump pressure to be 0.6 at idle while on the hose at the shop. They also showed a "low engine temperature" alarm while we were testing with the computer connected.
Now they say they want to do a water test in the boat with the computer hooked up but prefaced that with saying that if they don't see anything different there, they were going to tear the sea water pump down in the lower unit and see if it is damaged and if it is, I will be responsible for all the repairs thus far since the sea water pump is considered a maintenance item even though the boat only has 18 hours per the ECM.
Now for my questions:
1. If the sea water pump was damaged in some way, would I still get good water pressure from the drain ports like I did when I removed them while idling? I mean it was not a trickle, it was a good stream coming from the lower drain point and a rather good riser from the blue drain plug on the thermostat housing which made it slightly difficult getting the drain plug back on.
2. Could the thermostat being stuck open cause the water pressure sensor on the steering cooler to read a low pressure since the circulating pump on the engine is sucking against it? This could explain the low engine temperature code and the reason why my pressure gauge won't come off "cold" and maybe explain the "time to closed loop" fault we got at the shop since one of the techs thought that was in reference to the ECM saying it took too long for the engine to warm up; which a stuck open thermostat would do since the cold river water is constantly circulating through the block and not warming up the water as it should, right?
3. Which hose at the t-stat housing is coming from the sea pump? Is there a way to take this hose off and check pressure directly off the sea pump to check its operation rather than tearing down the leg to check the pump?
4. Anyone else have any other checks or tests I can run before giving the dealer all my money on a motor which is still under warranty? I understand the sea pump is a maintenance item but 18 hours on a less-than one year old boat? That sounds like a real premature failure issue to me, right?
Engine specs:
Serial: 2A045523
Out drive:
Alpha One Gen II
Thanks for any help guys and I appreciate any info or guidance anyone can lend.
Have a great weekend!
I bring it to the dealer and they said that they believe it is a defective water pressure sensor, ordered and replaced the sensor on the power steering cooler, and called and said boat was ready as they could not get the boat to act up again on the hose flusher.
I pick up the boat, put it in the water and all is well while tooling around at the launch. As we leave the launch area and start coming up on plane, once again we get the long-beep alarm and the RPMS are limited to around 2800-3000. I open the engine compartment to once again check things out and no apparent problems. No water in the bilge, both risers were warm but not hot. The block itself was still rather cool. To check that I had cooling water pressure, I unscrewed one of the blue "three-point drain plugs" (the one on T-stat housing) and at idle, the engine had a good bit of water pressure. I also opened the round blue handle which opens a drain valve at the bottom of the engine and it had really good pressure since it would hit the forward part of engine bay and splash up. With this, I assumed the engine was getting plenty coolant pressure. I have noticed that since this problem first occured, my water temperature gauge is at the LOWEST reading possible and never moves. We turn around and put it back on the trailer and back to the dealer we go. They hooked up the boat right away to the computer this time and it was showing a "Time to close loop" fault code which the tech didn't recognize right away but then it once again shows the "sea pump low pressure" alarm and the ECM is showing the sea pump pressure to be 0.6 at idle while on the hose at the shop. They also showed a "low engine temperature" alarm while we were testing with the computer connected.
Now they say they want to do a water test in the boat with the computer hooked up but prefaced that with saying that if they don't see anything different there, they were going to tear the sea water pump down in the lower unit and see if it is damaged and if it is, I will be responsible for all the repairs thus far since the sea water pump is considered a maintenance item even though the boat only has 18 hours per the ECM.
Now for my questions:
1. If the sea water pump was damaged in some way, would I still get good water pressure from the drain ports like I did when I removed them while idling? I mean it was not a trickle, it was a good stream coming from the lower drain point and a rather good riser from the blue drain plug on the thermostat housing which made it slightly difficult getting the drain plug back on.
2. Could the thermostat being stuck open cause the water pressure sensor on the steering cooler to read a low pressure since the circulating pump on the engine is sucking against it? This could explain the low engine temperature code and the reason why my pressure gauge won't come off "cold" and maybe explain the "time to closed loop" fault we got at the shop since one of the techs thought that was in reference to the ECM saying it took too long for the engine to warm up; which a stuck open thermostat would do since the cold river water is constantly circulating through the block and not warming up the water as it should, right?
3. Which hose at the t-stat housing is coming from the sea pump? Is there a way to take this hose off and check pressure directly off the sea pump to check its operation rather than tearing down the leg to check the pump?
4. Anyone else have any other checks or tests I can run before giving the dealer all my money on a motor which is still under warranty? I understand the sea pump is a maintenance item but 18 hours on a less-than one year old boat? That sounds like a real premature failure issue to me, right?
Engine specs:
Serial: 2A045523
Out drive:
Alpha One Gen II
Thanks for any help guys and I appreciate any info or guidance anyone can lend.
Have a great weekend!
