Hi All,
Last Saturday I was taking my 2012 Chaparral Xtreme out and I put the boat in the water and started it up. I usually let it warm up a bit before leaving. The dock slip sits in a no wake zone, so when I pulled out I was just at idle speed. About 150 yards from the dock, and still moving at idle speed the entire time, an alarm went off. It took me back, but with in less than a minute we discovered it was a alarm for high temperature. I shut it off. The temp cooling gauge stating 213 deg. After we shut if off, I opened the engine lid, and immediately saw that I left the cap off that hose you use to flush the engine. I clearly forgot to put it back after last weekends engine flush. I'm really beating myself up over this mistake.
I of course put the cap back, and let the engine cool off. I waited until it got down to 173 deg and started back up to see if the raw water pump will now be able to do its job and cool the engine. The temp started rising, and when it got to 206 deg, i shut it off again. I then took the sink sprayer and sprayed some fresh water down that same engine flush hose. I then waited until it got down to 139 degs. When it did I started it up and go on a plane, the temp got up to mid 170's and then went down to its normal operating temp of 150's. I was very happy and thought everything was good. While driving from that point on, I never really went over 30 MPH and was just cruising. I ended up having to go through another no wake zone and everything still seemed fine. It wasn't until I go on a plane in the bay and was moving at speeds around mid to upper 30's MPH. Another alarm went off, I say another because although the alarm sounded the same the technician's display was saying something different, something about the exhaust temperature? The water temp or engine temperature which I was monitoring the whole time since the incident was still at a good temperature. The manual stated that when these alarms when off, that the RPMs of the motor will automatically be reduced, which they did, so the provisions put in place did work. I was able to drive back to the dock at around 25-29 MPH and less than 3000 rpm without the alarm alerting.
My question(s) are, and the main one is. What serious problems did I cause myself after leaving this cap off? Am I looking at internal engine damage? Do the audible alarms need some sort of resetting after being set off? I would like to mention that earlier this year I had to get a new raw sea water pump because the other was leaking. I'm assuming it came with a new impeller too. If that is the case, could I have messed up that impeller? Even if it wasn't replaced the previous service I had done didn't mention anything about replacing it. Could it have messed up the impeller in some manner? I only have 100 hours on this boat. I checked the oil level and that was fine, but I read on other post about the risers sucking in water when overheating? I don't recall seeing any water on the dip stick, and like I said earlier the boat ran fine up until I got it above 3k RPM and pushing 40 MPH. I took it back to storage and flushed the engine like I normally do and put it up. I was planing on taking it out again to see if the problem went away. I realize that sounds silly, but would it be possible there was a air pocket stuck somewhere? Or that everything was just so heated up at the time that a thermostat was stuck? Speaking of stuck, in regards to the starter, there was a couple times I started the engine so that it would pull cooler water in the engine (because the water that was in there was really hot), and it appeared the starter stuck trying to start the engine. I think, it was a sound that continued after the motor started. When I waited until it cooled to the 139 deg the starter functioned at normal. My assumption was that everything was overly hot, resulting in the starter to stick open.
I have that gut wrenching feeling in my stomach that I really blew it here, but at least no one died.
Thanks
Last Saturday I was taking my 2012 Chaparral Xtreme out and I put the boat in the water and started it up. I usually let it warm up a bit before leaving. The dock slip sits in a no wake zone, so when I pulled out I was just at idle speed. About 150 yards from the dock, and still moving at idle speed the entire time, an alarm went off. It took me back, but with in less than a minute we discovered it was a alarm for high temperature. I shut it off. The temp cooling gauge stating 213 deg. After we shut if off, I opened the engine lid, and immediately saw that I left the cap off that hose you use to flush the engine. I clearly forgot to put it back after last weekends engine flush. I'm really beating myself up over this mistake.
I of course put the cap back, and let the engine cool off. I waited until it got down to 173 deg and started back up to see if the raw water pump will now be able to do its job and cool the engine. The temp started rising, and when it got to 206 deg, i shut it off again. I then took the sink sprayer and sprayed some fresh water down that same engine flush hose. I then waited until it got down to 139 degs. When it did I started it up and go on a plane, the temp got up to mid 170's and then went down to its normal operating temp of 150's. I was very happy and thought everything was good. While driving from that point on, I never really went over 30 MPH and was just cruising. I ended up having to go through another no wake zone and everything still seemed fine. It wasn't until I go on a plane in the bay and was moving at speeds around mid to upper 30's MPH. Another alarm went off, I say another because although the alarm sounded the same the technician's display was saying something different, something about the exhaust temperature? The water temp or engine temperature which I was monitoring the whole time since the incident was still at a good temperature. The manual stated that when these alarms when off, that the RPMs of the motor will automatically be reduced, which they did, so the provisions put in place did work. I was able to drive back to the dock at around 25-29 MPH and less than 3000 rpm without the alarm alerting.
My question(s) are, and the main one is. What serious problems did I cause myself after leaving this cap off? Am I looking at internal engine damage? Do the audible alarms need some sort of resetting after being set off? I would like to mention that earlier this year I had to get a new raw sea water pump because the other was leaking. I'm assuming it came with a new impeller too. If that is the case, could I have messed up that impeller? Even if it wasn't replaced the previous service I had done didn't mention anything about replacing it. Could it have messed up the impeller in some manner? I only have 100 hours on this boat. I checked the oil level and that was fine, but I read on other post about the risers sucking in water when overheating? I don't recall seeing any water on the dip stick, and like I said earlier the boat ran fine up until I got it above 3k RPM and pushing 40 MPH. I took it back to storage and flushed the engine like I normally do and put it up. I was planing on taking it out again to see if the problem went away. I realize that sounds silly, but would it be possible there was a air pocket stuck somewhere? Or that everything was just so heated up at the time that a thermostat was stuck? Speaking of stuck, in regards to the starter, there was a couple times I started the engine so that it would pull cooler water in the engine (because the water that was in there was really hot), and it appeared the starter stuck trying to start the engine. I think, it was a sound that continued after the motor started. When I waited until it cooled to the 139 deg the starter functioned at normal. My assumption was that everything was overly hot, resulting in the starter to stick open.
I have that gut wrenching feeling in my stomach that I really blew it here, but at least no one died.
Thanks