Hey all, I'm new to this forum, but I'm hoping to get some helpful mechanical feedback on my 1998 Yamaha 225 OX66 2-strokes. I'll post the info I posted on THT about what my problem is, please let me know if you have any ideas:
The boat is a 98 Grady White Marlin. I have owned the boat for 6 months. When I bought it, it was suppose to have just been serviced by the grady white/yamaha dealer and found in good running order. 2 trips (maybe 100 miles of transit) on the boat, and I had lower unit problems. It started when we were trying to position over a wreck, shifted the stbd engine to neutral, and it wouldn't shift back out of neutral. I couldn't even pull or push the shift mechanism under the cowling. Ended up limping in on one engine, and 100 yards from the dock, when I shifted the other into neutral, the same thing happened! I ended up being towed the last 100 yards. Welcome to my new boat I took it straight to the dealership that serviced it last (Mariner Marine in Riviera beach, FL). They took apart the lower units and found them filled with water and metal shaving, both of them. It's amazing how this happened to both of them. End of the story, I bought two rebuilt lower units for $3k to replace them.
Towed the boat home to Houston, TX (I live in Missouri City, tx). a couple months later, after maybe 30-50 hours of use (no hours meter), both motors started running rough. Started with the stbd I believe. It got to the point where I came to a stop and they wouldnt' continue running...and after they died, I couldn't get them to restart. It was getting dark, and again I had to get towed in. This time, I found water...looked like fine droplets on most of the spark plugs on BOTH engines. I dont' know why this happened, but I assumed I had somehow blown the head gasket. That's when I realized there was gasket sealer caked all over the head gasket, which the service manual does not say to use. Anyway, replaced both head gaskets and it ran pretty good, except the stbd engine still would only do about 4800 rpms and when I'd open it up all the way, the rpms would actually drop down. I used it for a while like this, and the last trip we took out, at first they were idling rough, would cough and die every once in a while (both engines). At first they were ok at cruise, but by the end of the day, the stbd engine was surging and then slacking off to like 2800 rpms, then surging again. Decided to take it to the shop at this point. BTW, I did look at the plugs this time. Didn't see what I'd call visible water on them, but it was hard to tell. Not like when I changed the head gaskets before. I did check compression before taking it in and all cylinders were within specs.
Then the dealer called today and told me he thinks water is getting into both engines. They took the heads off the port engine and that's when he said he thinks the water is coming from the exhaust side and leaking back through the ports. We haven't taken the the stbd heads off yet, but he says the symptoms are the same, so it may have the same issue.
Like I said, I'm in the Houston, TX area. The boat is currently at Laser Marine in the Galveston Yacht Basin. I went to the boat show tonight and talked to some people. I think I'm going to take it to Boats, etc in Seabrook tomorrow. They have a master yamaha technician there and I'm hoping they can give me a better opinion. Of course, any opinions on what is going on here, or on which mechanic to take it to would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
The boat is a 98 Grady White Marlin. I have owned the boat for 6 months. When I bought it, it was suppose to have just been serviced by the grady white/yamaha dealer and found in good running order. 2 trips (maybe 100 miles of transit) on the boat, and I had lower unit problems. It started when we were trying to position over a wreck, shifted the stbd engine to neutral, and it wouldn't shift back out of neutral. I couldn't even pull or push the shift mechanism under the cowling. Ended up limping in on one engine, and 100 yards from the dock, when I shifted the other into neutral, the same thing happened! I ended up being towed the last 100 yards. Welcome to my new boat I took it straight to the dealership that serviced it last (Mariner Marine in Riviera beach, FL). They took apart the lower units and found them filled with water and metal shaving, both of them. It's amazing how this happened to both of them. End of the story, I bought two rebuilt lower units for $3k to replace them.
Towed the boat home to Houston, TX (I live in Missouri City, tx). a couple months later, after maybe 30-50 hours of use (no hours meter), both motors started running rough. Started with the stbd I believe. It got to the point where I came to a stop and they wouldnt' continue running...and after they died, I couldn't get them to restart. It was getting dark, and again I had to get towed in. This time, I found water...looked like fine droplets on most of the spark plugs on BOTH engines. I dont' know why this happened, but I assumed I had somehow blown the head gasket. That's when I realized there was gasket sealer caked all over the head gasket, which the service manual does not say to use. Anyway, replaced both head gaskets and it ran pretty good, except the stbd engine still would only do about 4800 rpms and when I'd open it up all the way, the rpms would actually drop down. I used it for a while like this, and the last trip we took out, at first they were idling rough, would cough and die every once in a while (both engines). At first they were ok at cruise, but by the end of the day, the stbd engine was surging and then slacking off to like 2800 rpms, then surging again. Decided to take it to the shop at this point. BTW, I did look at the plugs this time. Didn't see what I'd call visible water on them, but it was hard to tell. Not like when I changed the head gaskets before. I did check compression before taking it in and all cylinders were within specs.
Then the dealer called today and told me he thinks water is getting into both engines. They took the heads off the port engine and that's when he said he thinks the water is coming from the exhaust side and leaking back through the ports. We haven't taken the the stbd heads off yet, but he says the symptoms are the same, so it may have the same issue.
Like I said, I'm in the Houston, TX area. The boat is currently at Laser Marine in the Galveston Yacht Basin. I went to the boat show tonight and talked to some people. I think I'm going to take it to Boats, etc in Seabrook tomorrow. They have a master yamaha technician there and I'm hoping they can give me a better opinion. Of course, any opinions on what is going on here, or on which mechanic to take it to would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.