97 SeaRay Sea Rayder F16 really slow start and top end

[quinones88210]

We purchased this boat just over a week ago and had a chance to take it to the lake over the 4th of july weekend. Boat starts right up and appears to run well, however we had a hard time getting it to plane out. I myself weigh about 175 and my wife about 130. It sounded strong and had good throttle response but would not plane out until either one of us went up front for about 30 seconds or so. I had thought maybe this was normal until seeing a similiar boat on the water that seemed to be having a lot of fun as we were not. Then i watched some youtube videos of the same boat and realized something was wrong. I've inspected the bottom and found no debris in the intake of the jet, impeller seems to be in good condition except for minor knicks and the clearance between the impeller and wear ring is about .032, also the label on the top of the engine states that it is rated for 5000-5500rpm's and i'm only getting 4000 at best. I know its not a high performance speed boat and do not expect it to be, but would like it to take off and plane out and go a little faster than about 25 as it is now. This is our first boat so any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.

 

[Godfirst]

Re: 97 SeaRay Sea Rayder F16 really slow start and top end

Start with a different pitch prop, tune up engine and drive......

 

[quinones88210]

Re: 97 SeaRay Sea Rayder F16 really slow start and top end

it has a mercury 175xr2 engine with mercury sport jet drive.......no prop. but thanks for the reply

 

[indy440]

Re: 97 SeaRay Sea Rayder F16 really slow start and top end

Make sure its running on all 6 cylinders, you might have a dead plug or two!

Then do a compression test.

These things a pretty fast for their size when they run right!!!

 

[Bondo]

Re: 97 SeaRay Sea Rayder F16 really slow start and top end

it has a mercury 175xr2 engine with mercury sport jet drive.......no prop. but thanks for the reply

Ayuh,.... Welcome Aboard,....
I'll see if I can get this moved to the approaiate forum for ya...

 

[QC]

Re: 97 SeaRay Sea Rayder F16 really slow start and top end

Let's try this over in the Mercury OB forum as they share a lot of stuff . . .

 

[quinones88210]

Re: 97 SeaRay Sea Rayder F16 really slow start and top end

oh sorry my bad. the motor is inboard so i would have never thought to put it over here in outboard. but anyways, checked fire as stated above and all 3 on port side are not firing. so any ideas on how to diagnose from here? cdi, stator, coils...etc????

 

[CharlieB]

Re: 97 SeaRay Sea Rayder F16 really slow start and top end

Swap the red and blue stator wires from one box to the other box to see if spark switches sides, if it does NOT change sides then the one box is bad. If spark does switch sides then the stator is suspect.

Don''t change that box just yet, there is NO RETURN on electrical parts.

Disconnect the bias (white wire) from both boxes and retest for spark again, if you NOW have spark one BOTH boxes, then the original box that always had spark is the box with the bad Bias circuit and must be replaced.

DO NOT START the motor with the Bias disconnected.

Merc factory boxes are recommended to be replaced in pairs.

CDI Electronics boxes can be replaced individually (they're pretty good boxes).

Mark the bad box and save it for use on a 75 - 90 three cyl, it will work fine.

 

[quinones88210]

Re: 97 SeaRay Sea Rayder F16 really slow start and top end

Okay, I swapped the red and blue wires from stator to the boxes and still nothing, did the bias test as suggested and still nothing on port side. Ordered new switchboxes just now from some place in new york....best deal i could find. So my new question is, could i have damaged something running only on 3 cylinders, or did i only damage my pride by getting passed by every other boat on the water? would it be safe to put the boat back on the water as is until the new parts arrive and just cruise around....or best to wait?

 

[CharlieB]

Re: 97 SeaRay Sea Rayder F16 really slow start and top end

Wait.

Running a dead cyl should not have hurt those cyl's, however the additional load on the running cyl's CAN cause an overload/overheat.

If any doubt, test compression on ALL cyl's to be sure that they are all well within 10% of each other.

 

[dropem631]

Re: 97 SeaRay Sea Rayder F16 really slow start and top end

hi i know this thread is old but maybe you can help on how to check the impeller clearance i bought a manulal on ebay and im lost is there pic or youtube video that you know of, mine is a 95 with a 120 hp and runs great, sound like its firing good but at 45000 rpm sometimes it goes normal speed and sometimes it goes like half speed any help would be great. thanks

 

[gambling man]

Re: 97 SeaRay Sea Rayder F16 really slow start and top end

dropeme, try the PWC forum. You will have better luck there....