2004 mercury optimax...Help Please!!!!

[traveler2005]

Can anyone give me some help?

I just bought a boat ( my first) that has a 2004 mercury optimax motor on it. the thing is the boat was submerged for a couple of hours months before I bought it. OK, this is were I need some help, the motor runs but after couple of minutes we get a continuous beep and a triple beep. From some research I have done I have found out the long beep is the over heat alarm and the triple beep is the oil alarm. Now the oil reservoir on the boat is full and the small reservoir on the motor is also full. What I want to find out is the worse case senerio, am I looking at thousands of dollars to repair this motor or even more money to replace the motor? And is there a easy way to tell if the oil injection system is working correctly?

[jerryjerry05]

What does the guage on the dash say?It should say something about oil level.Always give the serial # when asking about service or parts.
Fill out the profile,you in salt water or fresh?
The oil tank on that motor has a magnet in it that gets stuck.There is no fix.You need to replace the tank.That is if that's your problem.
Change the impeller.
If it's been underwater then you probably need to replace the guages.Then you need to reboot the computer at a dealer.
Change the impeller and see if that helps with the overheat.If that doesn't change thing then it's off to a dealer that can hook it to their diagnostic computer.J

[traveler2005]

Sorry about that, Iam not sure what serial # you are referring to, but if it is the motor then its OT834238 ( smart craft). But the motor was submerged in fresh water. The propeller never turned , it alarms when we hook the muffs up to the motor and run it with a water hose, I forgot to mention it idles sluggish also but when giving gas it runs fine until it alarms. I do not know anything about these optimax motors, but I understand from what I have been told that the oil and gas do not mix like regular 2 stroke engines that the oil is injected onto the crankshaft. I was wondering if there was someway to tell if the oil injection system is actually working properly or if there was something very serious wrong with the motor. Bottom line what kind of money Iam looking at to fix it.

[jerryjerry05]

I would change the impeller first. See if that makes a difference.There are holes in the front of the drive that need to be taped over if you use muffs.
Make sure there is enough water to the motor.Sometimes the hose just ain't enough.Better yet put it in the water to see if the beep continues.
Ethanol is messing with a lot of things.Your motor is newer so it shouldn't affect it too much.I had a Merc EFI that absolutly hated Ethanol.Wouldn't run for anything on it.
You have maybe two, water/fuel seperating filters.Check them for water.One is on the boat usually on the transom and one in the vapor seperator.
What HP ? Always list that and the ser#.The # you listed is the ser#
As far as checking the oil system I need to know the HP so I can look at the manual.J

[traveler2005]

Ok, its a 2004 Mercury Optimax serial No.OT834238. It is a 135 HP v6.

And can you please explain how the impeller can over heat the motor...and could it cause the three beeps I get also. What signs should I be looking for if the motor is shot or if it is something simple like a sensor, the impeller or something other than major repairs? And thanks for the replies....

[bobdec]

Here is a link to download mercury manuals that goes up to 2003 may be close for your 2004. it may help you. The three beeps are saying the float switch in the oil tank on the engine is reading low. Since you say it's full probably a stuck/bad switch or the alarm module is shot. Since engine was submerged probably the control/alarm. http://forums.iboats.com/showpost.ph...11&postcount=3 password to unzip the file is at the bottom of the url. Overheating is a solid beep, there is a temp sensor on one side of engine that feeds the temp gauge and a switch on the other side that feeds the alarm module. If you temp gauge working OK, engine should be below 180* or so if the impeller is pumping water up to the heads. There are tests to measure the oil flow to the engine, and to isolate the overheating alarm. They are all in the service manual.. to long to cover here..

[jeffersondodson561]

The correct way to salvage a submerged motor is to salvage it, put it into water until it can be dewatered properly (was their sand injested), being that this is an Optimax a lot of critical things are exposed. The air compressor is exposed and only protected by an air filter. Assuming this engine was submerged underway, the air rails are probably filled with water, tracker valve is supsect as well as the air regulator, and this is not even considering the fuel rail and fuel components or oil injection system. The electrical connectors are water tight not proof. I would be concerned about this being a reliable motor.

[traveler2005]

The motor as actually sitting in the slip, when a big rain storm came through and the boat took on too much water ( no auto bilge) and the rear of the boat sunk. So it was not running at the time, and it was recovered and taken to a mechanic who from what I was told replaced the spark plugs and oiled the motor, performed a compression test on the cylinders, 125,125,125,120,125,115 and then gave it a clean bill of health. The guy I bought it from claims he too it out and ran it and had no issues. And we ran it ( out of water) and it does sound good but gives the alarms. I not really experienced in boat motors, but I know if the motor turns over an runs it probably is not mechanical....I just trying to get a starting place in trouble shooting the motor .. propeller, electrical and oil injection systems. Though I could be wrong.

[jeffersondodson561]

If I am not mistaken the compressor has an overheat switch too, being this is the most vulnerable, totally open to the possiblity of ingesting water.