Bravo 3 High Speed Overheat

[ctrobk]

Thank you in advance for your help and input.

I have a Mercruiser 305 paired with a Bravo 3 drive on my 2006 Sea Ray 240SD. I do not have the serial number readily available. Last week I started having high speed overheat issues. Anytime I was over 3000 RPM the engine temp would rise and the smartchoice alarm would go off. Reduce the RPMs and the temp would come back down.

After reading 100's of posts regarding Bravo 3 overheat issues, I removed and checked the raw water pump. The impeller was in perfect condition. I also changed thermostat and flushed the power steering cooler but was still overheating.
I was finally able to pinpoint the issue to a kinked raw water intake hose at the gimbal. The intake hose and bellows were replaced last season by the previous owner. I have read a lot of posts saying to look for the kink but none of the responses say how to correct the kink and prevent it from happening again.

1.Does anyone have any ideas how to get the kink out without removing either end of the hose?
2.Is there anything that can be used to keep the hose from kinking again?

I have read the posts where people have gone as far as installing a thru hull raw water pick up and avoid the transom assembly all together. I am not considering that as an option.

Thanks.

 

[tpenfield]

Are you in salt water or fresh water?

It would be pretty easy to see a 'kink' in the hose if you have the boat out of the water. It would be pretty hard of for the hose to become kinked since it is formed to the shape of where it needs to go and is held captive in a slot within the Bravo transom assembly. But it is worth a look.

More probable, since you have eliminated the easy stuff, is that there may be marine life growing and/or dislodging inside the water channel within the outdrive.

Here is a picture of my now famous 'shell' that plagued me for a season of boating with various overheating issues.


What you see here is the fitting where the inlet hose attaches and 'the shell' that grew inside the outdrive the prior year and dislodged, following the water flow only to get stuck at the hose fitting. I had a similar instance where a barnacle did pretty much the same thing, but actually lodged inside the hose a bit.

If all else fails, check for signs of marine growth inside the outdrive and perhaps even pull the outdrive for inspection.

 

[alldodge]

The intake hose and bellows were replaced last season by the previous owner. I have read a lot of posts saying to look for the kink but none of the responses say how to correct the kink and prevent it from happening again.

The intake hose is a 1.5 inch ID hard wall hose (Going from transom to pump). I don't see how you can kink the hose unless its way to long and routed incorrectly. Trident makes the hose but the premade part number is 32-8M0062666

http://tridentmarine.com/product/tri.../#.WWoKmU2Wy-M-

 

[ctrobk]

thanks for the quick responses. I should have mentioned it is has always been in freshwater.

 

[ctrobk]

I have the drive off and can feel the kink about 2-3" from where it connects to the gimbal. I tried to include some photos but I keep getting an error "invalid file data". ( I went through the post a photo tutorial and still not luck.

It looks like if I can spin the fitting at the gimbal counterclockwise the kink will come out. Is there any way to accomplish this without the special tool?

 

[ctrobk]

This was the best I could do with the photos. Sorry I had to resize them.

 

[tpenfield]

Does not look like a proper installation.. The hose should be more flush with the bell housing opening. More of a twist than a kink, I would say, but restricting flow nonetheless. That plastic insert is threaded, so it should come out if you can back it out. Pretty tough to get the thing to turn without the proper tool, and you don't want to mess with it, because you may damage the slots. If you had a piece of metal (steel) that is the diameter of the slots, then that might also do the trick.

When you reinstall, make sure the hose does not turn while you are tightening the fitting with the tool . . . that is basically what happened in the previous installation.

 

[DCMacGuy]

I cannot remember where I saw it ? but it may have been a post on Clubsearay, but apparently MerCruiser redesigned that water pick up hose and it is installed differently than the previous one. If it is not installed per instructions for the new one it will kink when the drive is down. Apparently it is shaped differently.

 

[Bt Doctur]

I know of no drive that has the water hose on the same side as the shift cable????????????????
If that pic if of the stbd side of the drive then you really do have an issue with the hose

 

[Bt Doctur]

 

[Fun Times]

I know of no drive that has the water hose on the same side as the shift cable????????????????
If that pic if of the stbd side of the drive then you really do have an issue with the hose

That photo is of the port side and that is the Speedo hose you see not the shift cable.

 

[Bt Doctur]

I did a 180 with the pic and it still dosent look right

 

[ctrobk]

Thanks to everyone for their input. My fingers are crossed that the issue has been resolved. I had someone stop by that had the tool for the hose. All it took was about 3/4 of a turn and the twist was out. I put the boat back in the water yesterday eve. I only had time to run it about 20 min but temp never went above 163.

Fun Times is correct, that is the speedo cable. The line is a few inches shorter than it should be because there was a crimp in the it just above the drive connection. I cut the crimp out and the speedo is now working again.