summerlark1
Recruit
Thread starter- Joined
- Aug 14, 2005
- Messages
- 3
If you don?t mind a long email I will describe the problem I am having and the circumstances leading up to it and maybe you can help me. The engine at issue is a 1995 200 h.p. Mercury XRI Offshore EFI (early model). Here is what happened.
I have owned the engine for more than 10 years. It was powering a 1995 Procraft Bay Boat and was running great. The Procraft had a rotten transom etc?, and I purchased a 2002 Whitewater hull and had the engine rigged on that boat about two weeks ago. The Whitewater had been sitting in a boatyard for about a year and I suspected that the fuel tank had some trash/water issues etc?although it was dry via inspection of the sending unit port. So I installed an external fuel/water separator between the fuel tank and the engine. I took the boat to the camp and put about 10 gallons in it to see what would happen. The engine was not run on the whitewater at all prior to this trip and as mentioned above had run a week prior on the Procraft with no problems.
The engine started and ran for about 1 minute and the sucked the bulb in and quit. I obviously suspected a restriction and I was right. The newly installed fuel/water separator was full of a milky trash laden soup?I also pulled the smaller spin on filter mounted in the engine and it was clean. I pulled the pick up out of the tank and it had this flaky milky trash all over the screen at the end?So, I drained the tank, flushed it with water (I was loathe to do this, but could not think of a better solution) about 3 times. Sopped up as much of the remaining water that I was unable to siphon out (very little remained as I had the boat on a steep incline). Then I reversed a shop vac and used the hot air exhaust to force air into the filler hole and circulate through the tank and out the sending unit hole for about 5 hours?(I know bad idea?) But it worked and the tank looked bone dry and clean from inspection through sending unit.
Put another 10 gallons of fresh gas in, replaced the external fuel/water separator and put it back on the water. Engine ran through the entire 10 gallons, flawlessly. Ran the boat a good 4 hours, pulling skiers, on/off cycles, hot starts, etc?No problems and I thought the issue was resolved. Pulled the external fuel/sep when I got home and it had a few small pieces of trash in it that I suspected were residual in the lines etc?, so I replaced the filter again for good measure, which was probably over kill. I also replaced the smaller engine mount filter, as it looked like it had never been replaced. This was the only change made.
The next weekend (which was last weekend 6/20) I took the boat to Grand Isle for a fishing trip. Fill the boat up with 55 gallons of fuel and the engine starts and runs fine for about 5 minutes and then starts to quit and act funny then it won?t restart. The bulb however, did not suck in like it did at the camp. I am stuck out front with no engine, so we anchor off and fool around with the bulb, fittings, spin on filters etc?and finally get it to start after about an hour, and head back to the marina. Engine would run fine for a few minutes and then just quit?be hard start etc?, before finally refusing to start at all, forcing us to troll the last 500 yards back to the dock.
We put the boat on the trailer and since we were fishing a charter the next day, I thought I could get someone to look at it while we were fishing. I called a friend who gave me the name of a mechanic (shade tree) guy in Grand Isle who came and looked at the boat while we were on the charter the next day. He called me and said he was going to assume nothing and start at the tank and move toward the engine. He pulled the fuel pick up and said he found a little trash in the anti-siphon valve so he deleted it, replacing it with a bare 90, and also deleted the screen at the bottom of the pick up. The engine would then start, but would starve and die after a few minutes on the hose. He satisfied himself that he was getting good supply from the tank, so he moved on to the engine. He pulled the cap off of the vapor separator to inspect the filters he thought resided therein (which according to my shop manual do not exist within that particular part, but rather are inline behind a check valve between the vapor separator and the high pressure fuel pump and then a final filter just ahead of the fuel rails). He obviously found no filters and after removing the cap the gasket swelled and could not be reused. So he stopped his exploration there, thankfully.
I pulled the boat back to the house and inspected the external fuel/water filter and found minute pieces of trash in the drained fuel, but nothing that made me think would cause restriction. The fuel in the engine mounted filter was perfect?I have not tried to crank the engine or done anything and do not have a combination gauge to check fuel pressure/vacuum on either side of the high pressure pump or in the fuel lines. I also do not have any of the Mercury specific test instruments to check any electrical issues that could cause this problem. I do not think that any trash got through the filters and into the vapor separator reservoir that would have clogged the filters that the shade tree was looking for, but that is just my thought. I obviously now have a bad vap/sep gasket, but other than that I believe that the problem still lies somewhere between the tank and the engine. The shade tree thought that I had some trash get behind the filters and into the engine screens after the vap/sep and the pounding around in the waves dislodged something etc?and that could be right. Maybe the mechanical pump has problems, maybe the electric high pressure pump is getting weak, maybe the injectors are dirty?maybe, maybe, maybe?.
This is obviously a problem that needs some diagnostics and some thought (at least it seems that way to me). I have spoken with a few mechanics and before I get two words out of my mouth they seem to jump to some conclusion about what is wrong and immediately start the part swap routine with which they are accustomed. I am not terribly comfortable bringing the boat back to the guy who rigged the boat, as his work did not exactly inspire confidence. Do you have any suggestions and can you help? Also is there some sort of a way that I can find a good mechanic in my area (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) without having to spend a lot of time and money finding out who is not so good.
All replies appreciated.
David Smith
I have owned the engine for more than 10 years. It was powering a 1995 Procraft Bay Boat and was running great. The Procraft had a rotten transom etc?, and I purchased a 2002 Whitewater hull and had the engine rigged on that boat about two weeks ago. The Whitewater had been sitting in a boatyard for about a year and I suspected that the fuel tank had some trash/water issues etc?although it was dry via inspection of the sending unit port. So I installed an external fuel/water separator between the fuel tank and the engine. I took the boat to the camp and put about 10 gallons in it to see what would happen. The engine was not run on the whitewater at all prior to this trip and as mentioned above had run a week prior on the Procraft with no problems.
The engine started and ran for about 1 minute and the sucked the bulb in and quit. I obviously suspected a restriction and I was right. The newly installed fuel/water separator was full of a milky trash laden soup?I also pulled the smaller spin on filter mounted in the engine and it was clean. I pulled the pick up out of the tank and it had this flaky milky trash all over the screen at the end?So, I drained the tank, flushed it with water (I was loathe to do this, but could not think of a better solution) about 3 times. Sopped up as much of the remaining water that I was unable to siphon out (very little remained as I had the boat on a steep incline). Then I reversed a shop vac and used the hot air exhaust to force air into the filler hole and circulate through the tank and out the sending unit hole for about 5 hours?(I know bad idea?) But it worked and the tank looked bone dry and clean from inspection through sending unit.
Put another 10 gallons of fresh gas in, replaced the external fuel/water separator and put it back on the water. Engine ran through the entire 10 gallons, flawlessly. Ran the boat a good 4 hours, pulling skiers, on/off cycles, hot starts, etc?No problems and I thought the issue was resolved. Pulled the external fuel/sep when I got home and it had a few small pieces of trash in it that I suspected were residual in the lines etc?, so I replaced the filter again for good measure, which was probably over kill. I also replaced the smaller engine mount filter, as it looked like it had never been replaced. This was the only change made.
The next weekend (which was last weekend 6/20) I took the boat to Grand Isle for a fishing trip. Fill the boat up with 55 gallons of fuel and the engine starts and runs fine for about 5 minutes and then starts to quit and act funny then it won?t restart. The bulb however, did not suck in like it did at the camp. I am stuck out front with no engine, so we anchor off and fool around with the bulb, fittings, spin on filters etc?and finally get it to start after about an hour, and head back to the marina. Engine would run fine for a few minutes and then just quit?be hard start etc?, before finally refusing to start at all, forcing us to troll the last 500 yards back to the dock.
We put the boat on the trailer and since we were fishing a charter the next day, I thought I could get someone to look at it while we were fishing. I called a friend who gave me the name of a mechanic (shade tree) guy in Grand Isle who came and looked at the boat while we were on the charter the next day. He called me and said he was going to assume nothing and start at the tank and move toward the engine. He pulled the fuel pick up and said he found a little trash in the anti-siphon valve so he deleted it, replacing it with a bare 90, and also deleted the screen at the bottom of the pick up. The engine would then start, but would starve and die after a few minutes on the hose. He satisfied himself that he was getting good supply from the tank, so he moved on to the engine. He pulled the cap off of the vapor separator to inspect the filters he thought resided therein (which according to my shop manual do not exist within that particular part, but rather are inline behind a check valve between the vapor separator and the high pressure fuel pump and then a final filter just ahead of the fuel rails). He obviously found no filters and after removing the cap the gasket swelled and could not be reused. So he stopped his exploration there, thankfully.
I pulled the boat back to the house and inspected the external fuel/water filter and found minute pieces of trash in the drained fuel, but nothing that made me think would cause restriction. The fuel in the engine mounted filter was perfect?I have not tried to crank the engine or done anything and do not have a combination gauge to check fuel pressure/vacuum on either side of the high pressure pump or in the fuel lines. I also do not have any of the Mercury specific test instruments to check any electrical issues that could cause this problem. I do not think that any trash got through the filters and into the vapor separator reservoir that would have clogged the filters that the shade tree was looking for, but that is just my thought. I obviously now have a bad vap/sep gasket, but other than that I believe that the problem still lies somewhere between the tank and the engine. The shade tree thought that I had some trash get behind the filters and into the engine screens after the vap/sep and the pounding around in the waves dislodged something etc?and that could be right. Maybe the mechanical pump has problems, maybe the electric high pressure pump is getting weak, maybe the injectors are dirty?maybe, maybe, maybe?.
This is obviously a problem that needs some diagnostics and some thought (at least it seems that way to me). I have spoken with a few mechanics and before I get two words out of my mouth they seem to jump to some conclusion about what is wrong and immediately start the part swap routine with which they are accustomed. I am not terribly comfortable bringing the boat back to the guy who rigged the boat, as his work did not exactly inspire confidence. Do you have any suggestions and can you help? Also is there some sort of a way that I can find a good mechanic in my area (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) without having to spend a lot of time and money finding out who is not so good.
All replies appreciated.
David Smith
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