Mercury Verado/DTS?Hydro Lock

[Albeej]

I took delivery of the 305 Conquest with Twin 300 Mercury Verado engines in July of 2012. I had my first major issue after less than 16 hours of use.

I took the boat out into the Townsend Inlet in 3 ft waves. I hit a wave at about 1/2-3/4 speed with my hand on the throttle. I lost my balance and pull the starboard side throttle slightly past Neutral. The engine stalled and when I attempted to restart it; I heard a severe grinding noise. We used the port side engine to return to the dock and call the Dealer?s service department. They picked up the boat the following day, tested the engine and discovered salt water in the head. Mercury was then notified reviewing the engine diagnostic?s and directed the dealer to rebuild the engine. I insisted that they replace it with a brand new motor based on the limited use (16 hours). Mercury agreed and approximately 3 weeks later I had the boat back in the Water.
(2013)
The following year I notice a yellow substance under the Steering Wheel. I cleaned it up, and observed for several weeks ( only used the boat on weekends). It ended up being a slow leak of power steering fluid. I notice that the steering was sluggish and called the dealer. The Dealer sent a technician out and determined that I needed a new Power steering cable that was not in stock. It took approximately 3 weeks to order and installed the new power steering cable (boat was out of the water). The Dealer returned the boat during the week and I took it out the following Sun afternoon. The steering was not fixed, it felt like the old Manual steering on a car that didn?t have power steering. ( I hope I?m not showing my age). After losing almost a month of use, I decided to take it out fishing despite the steering issue. On my return into the bay, a wave runner cut across my bow and I had to quickly pull back on the throttle. Once again, the throttle control went slightly passed Neutral and the boat stalled. When I went to start them, both engines were dead.
I had the boat towed in and sent back to the Dealer. The dealer? Technician ran a diagnostic test and sent the results to Mercury. Mercury determined it was operator error and nullified the warrantee. I spoke to the Mercury Regional Tech representative and they determined it was hydro lock caused by the operator. They told me it was my issue and I should submit a claim to my insurance company, I found it odd that they were quick to nullify my warrantee and direct me to an insurance claim. It felt like this was not the first time they had this issue! Once again, they tried to imply that I pulled the throttle into a hard reverse. I repeatedly explained that in an emergency situation, that there should be a reasonable fail safe to avoid a major engine failure!
(2014)
We used the boat from May thru July without major incident. I took the boat out on a Sunday afternoon in Early Aug and heard a loud thud while driving at 3/4 speed in the bay. The engine stalled and would not turn over. I returned to the dock (on a single engine) and left the dealer a vmail (once again, he is closed on Sun). The tech showed up the next day and visually inspected the engine and saw a a hole in the Power Head. They took the boat in to the dealer ran the diagnostics and Mercury determined it was an in warrantee quality issue. The Dealer under the Mercury warrantee replaced and repair the Power Head at no charge and returned the boat to me approximately three weeks later.

2015
At the end of July, my wife and I were out on a leisure cruise going about 3/4 speed. About 75 yards ahead of us on the Port side, I observed a boat that was towing a child on a tube. The boat was facing us, but idle in the water. As we continue to proceed forward, the Women in the boat started waving a towel in a panic. I pulled back on the throttle and slipped past neutral. The engine died and I could not restart. I had a feeling that it was the same problem (Hydro Lock).

Bottom line, I have own four boats over the past 25 years and never had a problem. I am considering moving to Yamaha engines. Any thoughts would be helpful!

 

[flyingscott]

I honestly have no idea what to tell you because I don't what motor will take being thrown into reverse like that. It doesn't really matter if you put it hard into reverse or not they don't like to do that. At 3/4 throttle on that boat when it went into reverse you might as well have thrown an iron bar into the prop. Nobody will warranty their motor from throwing it into reverse like that. My guess is you are having trouble adjusting to the electric shifter as it's much smoother than the old mechanical shifters. The hole in the block could have been easily caused by going int reverse like that as it could have been cracked at an earlier date. If you think it's reasonable to throw your outboard in reverse when you are hauling mail. Try this take a stick shift car down the highway at 45 mph throw it in reverse and let the clutch out same thing.

 

[Albeej]

I also believe that you should be able to respond in an emergency situation without going into reverse. I am not new to boats and or cars. Have you ever had to stop aggressively with a car or truck. Did the engine blow. My question is regarding the DTS control's. Are they that sensitive?

 

[flyingscott]

Yes they are more sensitive but the verado has electric shifting but still has detents. Check to see if you can turn the friction up on the control unit. Yes I have stopped aggresively in a car never by throwing it into reverse. I have also made emergency stops in boats chop the throttle and turn away from whatever is in the way.

 

[Albeej]

I have never thrown it in to reverse. I have been boating my entire adult life. Also have worked as a mechanic through the High school and college. Thanks for the lecture on putting into reverse. I understand engines, but have never had this type of issue.

Looking for anyone else that experienced this. I have tested similar sized boats with Yamaha engine/throttle controls that had a tactile feel from forward to neutral. Once again, I did hard pull the throttle into reverse. I understand engine, mechanics and trampnsmissions!

 

[Scott Danforth]

there have been a few posts on the subject, including a 305 Conquest in early 2012.

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/021222.html

http://www.thehulltruth.com/boating-forum/410149-panic-stop-reverse-water-sucked-into-engine.html

 

[Silvertip]

I also believe that you should be able to respond in an emergency situation without going into reverse. I am not new to boats and or cars. Have you ever had to stop aggressively with a car or truck. Did the engine blow. My question is regarding the DTS control's. Are they that sensitive?

Stopping aggressively with a car is not the same as throwing it into reverse while moving forward at any speed.

 

[Texasmark]

My guess is that the R shifter cog/slot is dinged up since the interface is vertical surfaces and have to be perfectly lined up to shift normally.

In the LU you have the prop shaft that goes obviously from the prop all the way through the LU and locks into a bearing at the front of the LU roughly 1" back from the front of the outside of the casting. At the rear is the bearing retainer, bearing and prop shaft seal.

In a pinion fashion, the drive shaft is turning both the F and R gears (one at the front of the LU and the other at the rear) driven by the drive shaft pinion gear as long as it is turning.

On the rear of the F gear is a sawtooth arrangement that allows freewheeling of the prop on deceleration like when coming off plane to slow or stop the boat.

On the front of the R gear is a cog arrangement, a cylinder with 6 slots, vertical walls, 60 degrees apart spaced around the circumference.

Locked to the prop shaft is the clutch dog which is caused to move back and forth on the prop shaft by the shifter cam/cam follower arrangement that does the shifting selection.

On the front of the dog (a sleeve that is pinned to the prop shaft and rotates as it does) you have another sawtooth to match the sawtooth on the rear of F gear.

On the rear of the dog are 6 cogs spaced 60 degrees apart with vertical sides like the slots. Again, for this sliding sleeve to mesh with R gear, the slots and cogs have to line up. At idle speed that's a no brainer. At elevated rpms the cogs can miss the slots and grind away at the interface making for broken parts and metallic shavings/chips. This can cause a grinding noise when running afterwards.

Easiest way to prove if it is your problem or not is to drain your lower unit oil (engine vertical) on that engine and look for metallic particles, especially check the magnet imbedded in the rear of the drain plug. Seeing a light coating of very fine particles after say 50 hours of use is probably normal....I usually have a little on mine when I do my annual oil change. But if you have a lot of coverage and that coverage includes chips of metal, or chips of metal come out with the oil then my swag is that you burred up the rear of your clutch dog and face of R gear, both in the LU and not that big of a deal to fix.

On water in the engine when the engine was running ok I assume, you didn't mention a problem, is a .......duh.....what you say? kind of thing to me being here and you there. Besides Water in the engine all of a sudden? Ok you threw a rod and it punched through the side of the cylinder wall and now you have water in the engine. A quick compression test will determine if that's true or false but my guess is that the crankshaft and rods are a lot more rubust than the clutch dog gear in the LU.

Good luck.