My boat is being a boat . . .

tpenfield

tpenfield

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Greetings,

A little venting session. . . . :mad: I started my annual ritual of getting the boat ready for its seasonal launching.

Winter cover comes off
Batteries look OK

Initial starting of the engines.
VesselView says
Starboard is OK - Starts up, water flowing, oil & temperature are good.

Port engine - VesselView initially says OK- I start it up . . . water pressure is really low . . . barely any coming out of outdrive ports. Shut it down re-check everything.

Re-start port engine . . . now has an alarm (fuel system :oops: ). I get the engine running, water seems to be flowing better, but pressure is fairly low. Fuel usage per hour (at idle speeds in lower than starboard engine 1.1 vs. 1.4)

I run the descaler solution on both engines ( SeaCore - closed cooling ) and let it sit overnight, hoping that will help the water flow on the port engine.

I figure I will plug in my Diacom computer and in the AM and find out what is going on with the port engine. . . . and the hits just keep on coming . . . Diacom computer is dead, showing no signs of life :rolleyes: . Now I'll have to load up another laptop with the software. Oh joy . . . :confused:
 
tpenfield

tpenfield

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Meanwhile . . .

The descaling has helped the port engine cooling flow. It is still cranky about the fuel system. Just got to load the Diacom to another laptop and see what I got for code(s).

Starboard Engine (happy)
IMG_4527.JPG
.
Port Engine (cranky)
IMG_4540.JPG
.
Useless V-V messages
IMG_4538.JPG
.
 
tpenfield

tpenfield

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OK - looking better . .

I found a working laptop and loaded the software up.

Here are/were the codes.
IMG_4541.JPG
.
Probably attributed to the first start of the season. I'm thinking the 'port' and 'starboard' references in the 2 codes are fuel rail references, not engines, since this was connected to the port engine.

These codes seem kind of silly, and I'm not sure they would clear by themselves.

Anyway . . . I cleared the codes and restarted both engines a few times, just to see if they would return. So far, so good.

Onto the regular maintenance.
 
A

airshot

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Jul 22, 2008
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Whew....glad I am still old school, 2 stroke outboard!!! Started first crank on last years stabilized left over fuel. Battery was at full charge from being left on a maintainer all winter....this is about as technical as I get!!
 
Captain Caveman

Captain Caveman

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Yeah, I'm old school too. I don't know a thing about Mercruisers. However, if your water pressure is low aren't we talking about the water pump/impeller? Pull the lower unit down and toss in a new one. It's a cheap part and usually not hard even on bigger motors. There could also be some blockage in your pee hole. If you got sediment in the line last season, when the water evaporated over the winter, the sediment can fall/condense and cause a clog. Run a long pipe cleaner or straightened-out coat hanger through the tube.
 
tpenfield

tpenfield

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Captain Caveman said:
Yeah, I'm old school too. I don't know a thing about Mercruisers. However, if your water pressure is low aren't we talking about the water pump/impeller? Pull the lower unit down and toss in a new one. It's a cheap part and usually not hard even on bigger motors. There could also be some blockage in your pee hole. If you got sediment in the line last season, when the water evaporated over the winter, the sediment can fall/condense and cause a clog. Run a long pipe cleaner or straightened-out coat hanger through the tube.
Click to expand...
Sorry Captain, but no impellers/pump in the outdrives. No pee hole either. :LOL:

The phosphoric acid soak & flush on the sea water side of the cooling system took care of the water pressure issue. This boat has been salted water since the day it was born, so 7 years and I bet the heat exchanger/cooling system has never been de-scaled.

I did learn a few things about the electrical power systems once I got the engine issues sorted out. I have seven (7) batteries and apparently not all of them were charging up over the winter, even though I had power hooked up and the shore power running in maintenance mode.

It turns out that I needed to have the inverter powered as well as the shore power to get all of the batteries. Once I fired up the inverter, the shore power hit 30 amps! :oops:

I'm still chasing a coolant leak on the port engine, and it looks like I got to take the cross-over assembly out to get it fixed. :unsure:

My next adventure is the fresh water system, which has/had a cracked strainer bowl leading into the pressure pump. What do you know . . . the particular strainer has been discontinued. :mad: So now I am cobbling a few different bits and pieces to get a different model to fit into the plumbing system. :rolleyes:

The only good thing so far is that I added a secondary bilge pump without incident. Anyway, the march towards launch day (whenever that will be) goes on. I do have to find a better laptop that I can use for the Diacom software, since the techno-problems seem to come without symptoms or notice.
 
Last edited:
flashback

flashback

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Ya know, I don't feel the love. Your boat is an IT nightmare. It's lovely but way more boat than I could ever deal with..I guess I'm too old to understand the attraction. I wish you the best and will always follow your thoughts with respect..
 
tpenfield

tpenfield

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Yes, I'm not in love with the technology. I bought the boat for the layout, but being a newer boat, it comes with all the techno-stuff. Some of it is OK, but other things. . . I probably won't ever use.

Axius? I have no use for it. Not even sure what it does, but I think it is autopilot.
Joystick? the only thing I like is being able to crab the boat sideways. Otherwise, I can do most of the things myself with the dual engine controls.

I feel bad for the folks that rely 100% on marinas or boat shops for troubleshooting or maintenance.

I like the Vessel-View, because I can put the critical aspects of the engines on one screen. . . . Water Pressure, Oil Pressure, Temperature, RPM, Outdrive Trim.

I'm just hopeful I can get through the season and things stay working. The nice thing about this boat, that I did not have with my previous boat, is the truck & trailer. I can pull the boat when needed and not rely on boat haulers, which have become pricey.
 
nola mike

nola mike

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tpenfield said:
OK - looking better . .

I found a working laptop and loaded the software up.

Here are/were the codes.
View attachment 377836
.
Probably attributed to the first start of the season. I'm thinking the 'port' and 'starboard' references in the 2 codes are fuel rail references, not engines, since this was connected to the port engine.

These codes seem kind of silly, and I'm not sure they would clear by themselves.

Anyway . . . I cleared the codes and restarted both engines a few times, just to see if they would return. So far, so good.

Onto the regular maintenance.
Click to expand...
Odd.. Fuel trim codes in a car would indicate a rich or lean condition and rely on o2 sensors to determine. Didn't think your boat has them?
 
Scott Danforth

Scott Danforth

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Axius is the system on petrol engines that has the steering, throttle and gear system that allows the joystick
 
JustJason

JustJason

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Messages
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tpenfield said:
OK - looking better . .

I found a working laptop and loaded the software up.

Here are/were the codes.
View attachment 377836
.
Probably attributed to the first start of the season. I'm thinking the 'port' and 'starboard' references in the 2 codes are fuel rail references, not engines, since this was connected to the port engine.

These codes seem kind of silly, and I'm not sure they would clear by themselves.

Anyway . . . I cleared the codes and restarted both engines a few times, just to see if they would return. So far, so good.

Onto the regular maintenance.
Click to expand...

The codes mean the engine is either running richer than it should or it thinks it's running richer than it should.

I would put the boat in the water, put fresh gas in it, and run the snot out of it and see if it clears up. If it duplicates make sure the engine is heating up and getting to full operating temperature. Check the actual temperature vs what the temp is reading in Diacom. Check your fuel pressures and fuel injector leakdown. Check for leakage around the cool fuel modules (near the fuel pressure regulator). Theres another laundry list of items to check if all those check out, but that is where you start.
 
tpenfield

tpenfield

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nola mike said:
Odd.. Fuel trim codes in a car would indicate a rich or lean condition and rely on o2 sensors to determine. Didn't think your boat has them?
Click to expand...
Yes, it has the O2 sensors, both before and after the CATs.
 
tpenfield

tpenfield

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nola mike said:
Oh, for some reason I thought you got in before cats got involved. So you don't have a BOAT, more like a BOAFT (another 5 thousand...)
Click to expand...
CAT engines came in around 2012 (ish). My boat, being a 2016, has the Mercury (Mercruiser) in-house built 6.2L engines with the CATs. The engines/outdrives are the SeaCore option, which includes stainless steel engine mounts and full closed cooling. So, it is a similar set-up to how I had my old Formula 330 configured (less the CATs).

So far, the CATs have not been an issue . . . but now that I said that, I'm sure they are listening :ROFLMAO:
 
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