new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

[samedley]

i just bought my first boat monday. its a 1988 vip 20' with a 5.7 omc. when i went to llok at the boat he started with some ears on it and the the temp was at 200deg because someone came too look at it before me. i asked why it was that hot and he said the ears dont supply enough water so it gets a little warmer than what it does in the water. i put it in the water today and let it idle today while my girlfriend went to park the truck and it got up to about 100deg. we started out on the lake and i smelt something burning and looked down and it the temp gauge was about 230 and the boat started losing power. i immediatly shut it down and got towed back in. we got maybe 2-300yds from the dock. how hot can the motors get before they are ruined? i know it probably the impellar. i knew i should have replaced it before i took it out but i wanted to run the boat for about an hour before i started sinking money in other areas of the bout before i knew the motor and stern was good or not.:facepalm:

 

[ccsears1981]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

It takes a lot of time over heating before the motor is damaged, they are suppose to run cooler on a boat than a car my 5.7 in my truck runs a 200 which is normal but a lil to hot for a boat. I don't think you would have hurt anything by running it that temp for a short time. Being that the motor is that old if has never been rebuilt there is a possibility for blowing the head gasket. I would go to advance and get a compression test and test the compression on each cylinder before putting it back on the water. It could be the impeller, but also could be a thermostat sticking on it also. Not a bad idea to replace both.

 

[samedley]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

thanks for the reply. i hope i can replace the impellar and it be fine. i have a compression tester and have rebuilt motors in cars. i have grew up on boats but have never really worked on any except the little 9.9 johnson i had on my john boat when i was 12. the motor got hot enough where it was smoking and the rubber pieces for the exhaust was popping.

 

[samedley]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

is it bad to run i/o motors with ears / muffs? i was told the stern had to be completely submerged in water before started

 

[ccsears1981]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

Thats what the muffs are for, just wouldnt recommend doi.g any carb adjustments as there is no back compression on the motor while on muffs so it will be a lil different when you drop it in the water

 

[tpenfield]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

i just bought my first boat monday. its a 1988 vip 20' with a 5.7 omc. when i went to llok at the boat he started with some ears on it and the the temp was at 200deg because someone came too look at it before me. i asked why it was that hot and he said the ears dont supply enough water so it gets a little warmer than what it does in the water. i put it in the water today and let it idle today while my girlfriend went to park the truck and it got up to about 100deg. we started out on the lake and i smelt something burning and looked down and it the temp gauge was about 230 and the boat started losing power. i immediatly shut it down and got towed back in. we got maybe 2-300yds from the dock. how hot can the motors get before they are ruined? i know it probably the impellar. i knew i should have replaced it before i took it out but i wanted to run the boat for about an hour before i started sinking money in other areas of the bout before i knew the motor and stern was good or not.:facepalm:

Looks like you should not have bought the boat . . .

Generally, boats will run at a LOWER temperature when on the 'ears' rather than in the water and under load. So, if it was running at 200 on the ears (which is way too hot BTW) it makes sense that it overheated under load.

So, now that you made a rookie move, you probably want to find a way out of this mess. You could replace the impeller to start off, but it may not fix the problem. . . but it is a process of elimination. So start there. The engine is probably OK from the overheating, so don't worry too much about the possibility that you ruined it. You probably did not.

BTW - OMC has been out of business for 11 years and we typically advise against purchasing OMC engines/drives

 

[samedley]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

Yea i made a mistake and didn't ask for a ride in it before I bought it. I told myself I would never buy a boat without riding in it. I am going to buy an impellar and muffs when i get off work tomorrow. Are the rectangular or round muffs better?

 

[samedley]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

The boats with mercruisers were just outside what i wanted to spend. I just got it to last me this summer then I was going to get a real nice one next year if it was something I was going to stick with.

 

[ccsears1981]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

It doesn't matter the style muffs to much, I use the round once on my OMC and it works just fine. One key thing when you replace the impellar look at the house real good, if it god hot enough it will melt the impellar housing. I would still run a compression check just to make sure not head gasket damage or if you can to a leak down test. If you don't have a leak down tester you can but stuff to build your own for about 15 bucks. I wouldn't worry too much on head gasket, but they don't use the still shim gaskets on marine engines so they can get a little brittle after years of use. Also, OMC did go out of bussiness but there are still parts available on the market from Sierra and a good website to check for parts is www.MarineEngine.com Iboats has several general maintanence stuff like points, caps and plugs. Although they have a bad rep but the engine parts are fairly easy to find, especially since you got the 5.7. The outdrive is a different story parts are there but costly.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

the temp gauge was about 230 and the boat started losing power.

I would still run a compression check

the "losing power" is sometimes "seizing up"- pistons are seizing in the cylinders because they expand as they overheat, then aluminum welds to the cylinders etc

start with a compression test of the engine to see if it survived- some are pretty resilient.

but what are the odds the previous owner aka crook never had it overheat and seize up the same way you did?
not sure I would waste any money on an impeller.

 

[ccsears1981]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

Good point Howard, but even still if the rings had got they "should" temper back down and I quate should as there is a chance they won't. Would have a power loss but with a new impellar would atleast be able to get some more time out of the engine or atleast get it up on its leg to get rid of the headache.

 

[Liquid_force]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

A little bit of good news is impeller change on the OMC's are very easy.
I have had an '89 4.3L since '03 and other than a lower unit issue early on it's been a reliable boat.

 

[samedley]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

i took the impellar out yesterday and it had no fins on it and the casing was melted. i started the engine for a couple seconds after i got the impellar out and it was all the way cooled down just to make sure it wasnt knocking because my girlfriend said it was making noise and it was quiet with no noise whatsoever just like when i bought it. i am going to get an impellar kit and muffs right now. i am going to put it back together and start it with the mufs and see if water gets in oil or misses like water is getting in cylinders.

 

[NeedaBiggerBoat]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

Besides all of the things that can go wrong with overheating the engine isn't the only thing you have to worry about the exhaust flappers can melt as well as the rubber exhaust hoses but if you only did it for a short time then you may be alright. I had the same thing happen to me the second time i took my new to me boat out the impeller was cooking but i caught it right at 200* and stopped only 500 feet from the dock. The guy I bought it off of said that it was brand new and it may have been but what happened to me was the inner stainless steel housing spun in the water pump housing blocking the holes for the water to flow out.

 

[samedley]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

I got the boat back together and ran for about 15 min with muffs on. It didn't get hot maybe 120 degree and there is no water in oil. Is it ok to take it out with the exhaust bellow split halfway around? I just want make sure motor is ok.

 

[tpenfield]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

Exhaust bellow in the outdrive ? If so, then would be ok. If the exhaust ducts inside the engine compartment are leaking, then better fix them right away.

 

[samedley]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

Yea the bellow that goes to the out drive. I didn't hear any exhaust leaks in the engine compartment. Water is coming out of the exhaust bellow and not the prop. The exhaust manifolds got pretty warm but not so hot I couldn't touch them.

 

[ccsears1981]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

Just remember to keep checking the oil as it may take a little while of running for water to show up in the oil, not a bad idea to pull a valve cover off and take a quick look to make sure there is no milk sitting on the top end.

 

[samedley]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

I can feel exhaust coming out of the prop though

 

[samedley]

Re: new boat owner with bad expereience... need help

I am going to change oil today because it got real hot and probably boiled it.