Hello Fellow boaters. I wanted to get some experts advice on here to get some more opinions on what could of caused my new engine to die randomly and only after putting 5 hours on the new motor.
I purchased a 2004 Chaparral 260ssi with a Volvo Penta GXI-E 320hp earlier this year. The boat ended up needing a new block so one was purchased from Marine Engines out of MA which was manufactured by Eagle Engine Sales . This seems to be the correct engine based on Part Number that is stamped on the side of the engine. 5.7 MPI Long Block. The Boat was finally completed on October 23rd after waiting since June. On October 24th I took the boat out again for a few hours to continue to break in the engine and while I was cruising around 1200-1400rpms the engine just shut off on me (it seemed like the same way when you turn the key off. It was an instant shut off) I attempted to restart the engine however it was not turning over. Link of Video here. I contacted my mechanic immediately and he thought that I might have ran out of fuel. My fuel gauge was reading 1/4 Tank full which would be about 19.75 gallons of gas on this boat. (79 Gallon Tank). I had to get towed and we left the boat at the ramp. My mechanic was able to inspect it 2 days later. He called me and told me that I hydro locked the motor, he found water in all 8 Cylinders. I explained to him that I was just cruising at slow speeds and it died, he still believed that I ran out of gas which cut the engine suddenly and then allowed water to enter through the exhaust port. He said he would get the water out and do a few oil changes to get it running again then fill up the gas to see how much Fuel I actually had in my boat when it died. 3 weeks had passed and I didn't get any response from him I called him everyday all last week and nothing. He basically abandoned my boat at the marina and left me hanging after paying him $14k for all the work that was done to the boat.
I decided to take my boat to a local Volvo Penta Dealer shop this past Tuesday. I just meet with the Volvo Penta mechanic today and he spent over 2 hours going over everything he did and explaining some possibilities. The good news was that he was able to get all the water out, there was some surface rust on the inside when he cracked the motor without the plugs in but he said that it would be okay. He did about 3 oil changes to make sure there was no water left in the engine. His conclusion was the following:
1) Needed to make sure that the engine which was installed was compatibly with my 5.7 GXI-E 320hp since that OEM engine had the 1.6 Ratio Rockers Comp cams. The ECM was tuned for that Original Volvo Penta engine and he said if the valve train was different it could cause some intermittent issues with the ECM (I am not sure what ratio the rockers are however I found out this afternoon which engine it was and where it came from I called both Marine Engines and Eagle Engine sales to confirm that the PN: 2541-S1 was compatibly and they both said that they were)
2) His other finding was the Engine wiring harness had some corrosion on the 10pin connector (pic here) He also said that it wasn't all the way in so messed around with the pins and made sure that it was secured correctly and sprayed some WD-40 on the pins as well. He confirmed this might have been the problem as when he was doing the oil changes and running the engine he would wiggle that connector around and it would kill the engine. He mentioned that I might have to replace the wiring harness but I am not sure if I can just remove the corrosion from the pins, spray some electrical cleaner and throw some Di-Electric grease on there to help preserve it longer.
3) The no fuel Theory was pretty much cancelled out because I personally filled up the boat with 60 gallons of gas and didn't stop until the gas was all coming out of the fuel filler port. This means that when my engine died that day I had at least 18-19 gallons of gas. Which was about 1/4 tank of fuel so my fuel gauge was reading correctly. The only other possible scenario which my old asshole mechanic brought up was that the pick up tube might not be all the way down to the bottom of the tank or could be corroded or damaged. I guess the only way to confirm that is to run my boat back down again to the 1/4 tank mark or lower and see if it dies out. When I mentioned this to the Volvo Penta mechanic he said that could another possibility however didn't want to remove the pick up tube from the tank as giving the age of the boat it could do more damage then good. Also if your boat has trouble sucking up fuel usually it starts to sputter and hesitate before dying out. I don't believe it would die out instantly like it did that day.
So my plan now is take the boat back on the water tomorrow and continue breaking in the engine and drive it around to make sure that it is running okay. Thank you guys for taking the time to read this long post. It is a very stressful and frustrating situation and I look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions.
I purchased a 2004 Chaparral 260ssi with a Volvo Penta GXI-E 320hp earlier this year. The boat ended up needing a new block so one was purchased from Marine Engines out of MA which was manufactured by Eagle Engine Sales . This seems to be the correct engine based on Part Number that is stamped on the side of the engine. 5.7 MPI Long Block. The Boat was finally completed on October 23rd after waiting since June. On October 24th I took the boat out again for a few hours to continue to break in the engine and while I was cruising around 1200-1400rpms the engine just shut off on me (it seemed like the same way when you turn the key off. It was an instant shut off) I attempted to restart the engine however it was not turning over. Link of Video here. I contacted my mechanic immediately and he thought that I might have ran out of fuel. My fuel gauge was reading 1/4 Tank full which would be about 19.75 gallons of gas on this boat. (79 Gallon Tank). I had to get towed and we left the boat at the ramp. My mechanic was able to inspect it 2 days later. He called me and told me that I hydro locked the motor, he found water in all 8 Cylinders. I explained to him that I was just cruising at slow speeds and it died, he still believed that I ran out of gas which cut the engine suddenly and then allowed water to enter through the exhaust port. He said he would get the water out and do a few oil changes to get it running again then fill up the gas to see how much Fuel I actually had in my boat when it died. 3 weeks had passed and I didn't get any response from him I called him everyday all last week and nothing. He basically abandoned my boat at the marina and left me hanging after paying him $14k for all the work that was done to the boat.
I decided to take my boat to a local Volvo Penta Dealer shop this past Tuesday. I just meet with the Volvo Penta mechanic today and he spent over 2 hours going over everything he did and explaining some possibilities. The good news was that he was able to get all the water out, there was some surface rust on the inside when he cracked the motor without the plugs in but he said that it would be okay. He did about 3 oil changes to make sure there was no water left in the engine. His conclusion was the following:
1) Needed to make sure that the engine which was installed was compatibly with my 5.7 GXI-E 320hp since that OEM engine had the 1.6 Ratio Rockers Comp cams. The ECM was tuned for that Original Volvo Penta engine and he said if the valve train was different it could cause some intermittent issues with the ECM (I am not sure what ratio the rockers are however I found out this afternoon which engine it was and where it came from I called both Marine Engines and Eagle Engine sales to confirm that the PN: 2541-S1 was compatibly and they both said that they were)
2) His other finding was the Engine wiring harness had some corrosion on the 10pin connector (pic here) He also said that it wasn't all the way in so messed around with the pins and made sure that it was secured correctly and sprayed some WD-40 on the pins as well. He confirmed this might have been the problem as when he was doing the oil changes and running the engine he would wiggle that connector around and it would kill the engine. He mentioned that I might have to replace the wiring harness but I am not sure if I can just remove the corrosion from the pins, spray some electrical cleaner and throw some Di-Electric grease on there to help preserve it longer.
3) The no fuel Theory was pretty much cancelled out because I personally filled up the boat with 60 gallons of gas and didn't stop until the gas was all coming out of the fuel filler port. This means that when my engine died that day I had at least 18-19 gallons of gas. Which was about 1/4 tank of fuel so my fuel gauge was reading correctly. The only other possible scenario which my old asshole mechanic brought up was that the pick up tube might not be all the way down to the bottom of the tank or could be corroded or damaged. I guess the only way to confirm that is to run my boat back down again to the 1/4 tank mark or lower and see if it dies out. When I mentioned this to the Volvo Penta mechanic he said that could another possibility however didn't want to remove the pick up tube from the tank as giving the age of the boat it could do more damage then good. Also if your boat has trouble sucking up fuel usually it starts to sputter and hesitate before dying out. I don't believe it would die out instantly like it did that day.
So my plan now is take the boat back on the water tomorrow and continue breaking in the engine and drive it around to make sure that it is running okay. Thank you guys for taking the time to read this long post. It is a very stressful and frustrating situation and I look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions.
