Nightmare

[stephan4x4]

Hello Guys!

I usually do not post on Forums, but you guys are my last hope!!!!

My name is Stephan and I`m living a nightmare.
Back in 2014 I bought a brand new Chaparral 216SSI with a Volvo Penta 270 Inboard.
All was good and happy, I live in Chapel Hill, NC and 15 min from a nice lake. In the winter of 2017 I decided to move and made a mistake of selling the boat, a nice guy from NJ bought it and before I sent it up, ran the engine by the end of March. It ran fine as was supposed to and life was good. Sure thing in April they had the last frost in NJ and long story short, the engine block and heads cracked! Because I said it was winterized I had to buy the boat back. Put it in a storage and only in 2018 had the courage to start messing with it again,
Bought a BRAND NEW long block, making sure even the cast #`s matched, pulled the engine out, transferred all external things to the new one and put it back in. Cranked it (worked fine) but I noticed that the crankshaft was bent (yeah! I never saw that too!) Contacted the seller of the engine and he sent me a new one per my choice (instead of changing the whole engine) replaced the new crank and put the engine back (now, because I'm doing this and do not have much time we are in 2019 already) New engine in, no leaks, all good! NO! now the check engine light goes off and all sort of misfires, bad idling, safety mode etc happens. and since Volvo is so eager to make money, obviously you cannot scan the errors with a simple car scanner, you have to go with their (bad) service dealers.
Last summer I took the boat to Greensboro dealer, it stayed there for the entire summer and they said, no error were find and everything was good, that should be something inside the engine!
I was quite pissed that they took 3 months! to tell me that! well, obviously they did not even looked at it and not even charged me anything. So I lost another summer again.. Last December me and a friend looked at all engine basics and could not find anything bad. Because the gasoline was old in the tank, I took it out and replaced with new gasoline, tested the fuel injectors, tested sparks, took it to the lake and bit by bit was running better. At the end of the day it was running like new, so I believed it "healed" and life was good.
Sure thing, when the lake reopened this year, I took it down there and the damm thing did not even started. Misfires, not idling and not getting any RPM`s, check engine light and so on...
Tried to take it to a dealer but they are all booked till mid August!?
So back to the scratch board:
Changed:

• Distrubuitor Cap
• Distribuitor rotor
• Coil
• Knoch Sensors (twice)
• Spark Plugs
• Gas Filter

Nothing makes it better. Today I changed the knock sensors (again) for the "volvo originals" fired the engine, it ran right away, sounded great, but 10 seconds later, started to fail like a couple of cylinders were not firing, engine was shaking badly and died.

I was reading trough the topics but never found a clue (other than diet caps and knock sensors) that could help this case. I'm convinced that it is a sensor/wire issue.

Any help at this point is welcome!
I'm very versed in mechanics (old school) but when it comes to electronics and sensors I'm kinda lost...

 

[alldodge]

Howdy
Sorry about your troubles, but lets start with the original motor serial number?

Being a Chap 216 it should be an I/O instead of an inboard

Did you follow the correct procedure to install the distributor?
This is critical since there is no other timing adjustment

There is 2 items which can be bought to scan the motor for codes and they come from Rinda. They are the Techmate pro and Diacom software

https://www.rinda.com/marine/marine.htm

 

[stephan4x4]

It fires up (rev`s up) normally, so it is not inverted, then 10 seconds later it start to rattle and shuts off. Alarm and "service required" light comes up as well.
The Engine sticker is as follows:

V8-270-C-B
40869483
A256794 "CE"
VPGAS041648

Just placed a new crankshaft sensor on and it fires up for a sec and quits right after it. might be the wrong sensor...

(why does Volvo not follow regular car sensors???)

any help is welcome!

 

[stephan4x4]

I tried to upload a video but it is too big for the forum.

 

[stephan4x4]

Got it!

 

[alldodge]

This one is going to need muc help

One thing I noticed is the throttle body is opening and closing real quick as its dying, is that you or doing it on its own?
I'm wondering if the fuel pump is stopping?

Place a voltmeter on the fuel pump connection to see if its loosing power
If it doesn't loose power, check fuel pressure

 

[stephan4x4]

It's on its own... I'll check the fuel pump and pressure

You mentioned the Rinda scanner, is this one I need?

https://www.rinda.com/rindashop/shop/techmate-pro/techmate-pro-94070c

Do I also need any other adapter?

Rgds and TKS!!!

 

[alldodge]

The kit may work, but the 94005 adapter is not needed because its for MEFI ECM's and you should have PCM 09 or other

I used the Rinda to find which adapter and it list two different ones, so need to look on your motor for the connector and see which is needed. It will have a cap covering it. Look on page 22 of the users guide to find out if you need 94024 or 94029

Then go to Rinda and select the Teckmate, and then the adapter needed. It should come out less.

https://www.rinda.com/acro/TechMate_...Guide_r2-1.pdf

 

[stephan4x4]

I believe I have the 94024

I just tested the voltage on the pump, varies from 12.5 to 13.4, will check the pressure in the morning.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[kenny nunez]

A friend of mine has a shop and I get called in sometimes so that we can both scratch our heads. He had a Volvo there that was acting weird and the problem was in the fuel rail, that particular one was not stainless but chrome steel. It was rusted on the inside and the injectors were getting clogged up from the rust. Worth looking at if yours is not stainless.

 

[alldodge]

Not a VP expert, but you appear to have both. The 94029 is to read the codes, and the 94024 is for EGC, If you have EGC then you would be good on that side. I would suggest calling Rinda to clarify

 

[Lou C]

What's odd is you didn't report problems till the long block had to get replaced, correct? What changed in the re-fitting your original components to the new engine?
With all the issues with some of these computer controlled marine engines I'd sure be tempted to get rid of the EFI etc but I see you have cat converter exhaust so that's probably illegal.
I'd go back over every connection, and every engine ground...something somewhere was missed...

 

[stephan4x4]

It's on its own... I'll check the fuel pump and pressure

You mentioned the Rinda scanner, is this one I need?

https://www.rinda.com/rindashop/shop/techmate-pro/techmate-pro-94070c

Do I also need any other adapter?

Rgds and TKS!!!

Voltage is between 12.5~13.6V and pressure is steady at ~55PSI, from the start till it start idling and quit.

I'll check all wires and connectors.

 

[stephan4x4]

What's odd is you didn't report problems till the long block had to get replaced, correct? What changed in the re-fitting your original components to the new engine?
With all the issues with some of these computer controlled marine engines I'd sure be tempted to get rid of the EFI etc but I see you have cat converter exhaust so that's probably illegal.
I'd go back over every connection, and every engine ground...something somewhere was missed...

You are right. when I first fired the engine with the bent crankshaft it ran perfectly. When I took the engine out (again) to replace it and put back in the issues started.
Funny thing is that when I turn the key into on, the self test software starts and immediately gives me a "dealer service" warning.

 

[alldodge]

Pressure is good, Going to need a scanner to see what's going on

 

[Lou C]

take a look at the wiring schematic for your engine and when you're feeling really patient and its not too hot out...check all the connections and grounds, every single one...I feel for you looking at that engine bay...looks tough to get at stuff...can you remove stuff to get down around the block to look at each connection?
This poor access and the complexity of computer controls with cat converter exhaust is what ruined inboards for me. I'd never ever have one again, only old school ones like the one I have. If you're in salt water you get to pay $5,000 to replace your lovely Cat Converter exhaust every 5-7 years. Nice eh? and no aftermarket. Was just talking to my parts guy about this. A nightmare to say the least all caused by EPA over-reach. So if I stay in boating only outboards from now on, I feel that now they are more reliable anyway.

 

[stephan4x4]

just did that.. checked all wirings, sensors and ground. all seems to be ok.

I uploaded a video of the self check, even without firing up the engine it fails.

I guess I need a scanner.

The background noise is a fan running...

 

[alldodge]

Agree, need a scanner

 

[stephan4x4]

OK..

Got a scanner!
Thirst thing I did was to erase all faults.
When I fired up the engine, same thing happened. This time I started "pumping" the throttle back and forth like in a carburetor engine. After some fails (and no faults) I managed to heat up the engine a bit and )again) slowly the engine was running as normal as possible, still shaking a bit, but running. no faults on RPM`s 1000~2000. but when I left the engine run for a couple of minutes on Idle, suddenly all alarms went off and a fault showed up (Misfire cyl#1) if I rev up the engine a bit, the alarm stops and no "active faults" show up., then I left in idle again and another fault showed up, this time cyl#8 same thing, if I rev up a bit, the fault goes away.
Even when at 2000 rpms engine shakes a bit. I was perforfoming a cat test and took a small video at 1200 rpm, you can see it shaking and the air intake quite active.

Any other suggestions???

 

[stephan4x4]

I found the distributor angle completely off (11 degrees) and read online that it should be 0 +-2, set to 0, now that the engine is warn, it fires right up, but is still shaking badly. I'm still intrigued by how the air intake is acting weird.

Took a small video, when I hold a toy against it it runs better.