Stuck in soft mud! HELP!!

[Lovetopontoon]

Got my pontoon(60 hp. Rude) stuck in shallow water Sunday. Sturred up a lot of mud.I kept the throttle going till I got out. My overheating buzzer even went off, but I let it cool before going on. Now the motor will not reach upper RPM's. Running like a 3 legged dog. What should I check? The prop looks fine.

 

[BF]

Re: Stuck in soft mud! HELP!!

Start by checking the compression... hopefully the overheat alarm went off before you melted a piston.... but given that you're down on power, I wouldn't count on it. (I think it's likely that you've damaged a piston/cylinder) <br /><br />Once/if you get the engine up and running, I'd change the impeller even if it seems to be flowing OK now... sand/mud/silt is very tough on the water pump... they're not meant to pump sludge.<br /><br />If you didn't toast your motor you got off very lucky... plowing through sludge is a great way to kill a motor. A friend of my Dad's just killed a 98 (?) 40 hp this way. He was pretty green to boating and would just power on through the sludge before you get out to deep water. My dad went fishing with him and was aghast at how he abused the engine... 2 weeks later it seized on him (overheated)... that's when he found out how expensive engines are. I also heard that now he is "anti-merc" <br /><br />Good luck,<br /><br />Brent

 

[ob]

Re: Stuck in soft mud! HELP!!

If the engine still has good spark on all three and compression is good ,I'm guessing you injested a considerable amount of silt into the cooling system(possibly enough to impead impeller rotation,or a lower unit seal has grossly failed and caused the gearcase to be flooded with water.First thing I would do is to drain the gearcase and have a look at what comes out

 

[Lovetopontoon]

Re: Stuck in soft mud! HELP!!

I'll do it. Thanks ob and bf.

 

[Lovetopontoon]

Re: Stuck in soft mud! HELP!!

Great news. I went back to the marina today, cranked the boat right up, gunned it and she ran great. No sign of damage or shotty performance. I got lucky on this one. Would you guys still drain the lower to be on the safe side?

 

[ob]

Re: Stuck in soft mud! HELP!!

I would at least loosen the drain plug and let some weep out to inspect its quality.If there is water in the lube ,it will appear milky if it has emmulsified or even just clearish water.If the gearlube has not been changed in some time ,you might just as well drain the entire lower unit and refill from the bottom hole until it weeps from the top vent hole and reinstall both plugs with new seals.

 

[Lovetopontoon]

Re: Stuck in soft mud! HELP!!

Thanks for the help OB.

 

[BF]

Re: Stuck in soft mud! HELP!!

excellent news, congrat's! Now go buy a lottery ticket, looks like you're charmed! <br /><br />I'd still service the water pump if I thought it had pumped quite a bit of sludge.<br /><br />Brent