North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Hey Fellas,

Been a while between drinks, alot due to work and being away.

So recently now that Im back in town ive been getting the boat on the water and come across a strange problem. The outboard (200hp merc EFI 2 stroke) is starting up no worries.
I got it on the water a few days ago and it ran fine for about 30mins, I did not turn it off during this time and went from crusing 20knots or so, to just in gear as we were collecting live
bait.

Upon going to power up again the motor was hitting about 3k revs then stuttering. I also noticed that the temp gauge was at about 3 quarters. I was able to back it off to just above in gear but eventually the motor stopped.

Switched off and back on and it ran fine, also noticed temp gauge about mid range. I was guessing dirty fuel, so ive drained the tank and intend to run 20l of high octane 98 or so to get a good burn. Also going to change out the oil as it doesnt seem the right colour.


More so putting this up if anybody can suggest anything else to look at. Other things I have thought about is some new spark plugs.

Cheers for any help.

tell tale working?

Check your breather,could possibly be blocked(mud wasps) just a thought!!!

Yeah tell tale is working. However have noticed the water out of there is quite hot, however any other water coming out round the leg is not hot at all.

Mate no idea what it might be, but there is a site Marine engine.com

US site with lots of mechanics on it offering advice. If there was an error message (beeps and lights) put that into the question on Marine engine and someone will give you teh good oil, or a likely cause

Just use the relevant area to you engine type, They get a bit picky about that stuff

My Honda gets hot water from the tell tail. Its water that has run around the head but not necessarily through the thermostat. If it is just as hot as you can stand to touch it is apparently fine.

Hope it helps

Could be on the wrong track but I'm thinking the motor was going in to some sort of limp home mode. Due to the temp being up it was retarding the RPM. Is it possible you had picked up a plastic bag, hence the temp being up??
I know some motor do have a limp mode when a fault is reconised.
CCC

Cheers for the thoughts guys much appreciated.

I thought it might be the retart of the RPM however its not limiting it was chugging then stopped. Funny that when i turned it back on it was fine..

Gonna do the fuel, oil and sparks and take it on the water again and see how it goes. Will then look at some other possibilities.

again thanks for the ideas.

had a similiar problem, found fuel line kinked and depending on heal etc it restricted. Being a 2 stroke I found the valvaline 2 stroke oil was not mixing with fuel and therefore not burning well but mine is a carb 150 merc. On out 20hp merc once found a wasp nest up tell tale also found once a native bee colony in the water pump and tubes. there was wax everywhere. good luck.

Might pay to check the thermostat.

Hey mate from thee had some shite caugth description it sounds like it was overheating and causing it to go into limp mode (allows you to idle home but cause as little additional damage as possible).
It could have had some shite caught in the cooling system somewhere from the pick up to the thermostat affecting the suction to the pump or flow from the pump.
When you have turned it off the restriction has moved and then when you turned it on it the flow is unrestricted.
Or if the boat has been sitting awhile the rubber impeller in the water pump could have deterioreated and be failing.

Just a couple of ideas.

Good Luck,
Billy

Thermostat, some motors also have a popit valve that can play up.
as i understand it the thermostat controls the temp at warm up and lower speed and the popit adjust at higher speeds...........
.............but i am no expert on this.

Cheers

Spark plugs will do that when they are on the way out and they get hot.

sweet ideas. I have the next few days off so gonna play with it abit more and see if I can get it back up and going again.

Hey Guys just an update

Once again thanks to all that have thrown ideas. Has given me somewhere to look.

Ended up getting the thermostats out and checking them and they are working fine. Had it on the water and at idle the temp rises slowly however once i get into higher RPM's the heat gauge takes off like a shuttle and would then experience issues if i didnt back off the throttle.

After doing some reading most people suggest and say look at the Impeller. So ripped it out today and whilst it looks ok, for 30bucks i will wack a new one in tomorrow.

Hopefully get it back on tomorrow afternoon with the new impeller and see how it goes. If it doesnt fix the heat problem, im then at a brick wall.

Once thing i did notice is that when on the water the tell tale was only sometimes spitting water, and when it did it had steam as well, so definetly there is a heat issue there somewhere.


And the fishing was ok on lizzy, got a cod and also played with a 4-5foot bull shark

Again another update lads.

Replaced the impeller and the over heating is GONE!!! Yay .. wont be rushing to do the impeller again as putting it back together was a bit of a pain in the arse, but its done. Hit the water and booyah ran like a dream..

So after spending around $200 and about 3hours of my own labour its alive. Too bad im working this weekend but hey its there waiting for when i return.

Thanks again to all that suggested things to look at.