2009 SX210 Neither Engine P*ssing, No Overheat

[CarCynic]

I'll post results after a sea trial.

Today was a beautiful day on the Indian River. The boat ramp was so crowded that I had to wait for someone to leave so that I could park the truck/trailer after I launched the boat.

We finally set out, and once past the "Resume Normal Safe Operation" sign (Ha! They don't know whose at the helm! -- Just kidding!) I got on a minimum plane.

Definitely more water from the Starboard engine pilot than there was before, but less than from the other port, and the temperature of the water was still higher from the Port engine pilot, although again, not as much difference in temperature as there was previously. The flow would still occasionally stop or sputter, but now it was almost constant.

No overheat light even after 20+ minutes at appox 35mph/7000rpm. We got to our destination, and anchored amongst dozens of other boats. After about an hour of swimming/sunning/magnet fishing (we found one bottle cap for our efforts), we started up again.

Re-joining the channel was like merging onto an LA freeway (some exaggeration), but when safe, I got up on the plane again.

One the way back, with both a passenger and myself checking the pilots periodically, there was no interruption of flow that we saw, although I'd still say that the forward pilot was not quite as strong as the other.

I was a little more aggressive on the way back. I still didn't push it, but I was passing pontoon boats like --- like they were pontoon boats.

No overheat light. Unfortunately, no one checked either pilot water temperature on the return trip.

Back at home, I cleaned and flushed the boat. During each engine flush, I rev'ed the engine with the "neutral" button pushed. In both cases, I got brief flows of water out of the respective ports when I did so. First time I'd seen water when running from the hose, and in this case, I'd say each engine behaved exactly the same as the other.

It's possible that removing the blockage from the raw water lines is allowing normal operation to clean out the engine.

I'm going to research a safe engine flush for a open loop marine engine. Maybe I can arrange some sort of IV drip. I realize that I will have to run the engine during the flush to avoid anything entering the cylinders.


Any recommendations on how to flush the engine intact and in the boat, and what product to use, would be helpful.

 

[VitaminSea]

Glad to see you had a successful outing. Have you seen the following post?

Thread 'Closed-loop flush of MR-1 with Marine Descaler'
Closed-loop flush of MR-1 with Marine Descaler

Also I had previously tried the following set-up, which required the running the engines

• Get a sump pump, and a short garden hose
• Get a larger storage tote that fits under the back of jet pump
• Place sump pump in storage tote and run garden hose to flush out port
• Clamp off the standard raw water line coming from the jet nozzle (to force all of your flush to travel through the engine).
• Start the engine, and the pump and flush.

I also used some frozen bottles to help cool the flush solution, as you are recirculating and will be increasing the temperature of the flush. Using this method I was about to flush for about 15 mins before the OH alarm. [never tried this midsummer when it was 90F+ out] You can let everything cool and try again.

I tried this three different times, once with a mixture of vinegar, some water and a little dish soap. Another time I believe I used the HammerHead Descaler. And one time Salt-Away. I really don’t feel this was super effective, but may help you postpone having to breakdown the engines and manually cleaning the water jackets until after the summer. At the end, I would see some sediment at the bottom of the tote, and the solution would change in color. In hindsight it probably would have made sense to add a strainer to the garden hose to avoid reintroducing any smaller solids back into the cooling system.

To note, check the “pissers” and rinse the side of the hull with fresh water to avoid any discoloration to the side of the hull from any discharge.

One other suggestion I received from a shop was to flush with the anodes removed, and see what is pushed out that way. I never tried that approach. Thought I would post it, as I haven’t read of anyone else trying it, but have seen videos with outboards where it is common practice when replacing the anodes to ensure that anything that broke lose is pushed out of the block.