2000 Mercury Optimax Problems

firebass1

Recruit
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
1
I have a 2000 Triton TR21 bass boat with a Mercury 225 Optimax outboard. Today, I ran in the back of a tidal river creek, and at low tide the boat got semi-stuck on a mud flat (I know, stupid for not watching the tide flow better, LOL). Anyways, the only way out was to bury the outboard and gun it out of the mud; after getting out, the overheat alarm came on, so I immediately shut the motor down. I used the trolling motor for about 20 minutes, while I kept the lower unit of the outboard submerged in clean water. I started the outboard and she ran about 1 minute with no flow from the pee hole. Then water started to come out of the pee hole, but it was dirty. It finally cleared. I let the motor run for about 10 minutes to flush it in open water. All gauges read ok, and the H2O pressure was about 20. On the way back up the river, I was running at about 65 mph, then all of a sudden the boat jerked hard, and the motor sounded like it was reving too high. I shut her down again and restarted, no problems starting, but the once the rpms go over approx 1500 to get back on plane it sounds like its revving too high, and it will not let me go over 1500 rpms.

Once back on shore, I noticed lower unit oil on the skeg. Any ideas on what may be wrong?

Thanks so much for your help!
 

j_martin

Admiral
Joined
Sep 22, 2006
Messages
7,474
Re: 2000 Mercury Optimax Problems

The aligator you dug up took out your LU.
 

prockvoan

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 27, 2004
Messages
512
Re: 2000 Mercury Optimax Problems

Chances are you busted something.The only way would be to have the lower unit pressure tested.Do that before it cost you more the 2 grand.
 
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