Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &

[zeiden]

Hi, I purchased a 1996 Sugar Sand Marine sport jet boat 3 months ago. <br /><br />It has a 95 XR oil injected Mercury engine<br />Powerhead/engine serial number: OE 182318<br />Pump serial number: OE 148274 <br /><br />I don't know anything about boat's and this was my first purchase. The guy that sold me the boat told me that the cooling system was a small inlet on top of the powerhead... I also noticed that the boat threw a tremendous amount of smoke (his excuse was that the boat had been sitting for 4 months and that it could be because of the old gas + it was an oil injected 2 stroke engine), but since I had already bought the boat on ebay I figured I would take it and leave. <br /><br />Not knowing anything about boats I continued cooling the system this way for the next 2 - 3 weeks until I was finally able to take it out to the water. <br /><br />I put the boat in the water and started it, after leting it warm up I checked the engine compartment to make sure everything was o.k. and I noticed that there was water comming in from the side of the drive housing cover (the side where the exhaust manifold and starter are located).<br /><br />I took the boat to the shop the next day and they told me that It would cost 753.00 dollars + parts to fix it. They told me that I was cooling the system wrong and that because of it I might have other problems. <br /><br />After refusing to pay this amount, I went home. Thinking it would be o.k. if I just used sealant around this I decided to start the engine (cooling it thru the water inlet hose now). This time the engine would'nt start, and to top it off I flooded the cylinders. I had to remove the spark plugs and found some small amount of water in all of them. <br /><br />Please help me, what can I do?<br />What should I do first?

 

[Zamboni]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Guessing here, but sounds like the water intake hose was disconnected from pump to run off garden hose...and not reconnected when you went to the lake? If so you may very well have "other problems"<br />Get a manual, got to the sportjet online site and read thru threads to become familiar with your motor.<br />Its tricky to run motor off garden hose, you can't start water flow until engine starts for fear off hydro-locking it...but if it doesn't start right up unspent fuel will collect in chamber over jet pump and backfire blowing (ruining)ride plate off the boat.

 

[zeiden]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

No, water intake hose was connected.<br />I bought the service manual, but still have no clue.<br />What do you mean by hydro-locking it? do you think that's what happened when I tried starting it using the water inlet hose?

 

[zeiden]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

just took compression (p.s. Had to remove all spark plugs to be able to test each, otherwise engine would not turn):<br /><br />top: 100<br />middle: 95<br />lower: 100

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

if you used the consumer flusher and not the dealer flusher you have done one of two things. you have blown out the exaust plate gasket or popped a head gasket. or possibly both. all is covered in the coirrect sportjet manual. I used to work for a sugar sand dealer fun little toys when they run. they little hose assy on the top of the head is for non running consumer flush only. ya have to remove the seawater in line at the pump adapter and install the dealer flusher to actually run it. there are some tech bullitens dealing with improper flushing and the damage it can cause.

 

[zeiden]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

How do I fix it. Do I have to remove the entire engine block.

 

[Zamboni]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

I purchased 2 brass fittings (total $5) at home depot that combined equal the dealer flusher rodbolt mentioned allowing you to hook garden hose where you disconnect intake hose from pump. Even more chance to flood cylinders Zeiden doing this proper way, wait till engine starts before opening water to 1/2...see my earlier caution about backfiring. If engine fires up with non compressable water in cylinders you'll become familiar with hydro-locking...hasn't happened to you yet.<br /><br />What specifically did the shop tell you the $753 + parts was to fix?<br /><br />There is a sugarsands net site and a good sportsjet engine site with lots of info on your motor-you really should spend few hours reading tech forum there. Here's link, mods please delete and accept my apology if no links allowed here.<br /> http://www.sportjetworld.com/

 

[zeiden]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

The estimate was to replace three things<br /><br />1. two foams that seal the jet drive (One is located on the right - next to the shift cable. The other is located on the left - next to the steering cable). <br /><br />2. change tunnel grommet<br /><br />3. replace gaskets as needed when powerhead is removed from drive housing cover.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

hello<br /> if all is correct and your using dealer flush kit #22-820573 or its equvalent you can run the hose all day with the boat on a trailer and the engine off with no fear. if you start the engine with no water there is a posibility to plow out the exhaust divider plate gasket. this will require exhaust manifold removal to repair. ask for the tech bulliten about it. I flushed them for several years and never had a hydrolock problem. we dont see many around here. they dont like shallow water and milfoil. if its a fresh water rig all is well. if its salt water good luck. if it blew out the powerhead to pump adapter gasket it will require powerhead removal. the power head can be removed without removing the jet unit. I have replaced several divider(manifold) gaskets over the years and while its difficult its not impossible with the power head in place.beats working on an L drive anyway. DO NOT EVER start a sport jet 90 or 120 before turning on the water. read the tech bulliten. came out about 92 or 93. merc would not cover it for warrenty either.

 

[Zamboni]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Procedure I posted was from Sportjet forum, worked for me. Its always concerned me starting without water running but what keeps water from flowing into cylinder thru exhaust port before the engines running?<br />There are posts warning not to do what your advising here is necessary rodbolt....hope you don't take these questions as argumentive, I would like to start motor on trailer the way your saying to if its safe.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

zamboni<br /> rather than reading posts go hunt the tech bulliten down. for a few years it was a leading cause of powerhead warrenty claims as wellas the leading cause of warrenty claim denials.<br /> if you look in your manual at the exhaust manifold you will see the exhaust and the water are seperated by a gasket. if its out of the water the waste water from the powerhead flows throgh the exhaust manifold and out the 2" or so dia exhaust pipe into the housing adapter. if all the gaskets and housings are ok you can run water through it all day long on a trailer with the engine off. there are some cases of hydroloc when people tried to flush them in the water that way. I saw one almost sink over it. I laughed till I was sore. the jet unit thru hull had not been blocked off when they started it. man at the water stream but unless merc issued anothe bulliten to the contrary since 96 they said not to start the engine with no water flow from the dealer flusher and no engine running at all from the consumer hull mounted flusher.

 

[zeiden]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

O.k. Thanks for the info. <br />I figured I had to remove the powerhead to do the job my mechanic said would cost me 753.00 + dollars, so I've been preparing to remove the powerhead all this time. <br /><br />Today I finally did it. I removed the powerhead, but man that thing took a long time. It was really stuck to the plate cover. The bolts looked like they had been welded with a white substance. <br />Anyways, that's another story...<br /><br />Next I removed the cylinder head and exhaust manifold. As soon as I removed the cylinder head, water poured out of the cylinders and I noticed that the gasket was the culprit. <br /><br />The exhaust manifold gasket turned out to be fine, but now I have another problem. Trying to remove it, I broke off 3 of the 20 bolts ( according to service manual, bolt numbers 4,5 and 9)<br /><br />I also noticed that the magnet around the flywheel , the magnet that sorunds the stater, is broken and parts of it are falling apart.

 

[Zamboni]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Thanks for info rodbolt, cracking garden hose first sounds safer. Bet you still laugh remembering that guy when the jet started pumping into engine compartment.<br /><br />You can glue good magnets back on zeiden but if broken magnets are not repairable-never seen replacement magnets available, you should search-if none, look for a red stator on ebay for your engine...pulling flywheel is toughest job on these units, apply best pentrating oil you can find day before tackling.<br /><br />Are the exhaust manifold bolts broken flush, some left (protruding) to grip or need to be drilled out?

 

[zeiden]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Thank's for the info Zamboni. I got all three bolts out... well only one came out, the other two I drilled them to the size of the original bolts and re-treaded them.<br /><br />I haven't gotten the flywheel off. The tool cost 169.00, so I'm contemplating the idea of renting something similar from Autozone.<br /><br />From what I can see, there is only one magnet that is broken.<br /> <br />What kind of glue should I use?<br />Do I have to replace the stator?<br />Should I get the same color stator? (mine is charcoal gray)

 

[zeiden]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

My local shop told me that the magnets are not sold separately and that I had to replace the flywheel in order to fix this problem. They said that the magnets come attached with the flywheel.

 

[Zamboni]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Yep, like I said, never seen magnets available...and broken magenets can't be fixed but whole magnet can be reglued if falls off. Flywheel and merc conversion kits often on ebay, red stator is better if you upgrade. I won this red stator on ebay for $31 last week,<br /> http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4538340118&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOAB:CA:6 <br /> just emailed seller about flywheel...wanted as spare so you can have if fits your engine & flywheels available.... I'm running out door to golf but will figure out if parts good for you later.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

if you upgrade the stator you will need the kit. comes with an ign module adapter and a regulator. the black stator had a high failure rate.<br /> so ya found a broken gasket imagine that. find that tech bulliten. and carefully inspect the manifold for any leaks,pits or cracks in the casting .

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

ohh on the flywheel. use a harmonic balancer puller and the bolts are metric 8mmx1.25mm I think.

 

[zeiden]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

O.K. I went to my local Autozone to buy the harmonic balancer and found out that they rent it out for free! It took me something like 15 minutes to do the whole thing.<br /><br />There are a total of 6 magnets. Two of which are broken.<br /><br />If I glue them back on the flywheel, will there be a problem due to this gap since two of them are broken?<br /><br />Keep me posted on the flywheel zamboni.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

Re: Purchased a boat and cooled it the wrong way. Now I have leakage in boat &a

yep the cracks may mean the system"thinks" there are now 2 more magnents, but you can try it I guess. if the magnetc lines of force are north/south at the crack it will be just like 2 mags instead of one.