Hi all;
Yesterday morning while engine was warming up at idle, an oil or gas sheen surrounded my boat. My first thought was someone had stolen gas and made a mess. Boat was put in water Sat. to drop crab pots and left overnight with engine not tilted up. I think the peashooter had water coming out at start up and while idling. I know it did when I noticed the sheen slick. After pulling boat out, noticed seaweed at the intake screens and holes, which I pulled out easily. There was an oil film on the lower unit, especially on the bottom of the horizontal fin and inside the prop. When flushing engine, a few milky beads of oil came out of prop at start up and the water run off had a sheen on it. The peashooter may have less pressure than it usually has.
This engine has been great since repowering in Sept. 2005 - I hardly hear the starter at all and it never misses a beat. It has about 265 hrs on it, most all in salt water and is still under the factory warranty, plus the extended 3 year. I do my own maintenance with factory manual and parts from Brown's Point. The 200 hr service with new plugs and impeller was done in April 2007, just before starting construction on our new home, hence not much time for fishing.
I took off the intake screens and found only bits of seaweed around the screws. Drained a bit of oil from the lower unit and the engine and both looked good - with no water or milky appearance. The plug tips looked good, with only the threads on #4 looking a little wet. I dropped the lower unit and found no oil around the water pump.
I wonder if the seaweed restriction may have somehow caused a seal to start leaking somewhere and if so, will any damage be covered under the warranty? I was hoping maybe there was some kind of "safety valve" somewhere in the system that let a little oil out, (wishful thinking).
Will be talking to some local repair shops tomorrow. The dealer I bought from is over 70 miles away and did a sloppy job on installation - left all the old tie wraps laying on deck, etc. I hope to be able to take care of the problem myself unless special tools are needed or too much time involved.
Doug
Yesterday morning while engine was warming up at idle, an oil or gas sheen surrounded my boat. My first thought was someone had stolen gas and made a mess. Boat was put in water Sat. to drop crab pots and left overnight with engine not tilted up. I think the peashooter had water coming out at start up and while idling. I know it did when I noticed the sheen slick. After pulling boat out, noticed seaweed at the intake screens and holes, which I pulled out easily. There was an oil film on the lower unit, especially on the bottom of the horizontal fin and inside the prop. When flushing engine, a few milky beads of oil came out of prop at start up and the water run off had a sheen on it. The peashooter may have less pressure than it usually has.
This engine has been great since repowering in Sept. 2005 - I hardly hear the starter at all and it never misses a beat. It has about 265 hrs on it, most all in salt water and is still under the factory warranty, plus the extended 3 year. I do my own maintenance with factory manual and parts from Brown's Point. The 200 hr service with new plugs and impeller was done in April 2007, just before starting construction on our new home, hence not much time for fishing.
I took off the intake screens and found only bits of seaweed around the screws. Drained a bit of oil from the lower unit and the engine and both looked good - with no water or milky appearance. The plug tips looked good, with only the threads on #4 looking a little wet. I dropped the lower unit and found no oil around the water pump.
I wonder if the seaweed restriction may have somehow caused a seal to start leaking somewhere and if so, will any damage be covered under the warranty? I was hoping maybe there was some kind of "safety valve" somewhere in the system that let a little oil out, (wishful thinking).
Will be talking to some local repair shops tomorrow. The dealer I bought from is over 70 miles away and did a sloppy job on installation - left all the old tie wraps laying on deck, etc. I hope to be able to take care of the problem myself unless special tools are needed or too much time involved.
Doug