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Great write up and rebuild thread Chris. Hopefully this’ll finally sort out the ‘hotties’ with your motor.
Horrendous build up of grease and crud in the water jacket. Ouch!
Not sure I’d comprehensively veto the judicious use of grease when installing a new impeller. A very light smear of grease to the internal impeller housing surface seems to be widely recommended by service manuals, manufacturers and marine engineers. Certainly a practice I’ll not be abandoning on an impeller replacement.
In all fairness the findings on dismantling a 2004 commercially owned motor with 2000 plus hours, low revs usage/seldom flushed, and 130 overheat warnings will be slightly different to the typical low hours, infrequent use leisure motor most on here own.
I’m assuming/hoping you picked it up for a very good price from that ‘nice man’ in Warshash.
harrison
'The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves'
Unfortunately we didn’t know the full history of the engine before we bought it. If I had seen all the overheat warnings I would have haggled him down a bit more.
With regard to greasing the impeller, the Suzuki manual doesn’t mention using any lube at all on the impeller, and they are pretty good at telling you where to use what.
There is a world of difference, of course, between a smear of proper water proof grease and packing the damned thing full of silicone.
We got it back together and all the electronics connected up. I connected the laptop to it and used the actuator tests to fire the injectors, prime the fuel pump and check the inlet valve.
Everything looked ok.
Double checked that we had put the oil back in...
Then came the true test.
Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire!
It lives!
We let it run for 20 minutes while monitoring the temperature, both via the laptop and using an infrared thermometer. While the top exhaust port is still hotter than the bottom it is now a lot cooler and more even. The temperature gradient is to be expected now that we have seen the shape of the water jacket.
Now all we need is for this whole tier 4 thing to go the hell away....
About an inch below the bottom of the hull.
Because of the way the transom was built we didn’t have much choice - it was either the lowest position or the middle position and the middle position was too high.
It might be a smidge low - but that’s not really a problem for us.
Hi @Limecc. You are quite right - I forgot to mention them.
We did change the internal anodes when we had the engine apart, although my Dad did it when I wasn’t there so I can’t recall how many there were or where they were!
We still need to replace the external anodes - the one on the bottom of the transom clamp has seen better days.
My folks have been stuck in Yorkshire since Christmas but are hoping to get back down as soon as possible, as they have decided to move down permanently, so I should be able to get more work done on the boat (as my Dad likes to be around when I am working on the boat - it’s almost like he still thinks I am a young boy. I’m 39)
It has been a while since the last update and quite a bit has happened, although it happened slowly.
During May we got the casing back on the engine, gave the trailer a service (greased the jockey wheel, checked for corrosion etc), fitted the seats and got everything ready for the first outing of the year, which was to be on the 29th of May.
We launched the boat without incident and I followed along in the Bombard.
Almost immediately we had an alarm going off. We were vexed most mightily. After all our work and we have the same alarm we had before. We rafted up with me across the stern in the Bombard and lifted the hood of the engine. Temperature measurements were taken and the engine was deffo NOT overheating.
You may recall, dear reader, that in the past I mentioned the presence of two temperature sensors. One is for the cylinder head temperature which the ECU uses to measure the absolute temperature of the engine, and the other is located in the exhaust manifold and is used by the ECU to calculate rate-of-change - how fast the engine is heating up. The fault is coming from this second sensor. Empirical measurements have shown us that there is not a problem with either the temperature or the rate of change - rather that the ECU is miss-reporting something. This is most likely to be a dodgy sensor or perhaps a sketchy plug on the wiring loom.
The decision was taken to remove the sensor from the engine and tuck it under the plastic cover where the ECU is located. Quite frankly this was a “sod it” decision based on the fact that we were already out on the water, were planning on staying within the harbour and had a second boat (mine) which could provide aid if needed.
Having removed the sensor the engine ran perfectly for the rest of the day, not missing a beat.
A week went by and we decided to go out again. We launched from Baiter and the engine started first turn of the key. Then it stopped. And it wouldn’t start again. It would crank but it wouldn’t fire. Then I realised that I couldn’t hear the fuel pump running, which it usually does for three seconds when you turn the ignition on. So we pulled the boat back out of the water and towed it the 1/2 mile back to the garage.
We checked that the ECU was sending power to the pump (it was) and that the pump runs if you apply power to it (it didn’t).
High pressure fuel pump had failed. Rats.
Before anyone says “that’s what happens when you remove a sensor” I wish to point out that the fuel pump failed due to failure of a mechanical component within the pump - so nothing to do with the electronics.
We ordered a new pump from Suzuki and the next week we fitted it. This required the removal of the inlet manifold and high pressure fuel system, so it took a hour or so to do.
Good news is it all works fine now!
Last Sunday we took the boat out again. It was a glorious day. I followed along in the Bombard Aerotec (@sonny1, that was the boat you saw me in).
We went out to Old Harry rocks, cruising at an easy 15 knots, before returning and anchoring behind Brownsea Island
These users thanked the author ChrisParish for the post (total 4):
Oldman (16 Jun 2021, 06:55) • Roy54 (16 Jun 2021, 11:51) • sonny1 (16 Jun 2021, 13:34) • Limecc (17 Jun 2021, 17:44)
