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Alarm is ringing!!! Please help! Possible oil problem.


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Hi,

I have a 21 sunsetter with 310HP engine, 2001

I hope a generous person here might be able to help. It is ski season up here!

I start the engine and the "beep! Beep! Beep!" alarm keeps on ringing.

So here is a little info.

I summerized the boat a few weeks ago. By mistake, I had left the oil in all winter and when I changed it was clogged and very black. I had to blow into the oil drain hose to unblock it. I put in 5 qt regular 10W30 (not marine) as per a fellow Malibu owners recommendation. After running the boat for over an hour (first run) the alarm went off.

My oil pressure gauge has always been on intermittent. Since day one of owning the boat, so I cant tell if the pressure is good, but when it does read, it seems almost up to the top. Higher than usual.

When I open up the plugs where one would fill in oil, the springs I see seem dry. Is this normal?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,

Michael (AudioguyII)

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Hi,

I have a 21 sunsetter with 310HP engine, 2001

I hope a generous person here might be able to help. It is ski season up here!

I start the engine and the "beep! Beep! Beep!" alarm keeps on ringing.

So here is a little info.

I summerized the boat a few weeks ago. By mistake, I had left the oil in all winter and when I changed it was clogged and very black. I had to blow into the oil drain hose to unblock it. I put in 5 qt regular 10W30 (not marine) as per a fellow Malibu owners recommendation. After running the boat for over an hour (first run) the alarm went off.

My oil pressure gauge has always been on intermittent. Since day one of owning the boat, so I cant tell if the pressure is good, but when it does read, it seems almost up to the top. Higher than usual.

When I open up the plugs where one would fill in oil, the springs I see seem dry. Is this normal?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,

Michael (AudioguyII)

Not sure what your problem is w/ the beeping, but you should be running 50W oil, marine or diesel grade.

Link to comment
Hi,

I have a 21 sunsetter with 310HP engine, 2001

I hope a generous person here might be able to help. It is ski season up here!

I start the engine and the "beep! Beep! Beep!" alarm keeps on ringing.

So here is a little info.

I summerized the boat a few weeks ago. By mistake, I had left the oil in all winter and when I changed it was clogged and very black. I had to blow into the oil drain hose to unblock it. I put in 5 qt regular 10W30 (not marine) as per a fellow Malibu owners recommendation. After running the boat for over an hour (first run) the alarm went off.

My oil pressure gauge has always been on intermittent. Since day one of owning the boat, so I cant tell if the pressure is good, but when it does read, it seems almost up to the top. Higher than usual.

When I open up the plugs where one would fill in oil, the springs I see seem dry. Is this normal?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,

Michael (AudioguyII)

Not sure what your problem is w/ the beeping, but you should be running 50W oil, marine or diesel grade.

So I'll pull it out and change the oil again asap. But any other insight as to the beeping would be great.

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Your not getting an indication on the gauge screen and have you tried locating where the beep is coming from? A little confused when you say open up the plugs, you mean "pull" the plug and how did you look at your valve springs, did you take the valve cover off or look through the oil fill hole? Your plug should not be filled with oil if indeed you pulled a plug and observed that!

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Hi,

I have a 21 sunsetter with 310HP engine, 2001

I hope a generous person here might be able to help. It is ski season up here!

I start the engine and the "beep! Beep! Beep!" alarm keeps on ringing.

So here is a little info.

I summerized the boat a few weeks ago. By mistake, I had left the oil in all winter and when I changed it was clogged and very black. I had to blow into the oil drain hose to unblock it. I put in 5 qt regular 10W30 (not marine) as per a fellow Malibu owners recommendation. After running the boat for over an hour (first run) the alarm went off.

My oil pressure gauge has always been on intermittent. Since day one of owning the boat, so I cant tell if the pressure is good, but when it does read, it seems almost up to the top. Higher than usual.

When I open up the plugs where one would fill in oil, the springs I see seem dry. Is this normal?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,

Michael (AudioguyII)

Not sure what your problem is w/ the beeping, but you should be running 50W oil, marine or diesel grade.

So I'll pull it out and change the oil again asap. But any other insight as to the beeping would be great.

Actually. Inmar recommends 50w for the newer Hammerhead engines. Yours should take 15w40 "marine" oil that you cannot find anywhere. Most if us substitute diesel grade 15w40 like chevron Delo 400. I don't know that it's worth draining it again, I'm sure thousands of boats like ours are running around with regular auto grade oil in them. Maybe run it 10-20 hours & then change it, since you said it was black & gummy in the engine. Maybe it would help clean it out to do a short change. As far as the alarm goes, it could be the failing intermitent oil sender, or one of the other senders. It would be nice to confirm oil pressure with a manual gauge though, for piece of mind.

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I bet it is ur oil pressure switch. This has been a hot topic lately, so if u search u should find several recent threads on this very thing.

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Michael, high pressure is a good thing, and don't worry about the oil for now. As one mentioned, run it for a few hours and then change it up to 15w-40 or a good 20w-50. That will work fine.

Could be a couple things, but a bad oil pressure switch is definitely high on the potential list.

Hope that helps,

Peter

Smooth Water Sports

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Michael, high pressure is a good thing, and don't worry about the oil for now. As one mentioned, run it for a few hours and then change it up to 15w-40 or a good 20w-50. That will work fine.

Could be a couple things, but a bad oil pressure switch is definitely high on the potential list.

Hope that helps,

Peter

Smooth Water Sports

Thanks,

I went down today and as I unplugged the wire to the switch, the alarm turned off. I guess i will replace the switch and hope thats all it is. Any other suggestions?

Tanks,

Michael

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Hey guys...

Ok I replaced the sender and pressure switch....

But!!!!

My gauge shows zero.... but as I've mentioned, the gauge has always been intermittent.

The main thing I noticed was when I removed the oil fill cap ( the caps where one would fill oil in)

I started the engine and did not see any oil flowing or on the rocker arms , springs and valves.

There is a little residue oil there but seems a little to me...

When I changed the oil , I did have to blow into the oil drain hose as it was clogged in the oil pan.... could my oil pump be logged or broken?

Thanks again for the help,

Michael

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go get a can of seafoam you can get it at autozone or advanced auto parts...maybe even walmart. on the bottle it'll say how much to use...I'd probably start with 1/2 pint. pour that in where you add oil...run your boat for about 5-10 hours then change the oil again. it cleans the areas and breaks down carbon and other build up...it should help if you do have any blockage or build up for sure. I use it in my truck all the time...just dump the other 1/2 of the pint into your gas tank.

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