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Engine struggled after de-winterizing


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So we had a really nice sunny day yesterday so I put the boat back in the water and went out. I live in the south where it doesn't get that cold so I do minimal winterizing. All I did was drain the water out of the block and exhaust manifolds and the boat has sat on the boat lift for about 4 weeks until yesterday.

Anyway, I went to fire up the boat 2000 Malibu Response with the Monsoon engine. Engine fired up immediately and idled fine. It was a little smokey at first (I didn't fog the cylinders). The worrying part was after 30-60 seconds of idling, I tried to rev it in fast idle and the engine was having none of that. It sounded like it was spitting, sputtering, and mis-firing like crazy and about 10 seconds later I was smoked out and shut the engine down. I waited til the smoke cleared (literally) and restarted it and let it idle for a little longer. Once it got up to temperature, it was good to go.

Any ideas what could've caused that?

 

EDIT: New information added at the bottom.

Edited by jfw432
Bringing topic back to life
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@jfw432: it should not at start up although it does not take very long for the heads/exhaust manifolds to get pretty hot. Just a simple water drain should not cause a start up smoking issue, I would look deeper and check things out. The burning smell could be from getting the engine hot, did you watch the water temp when you started it the second time to see if the temperature rise appeared normal or abnormally quick (which would indicate lack of water the first time). You mention exhaust tubes, I would make sure they are clear and water can flow out, the last thing you want is to end up hydrolocking your Monsoon.

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Were you running it on a hose? I've heard hose pressure can over flow an engine and you can get some ingestion back through the exhaust valves from the exhaust manifolds. May have gotten some water in there and took a little while to burn it out.

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Well I didn't actually get the water temp all the way up at first as this was a quick boat check in advance before agreeing to drive everyone. The temp looked like it went up to about 100 deg pretty quick but when the gauge only goes down to 80, I figure I just wasn't watching it and the water got some heatsoak from the engine while I was letting the smoke clear.

All I did was lower the boat in the water and I didn't even lower it all the way but plenty to ensure the water intake and exhaust was below the waterline.

I did run probably 10 gallons of gas through it afterwards and all seemed normal. Just seemed weird initially.

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Well I didn't actually get the water temp all the way up at first as this was a quick boat check in advance before agreeing to drive everyone. The temp looked like it went up to about 100 deg pretty quick but when the gauge only goes down to 80, I figure I just wasn't watching it and the water got some heatsoak from the engine while I was letting the smoke clear.

All I did was lower the boat in the water and I didn't even lower it all the way but plenty to ensure the water intake and exhaust was below the waterline.

I did run probably 10 gallons of gas through it afterwards and all seemed normal. Just seemed weird initially.

I'm betting air locked and started to overheat, I did that once on the trailer, didn't back in far enough. Especially after draining the system, you should be fully floating and sometimes I have to bump the throttle to get the pump to prime.

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So, definitely plan on changing that impeller. Maybe it's good, maybe not, but more than likely it is on it's way out. Might as well change it on your schedule than deal with the typical untimely failure.

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Probably very possible that the engine ran too hot with the boat being a little out of the water and me only running it at idle.

The impeller will certainly get changed next season. This winters running was kind of a fluke and there's no point in changing an impeller if it's just going to sit for 4-5 months.

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Probably very possible that the engine ran too hot with the boat being a little out of the water and me only running it at idle.

The impeller will certainly get changed next season. This winters running was kind of a fluke and there's no point in changing an impeller if it's just going to sit for 4-5 months.

Sounds like exactly what my 02 with a Monsoon was doing as the water pump was failing. If it's never been replaced I would order one from DIM and change it out. They are reasonably priced.

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There are some water circulation pumps that have a plastic impeller that is sensitive to failure, I recall some comments on this site about them. I don't recall specific year so you might check with dealer or Indmar also.

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It's a rubber impeller and the distributor cap and rotor were replaced 5 months ago.

If this happens again, I'll dig in deeper but at the moment it kinda sounds like the engine just got too hot and couldn't pull in enough water with how it was sitting in the water while idling.

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  • 2 months later...

I wanted to resurface this discussion. I've used the boat 3-4 times this winter after draining the water out of the engine block and exhaust manifolds and it always does the same thing no matter how I try to bring it back.

It doesn't really matter what I do when I first start it up. It always spews some grayish smoke out of the exhaust that goes away after 10-15 seconds. Even after that, it doesn't like to rev. I can get it on plane and am limited to about 30mph before it starts misfiring. It progressively gets better and after 3-4 minutes, it's gotten to the point where I can rev it freely. I don't know if it's normal but when I do crack it initially, there is a very loud vacuum (sucking air) sound coming from the throttle body that goes away after a minute or two. I assume that's just the warmup procedure but thought I'd add it just in case.

I inspected the raw water pump impeller and it looks perfect but changed it anyway. No change. Yesterday I pulled the circulation pump and it spins freely and from what I can see, the internal impeller looks fine. I can't see all of the vanes on the circ. pump impeller though. The impeller appears to be bronze but hard to tell since everything in there looks brown. I've ordered a new circulation pump anyway and it should be here tomorrow but I'm doubting that's going to change anything based on how the old circ. pump looks.

Edited by jfw432
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What you are describing is not a water supply problem.  Sounds like either corroded/fouled ignition components or your fuel supply is either under pressured or the fuel filter is clogged.

Pull the plugs and have a look.

Take a look at cap and rotor for corrosion

If you have a fuel/water separator then replace it or at least pour it into a glass container and see what is in there

Check fuel pressure

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I will come from a different angle, I agree with Old Jeeps suggestion as a first start.  Usually more blueish, but if you have a bad valve stem seal or bad valve guides you will get oil buildup on the top of the piston which will need to burn off when you first fire up the engine after sitting for a while, that would also contribute to a short term miss.  Do the engine use any oil?  Once burned off, everything will run fine.  An engine overheat can contribute to the issue, not wanting to alarm you, but a serious overheat could also lead to a bad head gasket or even a cracked head that would show similar symptoms.  Leak down check will tell you if there are any serious issues, good luck on further diagnosis.

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When I was diagnosing what turned out to be an exhaust manifold gasket leak late last summer, I replaced the cap, rotor, wires, spark plugs, both fuel filters, checked fuel pressure, and replaced a couple sensors but don't remember which ones.

 

The engine doesn't use any oil. I may be able do a leakdown check later today and verify that.

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I would suggest check cap and rotor, check the fuel pressure regulator screen. Which you could find if its clogged by a fuel pressure gauge. And also kind of sounds to me like a bad coolant temp sensor. Which you either replace or take it to a shop with indmar scanner or diacom

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Doesn't really make sense that a clogged fuel problem would gradually clear up over time. Either way, I can easily check fuel pressure when I get home. If memory serves me, it should read around 40-43psi. Is that right?

 

I can hook up my scanner/LED light as well and see if it's throwing any codes.

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