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8.1 liter vortec engine issues


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Hi guys, I'm recently having a problem with my 2003 lsv. It has a big 8.1 liter engine and it has recently started to die when I'm coming off the throttle into neutral. It only happens 1 or 2 times I'm out on the water, never happened last season. My other issue is its really jerky/jumpy when it catches going into gear, I have to get on on off of the throttle in 5 mph zones or it throws a wake.  Lastly, the most recent issues have been when I'm throwing it in reverse I have pull the throttle down about a quarter of the way down until it abruptly catches. Anyone else have any of these issues?

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52 minutes ago, Scott12 said:

Hi guys, I'm recently having a problem with my 2003 lsv. It has a big 8.1 liter engine and it has recently started to die when I'm coming off the throttle into neutral. It only happens 1 or 2 times I'm out on the water, never happened last season. My other issue is its really jerky/jumpy when it catches going into gear, I have to get on on off of the throttle in 5 mph zones or it throws a wake.  Lastly, the most recent issues have been when I'm throwing it in reverse I have pull the throttle down about a quarter of the way down until it abruptly catches. Anyone else have any of these issues?

Same problem with my engine when coming off the throttle. I have the 8.1L also. It dies every so often and it takes a long time on the starter to restart. I have to disengage the throttle and rev the engine while turning the key to finally get the engine to fire. I thought it was a fuel issue. My boat is at the dealer right now getting its engine looked at and I described the problem to the mechanics and they said that they will look into it.  Do you have the problem when going at idle speed to going back into neutral? I have this happen often also. Or coming off of from reverse to neutral. I haven't had any of the jerking problems like you described... thats interesting. Something with the transmission im guessing?

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Thanks for getting back to me! When mine dies it's usually only when I'm slowing down and going to nuetral, I haven't had it die from idle to nuetral yet. I'm curious to see what the mechanics find and hopefully it works, please keep me posted

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It has been a long time since I have worked on those motors. Favorite motor of all of the Indmar options. The 8.1L had issues with idle flare. There was an ecm patch for those engines. Also, I believe the iac on that power plant could cause some of that as well. 

Edited by JeffK
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On 9/7/2016 at 0:57 PM, TimbrSS said:

Idle air control sticking?

 

3 hours ago, JeffK said:

It has been a long time since I have worked on those motors. Favorite motor of all of the Indmar options. The 8.1L had issues with idle flare. There was an ecm patch for those engines. Also, I believe the iac on that power plant could cause some of that as well. 

Where is the Idle Air Control on the engine? What does it look like?

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On September 8, 2016 at 8:56 AM, Scott12 said:

Thanks for getting back to me! When mine dies it's usually only when I'm slowing down and going to nuetral, I haven't had it die from idle to nuetral yet. I'm curious to see what the mechanics find and hopefully it works, please keep me posted

So, I just got the boat back from the shop. They said that they did a tune up on the motor and the problem subsided for awhile. I put about 5 hours on it since and the problem started to occur again. I was then cruising around my lake going close to WOT and there was a a faint whining noise in the background and as I slowed down the noise got louder and louder and then POP. The boat came to a halt and I put the throttle in the neutral position and wanted to see if the boat would go in forward or reverse and when I attempted to put it in gear, the engine stalled immediately. I think I just blew a transmission! So I have to pull the boat back out of the water and take it back to the shop to see what's wrong this time. Ugh! The repairs never stop...

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Wow, that sucks! I hope everything turns out for the best. It's so confusing because it seems that it could be a number of things and you'd hope a shop could finger point the issue but seems they rarely do. ??

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7 hours ago, Scott12 said:

Wow, that sucks! I hope everything turns out for the best. It's so confusing because it seems that it could be a number of things and you'd hope a shop could finger point the issue but seems they rarely do. ??

I ended up cracking a V-Drive. The dealer tried to charge me 5k for one with no warranty. Screw that, I went to Indmar directly and got one for $3,200 and a 3 year warranty. This shouldn't of even happened but it's gotta get fixed.

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Crazy.  I have the 8.1 and I do have an issue when shifting back to neutral from forward, but on my after I hold the throttle in one RPM range say 2800 for multiple seconds and then immediately drop to neutral.  I have learned over the years how to ensure it does not happen.  None of the other issues though.  It fires right back up and will not recreate until I run the same process.  No jerkiness or not engaging until a certain throttle range.  I have never attempted to have it repaired because it is not a big deal and I can prevent it with nearly no additional effort 

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3 hours ago, 85 Barefoot said:

cracked a Vdrive?  first I've ever heard of that given its simplicty.  It have lubrication?  were they using a skivee in 2004 or walters?

Walters in 2004

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So have the 8.1 in my 2008 and love it. When I first bought it (14 hour trip to Phoenix lower altitude) and brought it home ( Idaho higher altitude) every now and then I would be filling ballast tanks, and when finished would try to get up to speed and the motor would lug horribly. You could smell the unburnt fuel and would have to dump ballast and run it up to temperature before it would run right. Even after that I would have similar problems you have described, but mostly coming off throttle while surfing the motor would sputter and die not all the time but enough to drive you crazy. It really never had a problem starting again though. Called malibu dealer and talked to mechanic, asked if I had high altitude program installed which I called old owner and confirmed that it did not. Drove the 2 hours to the dealer and left him the boat to do the update on the ECU and look at a couple of other things to fix. Guy took the boat and lap top to the river and ran it to see the problems and then did the update, charged me like 55 bucks for download and was worth every penny. That was last year and it has only done it once since then, but I think that was caused more by the VERY rapid deceleration of throttle by wife. The guy also asked when spark plugs had been done and I had just done them. He said the ac delco ones I had installed are fine but they had seen problems with them after time, can't remember the brand he suggested though. Hope that helps.

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