On 26 Nov 2003 20:05:56 -0800, Scott wrote:

Anyone else have a nightmare story with these engines?

FWIW, I bought a new Bombardier Utopia 185 this summer. It's powered by a
Mercury Optimax DFI 200 hp jet. Three weeks out and it dies in the middle
of Rangely lake, ME. No beeps, warnings, whatever; it just wouldn't run.
Got a tow, brought it back to the dealer. They find out that one of the
air injectors had broken off inside the cylinder, embedding pieces in the
piston and head. They called Bombardier, then Merc who wanted them to
rebuild the engine. The dealers (good guys, fortunately) said "no, ship us
a new engine". Merc complied but after installation, they still couldn't
get it to run correctly. (The dealers were nice enough to lend me a
[bigger and better] boat and trailer during all of this). Finally, the
dealer's best mechanic determined that one of the fuel injectors had been
damaged as well. They repaired it and now, finally, all is well. Mercury
claims that as a result of my failure they have redesigned the air
injection system. (I'm, uhh, skeptical).

When I bought the boat, my biggest concern was the Mercury engine. This
has done little to change my opinion.
--

Larry
email is rapp at lmr dot com