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Danlw Danlw is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 46
Default A bad day on the boat


" JimH" jimhUNDERSCOREosudad@yahooDOTcom wrote in message
. ..

" JimH" jimhUNDERSCOREosudad@yahooDOTcom wrote in message
. ..

" JimH" jimhUNDERSCOREosudad@yahooDOTcom wrote in message
. ..
Cut out of work at noon and scrambled to the boat to hook up with
friends of ours, meeting them at the mouth of the Vermilion River with
both our boats. We arrived first and once safely past the breakwall
idled while waiting for them. That trip was perhaps 15 minutes tops.

I started to smell something burning and saw puffs of smoke coming out
of the engine compartment. I shut down the engine and grabbed a fire
extinguisher while my wife threw out the anchor, then opened the engine
compartment to see smoke coming off the engine and to hear hissing and
popping. Gave it a shot from the ABC dry chemical fire extinguisher
thinking there may be a fire. Saw the temperature gauge pegged at 250F.

Radioed our friends who towed us back to our marina. The marina
mechanic checked to see if there was any foaming or burnt smell with the
engine oil (none) or oil in the bilge (none). Sigh, maybe a good sign,
or at least I hope so.

We ended up leaving the boat with our mechanic and spent the day on our
friends boat. After 3 or so hours I got a call from the marina, telling
me they checked out the engine (after letting it cool) and judge it to
be OK, although the impeller needs replacing. They said I could safely
move the boat to my slip if I wanted to until repairs are made.

We got back to the marina later today and I took the boat from the gas
dock to our slip, with the temperature rising to 220F during that short
trip from the gas dock to our slip (5 minutes). The boat also ran very
rough during that short trip

So.......besides replacing the impellor any other suggestions on what I
should ask the marina to do? What is causing the rough engine,
especially after having a tune up only 4 engine hours ago? Is there
some internal damage I may have done?

Single 1997 Volvo Penta 4.3L, Chevy 190 HP.

TIA for your answers.

BTW: My vacation started this afternoon (one week of it) and this was
the last thing I expected to have to deal with.


edit


Thanks all for the advice and encouragement so far. I will let you know
the outcome.

What a bummer! One thing you might want to check is the
water/steering tube from the bottom of the lower unit up
to the pump. Have them back-flush that--they can clog.
Can be back-flushed from the pump intake side. Then there is the exhaust
risers on the "out" side that can clog. However,
if it isn't a water flow problem, you could have as someone posted, a bad
head gasket etc, or like a friend of mine, a burned piston because somebody
dropped a screw into
the intake manifold and it ended up on the top of a piston and melted it.
Hope it's something simple! Dan