Whaler Central - Boston Whaler Boat Information and Photos

Posted by MW on 07/30/08 - 5:50 PM

I just towed a small boat a few miles to the repair shop, as I was leaving the shop at 5 mph, the overheat alarm came on, I looked behind me and no water going out the tell tale, I immediately shut down, removed the plastic bag off the intake screen, fired back up, tell tale working, alarm still on, after about 15-20 seconds alarm went off. I continued at 5 mph, everything check's out o.k., when I went to plane off the engine stumbled a bit, (ran rough) I shut down, re-inspected prop for bag pieces, prop check's out o.k., re-fired up and took off no problem, right up on plane. My question is was the engine stumbling because, it was still locked up in "S.L.O.W mode" when I gave it throttle, or were the plug's just loaded up a bit from running at 5 mph for so long during the tow.
'04 Johnson 50 H.P. non-VRO
Thank's
mw

Edited by MW on 07/30/08 - 5:52 PM

Posted by ioptfm on 07/30/08 - 6:40 PM

MW
I'm not sure if this holds true on your motor or not, but I had a boat a few years ago with an OMC motor on it and it had a feature on it for overheating and cleaning the water pump. You put it in reverse and backed up for a short period of time, shut the engine off and it reset the slow mode and did something I guess to also flush the cooloing system. Check your owners manual and see if yours has that feature.

Posted by joninnj on 07/31/08 - 4:54 AM

Hey MW,

Are you saying that a plastic bag wrapped around the lower unit and blocked the water intake :o If so my bet would be the water pump got damaged... Running with no water being taken in will cause pre-mature wear on the impeller.

Unfortunately this kind of weird thing can happen...

Posted by Derwd24 on 07/31/08 - 7:35 AM

I was just reading last night that engines run noticably hotter at idle then they do at higher speeds, mainly due to the water output of the pump. So my guess is beause you were towing/running at low speed for so long combined with the blocked water intake, the powerhead was pretty hot. Takes a bit to come down from that. Sounds like the intake wasn't blocked for long, but for peace of mind you may want to take a look at the impeller or even just swap it out for cheap insurance while you have it apart...

Posted by MW on 07/31/08 - 9:08 AM

I checked everything out, tell tale water is luke warm at Idle where it should be, it only over heated for a second (I know, that's all it takes to toast an impeller), I'll change it (water pump) out in the fall, I don't think that there was any damage but, you are right, It should be checked,

Thank's
mw