2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

[Steve-NH]

Can a misplaced or poorly sealed exhaust cowling (in between the powerhead and lower unit) cause a check engine light? Mechanic says no. However, just replaced my water pump and during the test run, noticed a different exhaust noise coming up to plane, then got the check engine alarm and light.
During the day, light never came back on. Noticed exhaust carbon at the split line of the lower unit telling me the exhaust cowling is leaking.

 

[Craig-]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

Don't run it. You could be sucking water in to the crankcase. I would guess your inner housing to powerhead gasket is leaking. Bad, very bad.

 

[Steve-NH]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

OK you got my attention.
1. Is this gasket part of the Exhaust housing?
2. Is it easy to fix?
3. The day I got the alarm....the alarm was on for about 20 minutes. We shut down to fish and never heard the alarm the rest of the day. Does this mean water was leaking for 20 minutes and eventually stopped, or did it just time out, or what???

 

[Craig-]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

OK you got my attention.
1. Is this gasket part of the Exhaust housing? Yes
2. Is it easy to fix? Depends on damage
3. The day I got the alarm....the alarm was on for about 20 minutes. We shut down to fish and never heard the alarm the rest of the day. Does this mean water was leaking for 20 minutes and eventually stopped, or did it just time out, or what???

Stop running when you have an alarm, can't say why it didn't come back on, you may have damaged it. Take it back to your mechanic, start with compression test.

 

[Steve-NH]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

While doing the waterpump, the shape of this end of the exhaust cowling concerned me. Is this what could be the problem. Note the distortion of the edges.

 

[Craig-]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

Thought you were referring to the top of the unit that this attaches to. "exhaust cowling (in between the powerhead and lower unit)" The inner upper exhaust housing, which attaches to the powerhead with housing to powerhead gasket. A blown housing to powerhead gasket can cause serious water intrusion into the crankcase.

Your picture shows the inner lower housing which has a thick seal that attaches the two together. It normally stays up in the leg when you pull the foot. It also has a thick seal at the foot connection. The casting looks normal and the thick upper seal should fit snugly.

You may have just had a stuck thermostat assembly that got freed up on restart. I would check both of them and do a compression test on all 4 cylinders. The side that caused the alarm could have overheated badly running 20 minutes on the alarm.

 

[Steve-NH]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

OK whew!! Had me scared for a minute. This weekend I will remove the lower unit again to fix this exhaust cowling. Then retest. Thanks for the help.

 

[seahorse5]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

Also check or replace the lower seal on the exhaust extention. It has to be a good seal or exhaust gases will exit the gearcase to midsection area and make a lot of noise.

Get the CHECK ENGINE light looked at by someone with the diagnostic software. It could be any number of things and one of them is an overheated engine computer which could be serious.

 

[Steve-NH]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

Thing is....I got the over heat alarm prior to changing the pump. (my tach has 4 alarms, no oil, hot, chk eng, and low oil.) SO all I did was change the water pump, put it back together with exhaust leak and I got the check engine alarm. Weird.

 

[Steve-NH]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

OK...Finally got time to see why the exhaust was leaking. As I suspected, while replacing the lower unit, the upper seal got displaced.

I also took a torch to the housing to straighten the sides for the top gasket.

I sure hope this is what caused my check engine light and alarm. Headed to Cape cod this weekend for a week of fishing and boating. :redface:

 

[Steve-NH]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

Well Exhaust leak fixed. Also figured out what the check engine alarm was all about....kinda. Some kind of voltage. On battery one, voltage was reading nearly 16 volts while running, same reading and same alarm while running on battery 2. Running on both batteries, no alarm and voltage read normal at about 14.5.

 

[Craig-]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

Voltage regulator bad?

Nice job with the torch work, wonder how long it will take to distort again.

 

[Steve-NH]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

Yeah, I'm leaning toward something like that as well....way too coincidental that both batteries would be bad at the exact same time.

Where is the voltage regulator and is this something easy I can replace or should I have a shop do it?

 

[Steve-NH]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

bump....

 

[wilde1j]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

The voltage regulator is probably integrated into the EMM.

 

[Steve-NH]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

Please tell me it ain't so. Thats sounds bad.

 

[wilde1j]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

Just look at the parts list on BRP Evinrude site. There's no separate VR listed. Probably the same as my E-Tecs.

 

[Steve-NH]

Re: 2001, 115 Ficht - Chk /Eng alarm ?

Well just heard back from the mechanic. It's gonna need a new EMM. Being I am trying to trade this boat I have no choice but to fix it. Figures....Never, let a boat know it's going to be replaced cause they will always get-cha.

It's been a great boat to me for 3+ years....this is the 1st major thing to go wrong.