KathyD19
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2012
- Messages
- 361
This is going to be a little long but I want to give all details so please bear with me.
I have a 2016 Grand Island 20 foot pontoon with a 60hp Mercury 4 Stroke Force outboard (same age as boat).
Last August, it started bogging down and acting like it was fuel starved, wanting to die. I squeezed the primer bulb and it got it going again but I had to continue doing that so we could get back to the dock. I noticed the original external gas cans looked cracked and I figured they were the issue so I bought a brand new Sceptor brand 12 gallon gas tank. Still had issues. So I began replacing things in the fuel system. Last year I replaced: all fuel lines and the primer bulb, both of the fuel filters, the spark plugs and the low pressure fuel pump. Still had the same issue.
I put it up for the winter and decided to tackle it when our lake reopened in April. I had emptied the gas and put new in, with stabilizers and injector cleaners. We got a lot of rain this Spring and the boat sits outside so I couldn't do too much more. I called two different marine mechanics to pick their brains and they said all that I had checked and replaced so far was what they would have done as well. They told me to check the VST and that it may be the high pressure fuel pump going bad. So I drained the VST (fuel looked fine, checked the screens in there and they were fine as well). I also checked the fuel pressure and it was fine on the muffs. Put it all back together and was still having the same issue but now I was getting a warning horn. I tested fuel pressure in the water as it was running and it was fine then dropped dramatically as it bogged down and threatened to die.
Gave up on solving this mystery myself and took it to an established marine mechanic. He went through everything I had done to that point and said it was all correct, but he noticed that the gas can was bulging in the heat. With the new EPA requirements, those tanks do swell up and are supposed to self-vent at a certain PSI. But he checked it and said it wasn't venting at all and that the continued swelling had blown out the gasket in the uptake seal and had allowed rain water to contaminate the fuel. He emptied all of that and ran fresh fuel through it. He wasn't getting any error codes from the computer anymore (all the code said was "fuel system" nothing more specific) but it did still have a warning beep. He was puzzled at that but said it seemed to be running fine on the muffs now with good fuel. I purchased a new tank from him, one that he "modifies" from the EPA issue so it vents properly like the old ones used to. Back home and lake tested it and it was still bogging down and had the warning beeps (they varied each time I started it up). I called the mechanic and he said the only other thing he could think would be the high pressure fuel pump was going out and needed replaced. I hauled it back there and paid for him to replace that. While I was there, so sure that this would finally be the last fix, I also had them replace the impeller since they had it there (it was fine but it had been three years....few hours but still). Back home, back in the water and running worse than ever. All kind of different warning beeps upon start up, running so rough that I wasn't sure I could get it bac to the dock to re-trailer it. Called him again and offered to sell him the boat. I am just so sick and tired of throwing money at it and never getting to use it. He said the very last thing would be to replace the ECU and that was almost $1100. There was simply nothing else left. I thought about it for a week, didn't think I could sell it to anyone else if it needed that done and couldn't be used as it was. So I went ahead and told him to order the ECU and I'd take the boat back in. He had it a week and called me to tell me good news. That as he removed the harness to hook up the new ECU, he noticed "brown, heated spots" on the harness over two of the connector areas. He said that two of the connections/pins (can't remember exactly what he called them) on the harness were loose and kind of folded over on themselves. So he took the harness off and to his bench and repaired them. When he put it back on, the motor ran great (again on muffs) and threw no more codes, had no more warning horns or anything. So that was only $350 for that repair vs $1100 for the ECU. I was thrilled. Got it home and took it out on the lake yesterday. She purred like a well-fed kitten and we putted around at a little less than 1/2 throttle for about 45 min. Then when my husband put the throttle up just a little bit, I could hear the tone in the motor change and feel the slight bog. I looked at him to see if he had throttled down and he shook his head no. It was doing it again, although more subtle this time. Whenever he would throttle up even a little, it would bog and surge, bog and surge. I checked the fuel tank cap and even loosened it just in case it wasn't venting and that didn't do anything to help. Out of routine, I pumped the primer bulb a few times to force fuel to the motor. We throttled down and headed back to the dock to give up for the day.
If you've read this far, I greatly, greatly appreciate your interest. I've done all I can do, I've thrown a lot of money at this and I don't know what else to do or what direction to go. If this will let me attach a short video I took yesterday, turn up the volume and you can hear the motor bogging/trying to recover and see me sway in reaction to the change in speed. I welcome all advice. Thank you so much!
I have a 2016 Grand Island 20 foot pontoon with a 60hp Mercury 4 Stroke Force outboard (same age as boat).
Last August, it started bogging down and acting like it was fuel starved, wanting to die. I squeezed the primer bulb and it got it going again but I had to continue doing that so we could get back to the dock. I noticed the original external gas cans looked cracked and I figured they were the issue so I bought a brand new Sceptor brand 12 gallon gas tank. Still had issues. So I began replacing things in the fuel system. Last year I replaced: all fuel lines and the primer bulb, both of the fuel filters, the spark plugs and the low pressure fuel pump. Still had the same issue.
I put it up for the winter and decided to tackle it when our lake reopened in April. I had emptied the gas and put new in, with stabilizers and injector cleaners. We got a lot of rain this Spring and the boat sits outside so I couldn't do too much more. I called two different marine mechanics to pick their brains and they said all that I had checked and replaced so far was what they would have done as well. They told me to check the VST and that it may be the high pressure fuel pump going bad. So I drained the VST (fuel looked fine, checked the screens in there and they were fine as well). I also checked the fuel pressure and it was fine on the muffs. Put it all back together and was still having the same issue but now I was getting a warning horn. I tested fuel pressure in the water as it was running and it was fine then dropped dramatically as it bogged down and threatened to die.
Gave up on solving this mystery myself and took it to an established marine mechanic. He went through everything I had done to that point and said it was all correct, but he noticed that the gas can was bulging in the heat. With the new EPA requirements, those tanks do swell up and are supposed to self-vent at a certain PSI. But he checked it and said it wasn't venting at all and that the continued swelling had blown out the gasket in the uptake seal and had allowed rain water to contaminate the fuel. He emptied all of that and ran fresh fuel through it. He wasn't getting any error codes from the computer anymore (all the code said was "fuel system" nothing more specific) but it did still have a warning beep. He was puzzled at that but said it seemed to be running fine on the muffs now with good fuel. I purchased a new tank from him, one that he "modifies" from the EPA issue so it vents properly like the old ones used to. Back home and lake tested it and it was still bogging down and had the warning beeps (they varied each time I started it up). I called the mechanic and he said the only other thing he could think would be the high pressure fuel pump was going out and needed replaced. I hauled it back there and paid for him to replace that. While I was there, so sure that this would finally be the last fix, I also had them replace the impeller since they had it there (it was fine but it had been three years....few hours but still). Back home, back in the water and running worse than ever. All kind of different warning beeps upon start up, running so rough that I wasn't sure I could get it bac to the dock to re-trailer it. Called him again and offered to sell him the boat. I am just so sick and tired of throwing money at it and never getting to use it. He said the very last thing would be to replace the ECU and that was almost $1100. There was simply nothing else left. I thought about it for a week, didn't think I could sell it to anyone else if it needed that done and couldn't be used as it was. So I went ahead and told him to order the ECU and I'd take the boat back in. He had it a week and called me to tell me good news. That as he removed the harness to hook up the new ECU, he noticed "brown, heated spots" on the harness over two of the connector areas. He said that two of the connections/pins (can't remember exactly what he called them) on the harness were loose and kind of folded over on themselves. So he took the harness off and to his bench and repaired them. When he put it back on, the motor ran great (again on muffs) and threw no more codes, had no more warning horns or anything. So that was only $350 for that repair vs $1100 for the ECU. I was thrilled. Got it home and took it out on the lake yesterday. She purred like a well-fed kitten and we putted around at a little less than 1/2 throttle for about 45 min. Then when my husband put the throttle up just a little bit, I could hear the tone in the motor change and feel the slight bog. I looked at him to see if he had throttled down and he shook his head no. It was doing it again, although more subtle this time. Whenever he would throttle up even a little, it would bog and surge, bog and surge. I checked the fuel tank cap and even loosened it just in case it wasn't venting and that didn't do anything to help. Out of routine, I pumped the primer bulb a few times to force fuel to the motor. We throttled down and headed back to the dock to give up for the day.
If you've read this far, I greatly, greatly appreciate your interest. I've done all I can do, I've thrown a lot of money at this and I don't know what else to do or what direction to go. If this will let me attach a short video I took yesterday, turn up the volume and you can hear the motor bogging/trying to recover and see me sway in reaction to the change in speed. I welcome all advice. Thank you so much!
