Shark_bait99
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- May 9, 2012
- Messages
- 96
Hello, I bought a 2004 Four Winns Sundowner 225 and she has died on me on my second trip out.
Two major issues have been noted which I am not sure are related.
On the first trip (Sunday) I was having trouble shifting gears. I was easing into gear and the engine would not move from neutral to forward or reverse idle. I would apply some gas, which was followed by a loud thud and the boat would lurch forward into gear. One of these lurches sent my poor dad into 45 degree water, but fortunately just a hop away from the dock and my warm car & seat warmers. No permanent damage. Yet. This forum helped me realize that I needed to firmly place the engine into gear.
Armed with my new found knowledge I headed Out today to test my theory. Of course she slipped right into gear and cruised smoothly. After about 20 min, I slowed down to stop and as I was decelerating the clunk happened, even before going into neutral. I turned off the engine waited a few minutes then restarted. She started fine but after 30 sec she sputtered and died cut out. I waited and tried her again, and she went into a weak idle, and seemed like she was gong to stall so i tried to give some gas but she cut out again. When I tried again she would crank but not start. I switched my battery to both the deep cycle and the starter to see if a little more juice would help, but still nothing. Both batteries were reading 11v.
No one else in sight, so I used my never tested 30 lb thrust "emergency trolling motor" attached to my deep cycle to crawl all the way home. Nice save bass pro - only $100 to push a 4500lb boat into the wind!
My first though was a clogged fuel filter so that's my first step, followed by a fuel system evaluation. I read the fuel system how to, but most of the test require the boat to be running... And i have no experience working on engines, but i am handy and willing to learn.
Any thoughs on what could be wrong. Could the issues be related - damaged something from the hard shifts?
The boat is still on its first full tank of gas which was winterized by the last owner. They said they filled it up and added stabilizer before winter (sept). They suggested I might want octane booster since the fuel has been sitting for several months. We are in Canada so it obviously gets cold. Could another easy diagnostic tool be to add the octane booster and/or some fuel Cleaner to unblock the clog if it's not the filter?
Thanks for your help. I am sorry about the long post, but I think it's all relevant.
Two major issues have been noted which I am not sure are related.
On the first trip (Sunday) I was having trouble shifting gears. I was easing into gear and the engine would not move from neutral to forward or reverse idle. I would apply some gas, which was followed by a loud thud and the boat would lurch forward into gear. One of these lurches sent my poor dad into 45 degree water, but fortunately just a hop away from the dock and my warm car & seat warmers. No permanent damage. Yet. This forum helped me realize that I needed to firmly place the engine into gear.
Armed with my new found knowledge I headed Out today to test my theory. Of course she slipped right into gear and cruised smoothly. After about 20 min, I slowed down to stop and as I was decelerating the clunk happened, even before going into neutral. I turned off the engine waited a few minutes then restarted. She started fine but after 30 sec she sputtered and died cut out. I waited and tried her again, and she went into a weak idle, and seemed like she was gong to stall so i tried to give some gas but she cut out again. When I tried again she would crank but not start. I switched my battery to both the deep cycle and the starter to see if a little more juice would help, but still nothing. Both batteries were reading 11v.
No one else in sight, so I used my never tested 30 lb thrust "emergency trolling motor" attached to my deep cycle to crawl all the way home. Nice save bass pro - only $100 to push a 4500lb boat into the wind!
My first though was a clogged fuel filter so that's my first step, followed by a fuel system evaluation. I read the fuel system how to, but most of the test require the boat to be running... And i have no experience working on engines, but i am handy and willing to learn.
Any thoughs on what could be wrong. Could the issues be related - damaged something from the hard shifts?
The boat is still on its first full tank of gas which was winterized by the last owner. They said they filled it up and added stabilizer before winter (sept). They suggested I might want octane booster since the fuel has been sitting for several months. We are in Canada so it obviously gets cold. Could another easy diagnostic tool be to add the octane booster and/or some fuel Cleaner to unblock the clog if it's not the filter?
Thanks for your help. I am sorry about the long post, but I think it's all relevant.
