VAP-OH NO! - R Lock

[wolfeman131]

We had a GREAT day on the lake today with zegm family! Awesome people . . .

They worked with my girls to get them off the trainer skis and do some real waterskiing and actually got my my fat 'ole butt up on a wakeboard. BEST DAY we've had on the lake and we can't thank all of them enough. :cool:

Then, the day went downhill a bit. It was very hot in GA today and after we left we spotted some other friends cruising on the lake. We shut down the boat, showed off the new OBV (got lots of compliments) talked and swam for a bit then got ready to part ways. WOOPS - Moomba won't start. :confused:

It fires, sputters and dies. Try it a couple times and no go. Bad gas? Safery lanyard off? Check and don't think it's either of those, so friends in '98Sea Ray start towing us back in. Kinda embarrassing.

So, I call Atlanta Marine adn Heidi starts walking me through the vapor lock and cooling the fuel filter deal. The ringer goes off in my head that I read about this on the board. More than embarrassing as I pour a little water on and lift the hatch then VROOOM we're off and running strong.

Thanks to Heidi! Thanks to those that gave me the answers on this board. Wish I had been smart enough to remember them.

[deafgoose]

Weird.

So what is the exact procedure? I may need to try this trick in the future.

[wolfeman131]

Step 1) Cover my kid's ears and curse
Step 2) Cover my wife's ears and curse more while blocking out her question of, "Didn't our old boat do this?"

Step 3) Deep breath and open hatch, flip on blower, pull rear seat forward and remove V-drive cover
Step 4) Locate fuel filter on starboard stringer (see page 60 of owner's manual)
Step 5) Poor a little cool water over the filter to cool it off
Step 6) Cross fingers and hope boat starts

My dealer said SC knows of this problem and is working on a fix.

[Miller_Time]

Gotta love the new ethanol blends of gas. They lower the boiling point of gas from around 200 degrees down to around 130 degrees and on a hot Georgia day it will hit 130 real fast in the engine bay. I was talking to a boat mechanic buddy of mine and some companies are now having to run fuel coolers to keep this vapor lock problem from happening. I hate the ethanol crap!!!!

[KarMobLSV06]

Towed the Mobius around the lake last Thursday behind the housebaot. We just used it to run into marinas on 2 occassions, the wife had brought the Mobius in ahead of me in the HB. She ran it for less than 5 minutes before docking it again. Sat around talking about my awsome HB docking for a while, went to move the Mobius to it's spot next to the HB and it won't start. It turned over okay, but I could tell it wasn't getting gas. Thought it may be the fuel filter, since I've read of that problem on this board. Looked around the engine compartment located the fule filter, I think. Tried a couple of things, still wouldn't start. Paddled the boat to its spot and slept on it. Didn't get to use it for cocktail hour. Didn't get much sleep thinking about how and where I was going to get a new fuel filter. The next morning it started with no problem. I always get gas from the same place, my marina and have never had this problem before. We didn't run the boat but 15 minutes all day but I did notice it it was pretty hot in the engine compartment. Friend said he thought it had Vapor Lock symptoms. Nice to know the cooling of the filter procedure. Maybe ice cubes from cooler would be better than just cold water though. He said his old Ebb Tide ended up having to have a cooling systme put on the fuel line to stop it from getting Vapor Lock.

[moombadaze]

question-do the boats having this issue have carbs or fuel injection???

[KarMobLSV06]

I have the 325 HP EFI Engine, the base engine now, but was an upgraded engine in 2006 models for the LSV.

[TW3]

My 08 OUTBACK has the same or sounds like the same problem. !!!!!

[rbc_racing]

I've got an 07 LSV with 130 hrs on it and I do have a noticeably long crank time(over 5 secs in my case) sometimes, but so far it has always started(knock on wood). I'm curious about what everyone else thats having this issue, A:has for batteries in their boats and B: what brand and octane of fuel are you running?

I run 2 blue top optimas in mine for example and I run regular 87 octane fuel from bp, chevron, shell, or kroger. Mainly kroger fuel because it's on the way to the lake and I usually get .10 off per gallon for shopping there.

[csmsk]

'07 LSV, 130 hours, 2 Interstate batts, ALLWAYS 89 octate from Cheveron, Northern California temps, and never had this problem. *knocks on head*

[kaneboats]

You guys know those huggy wraps that you keep in the freezer and then velcro around a beer can on a hot day. Might be smart to keep a couple in the cooler for the hot days. Wrap the filter with 'em ? ? ?

[wolfeman131]

moombadaze - I have the 08 OBV with the 325hp EFI
rbc - I run the same gas from Kroger, gotta love the $0.10 off
kane - very good idea & thanks for the tip. glad to see your boat is back in shape!

One thing I forgot to mention is that I usually fill 5 gal cans during the week when I think gas has hit the low point. First thing I do is add the blue Sta-bil Marine gas treatment. It claims to help with the ethanol issue. However, when bringing the boat back from the dealer, I filled up at the pump and forgot to add the Sta-bil. The next day is when I had the vapor lock. I kicked myself then added it to the tank and had no issues the next day.

I don't know if the Sta-bil makes a difference or if this was simple coincidence, but I'm going to be sure to add it from now on.

[kaneboats]

I would not be surprised if it did make a difference. Lots of fishermen and outboard guys love the stuff and swear by it.

[KarMobLSV06]

Dealer said he ordered another fuel pump for me to add to the boat. That is their fix for the vapor lock issue, add another fuel pump-FYI. They are aware of the Vapor Lock issue. I had sent him an e-mail and he read my post on this thread, by the time I called him he had already ordered the fuel pump for me. Now that's service. Thanks to Matt & George from Lakota Watersports in Cincinnati OH..........IO.

[KarMobLSV06]

I'm not installing it-they are, if you need you should contact your dealer.