Not a good day

[pickle311]

I finally got the boat out for the first time this year. Had a boat full of friends ready to have some fun. I summarized the boat about a month ago and everything looked great, so I was certain. It was going to be a good day. We put in and cruise up to our riding spot. Pull up our rider and everything was good. Rider fell, we idle back to him as normal for another run. This time when we take off, the boat felt sluggish and blew a puff of smoke. Odd, my first reaction was some bad gas in there, thanks ethanol. Next time rider pulls up and same thing. I stop to take a look and see chocolate milk all over the engine. Water was mixing with the oil and blowing it out of the carb. I'm guessing it's a blown head gasket or cracked head itself. I really hope it's nothing more than that and there's no more internal damage. I'm concerned because water mixing can cause the crank to get scored very easily. We caught it quickly though and got a tow back, havent started it back up. And to make things worse, my warranty just went out 3 weeks ago. I'm really hoping the dealer will take care of this knowing it would have happened 3 weeks ago had we taken the boat out. I'm dropping it off in the morning for them to do what they have to do. Wish me luck, I'm really bummed about this, guess it's just one of those things that happens.

[mmandley]

Sorry to hear about that man. I can only imagine your frustration and disapointment with everyone there. I know how i get when my ballast is acting up and i cant even imagine how id be if it was the engine. Just yesterday i was talking to Claudia about the ethanol and its dangers in the boat. I know this wasnt that ehtanol but its still engine trouble.

[skylar18]

Good Luck. Hope they take care of it. If you are taking it to South Austin Marine they usually seem to be pretty fair. (Not always but mostly!) I'm sure like any dealership.......

[pickle311]

I just dropped it off at South Austin Marine. They have always been really good to me, heck I've bought 2 boats from them. May not be a lot of money to some people, but it is to me. I'm hopeful that they will take care of it and I really can't see any logical reason why they wouldn't. It should be a relatively easy warranty claim for them, it's fairly obvious that the problem would have happened if I had taken the boat out a month ago.

[rdlangston13]

Here in Houston you can't buy gas that is not at least 10% ethanol and it has been that way since 2006. I can't really see boat manufacturers pretending like they don't know this and not building marine engine components to be compayable. I have no had any ethanol issues with mine yet so I reckon I should knock on wood.

I any case that reall sucks about your boat, I was at water junkies in kingwood this last week and they had a block from a boat that was not winterized this last year and there were chunks of metal missing. And this is Houston, tx

[usaski1]

I got my Outback from South Austin Marine last fall. I have had nothing but good luck and they are pretty friendly. Hopefully they will take care of you. let us know. I know your technically out of warranty, but hopefully its close and they will still help.

[davinci]

Strange thing that's boggling my mind is why would it shoot out the carb , normally when the head gasket is blown or the block is cracked, it would mix oil and water and shoot out the exhaust....hopefully it's just water in the fuel, sure sound like it.

[pickle311]

Strange thing that's boggling my mind is why would it shoot out the carb , normally when the head gasket is blown or the block is cracked, it would mix oil and water and shoot out the exhaust....hopefully it's just water in the fuel, sure sound like it.

You have no idea how happy that would make me, but I don't know that the boat would run if there were that much water in the gas. Guess you never know though.

I winterized the boat and I would be totally baffled if it's a cracked block. Plus I ran the boat in my driveway and had no issues. It seemed fine when we took off from the dock too.

If it is something that could fall under warranty and they don't help me out, I will be very upset. You can't say that whatever gave out wouldn't have broken 3 weeks ago if I had taken the boat out then.

Time will tell, I keep staring at my phone hoping they will call with good news.

[bergermaister]

If you don't fall under warranty it may not hurt to check with your insurance coverage. I went through a similar painful situation years ago.

[rdlangston13]

What did the oil on the dipstick look like? Was it cloudy and milky looking? If the oil still looked like oil then I would not worry so much about a head gasket or block as long as you winterized I don't see why the block would crack