Technical Help Needed

[Mikey]

I'll second that motion.

[zegm]

Gentlemen,

I brought up this issue with Jody (Florida Inboards) a year ago and he was well aware of it too. Remember he works on Ski Natiques and MasterCrafts and has for over 20+ years. He is also certified by both. He showed me the fuel pump layout on the PCM motors (ski tiques) after he showed me ours and explained how they did a great deal of work to eliminate this problem and is ahead of Indmar on this issue. They did not look anything alike and they both are running Chevy small blocks.
So while I have seen this issue on this board often I don't recall anyone with a DD complaining so there is a fuel pump location problem if this is the case. Somewhere there is more heat in the V-drives, maybe it is a v-drive packaging and ventilation problem and is not Indmars issue but SCs? I mean I can't yell at Indmar because mine always starts up fine (DD), anytime anywhere.
Whatever the issue I would not be happy if I had to perform a certain ritual to get home. I would NOT want to have to WORRY about performing a Ritual to get home! I would just not want this to be an issue on something I spent over 35k on! It should be the hottest thing on someones to do list!!! OK hint hint here people (SC, Indmar), BenchMark your competitors, sneak a peek, test one out, ask questions!!

[moombadaze]

Is it both the 325hp and the 340hp motors having this issue? If not is it the cats on the 340hp causing the xtra heat in the engine area? as I could see that being a issue.

what model v drives? older lsv's and outback V's?, 06 and up lsv's?, or xlv's--there all v drives.

[zegm]

Being loyal faithfull Moomba owners I think we should start helping out. We need some data collection!
Then we can plot it later and see where the issues lie!
Oh man I just looked at the clock I have to leave for work now!

[DDL]

Hi gang, thanks for all the advice and feedback. Having laptop issues with no high-speed wireless and relying on an aircard that's kicked me out the last few times I've tried to reply.

Here's what's happening.

Went into Kalispell on Tuesday and popped into three different boat dealerships (I just noticed the Moomba dealer yesterday and was going to pop in today). All three agreed it was fuel related or vapor lock related. I came back home with an arm full of fuel additives, octane boosters and fuel stabilizers. There was a debate on methanol, with some suggesting using regular (89 octane) and others suggesting only premium (92 octane).

Filled up the gas cans with premium and dumped in about $20 worth of additives. We then found a couple pieces of 4X4 and placed them down the sides of the front edge of the engine compartment. It created a nice large air scoop to get the air and cooling we thought the engine probably needed and we could still use the sun deck.

Headed out Wednesday in 80+ degree weather and we played pretty hard for about three hours. Thought we had it beat. Then, like before but under power this time, the motor started to stall and gave the symptoms of running out of gas (quitting to full power to quitting to full power). Headed toward the shore ASAP and when we powered back to enter the no-wake zone it actually ran OK. Parked the boat in the slip, opened the engine compartment and poured ice-cold water over the fuel pump. Started the engine again and gave it some higher rev's while in neutral. Seemed to run strong.

Loaded everyone back up and headed out to the lake. Started tubing with the kids and after about 20 minutes the same symptoms again. Made it to shore, shut it down, covered it up, poured gas over it and tried to light it on fire (kidding).

Yesterday we poured in another $20 in additives, topped up the tank with premium and headed out. Almost identical scenerio with us getting about three hours of use before failure.

It's raining today so I'm going to head into the Moomba dealer.

So based on what's happening, is it fuel pump failure or vapor lock?

Thanks again for all the help. Most of the dealers are booked solid for the next week so I might have to guage the boat use on a 2 to 3 hour maximum daily use, which is really frustating (had a V-8 inboard sterndrive for more than 10 years before the kids pressured me into a comp boat V-Drive. Never had a problem).

DDL