Engine Alarm

[John O'Brien]

I have an 1988 Sundancer 270 with 2 V6 4.3L 220 HP Mercuriser Eng. with Alpha outdrives. The engines were repowered in 06 At the end of last season I noticed that when I powered the boat up when the starboard engine got above 3200 rpms an alarm would go off and the engine would power down. All the gages are normal no overheating nothing I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas

Thanks John

 

[DMarcel]

I had a similar problem at the end of last year. I think the best solution is to get a mechanic put a computer on the problem engine to see what the cause of the alarm is.

My alarm problem turned out to be a bad shift switch, a $30 part. It drove me crazy!!

 

[Lazy Daze]

Is this a Smartcraft engine? If it is, can we assume you don't have SC gauges? There's a number of things that can put the ECM into Guardian mode (I don't even know all of them). Could you have been trimming the drive up too high?

As stated above, the best thing is going to be to get a scanner on it. Otherwise, we'd just be guessing.

 

[Nehalennia]

Double check the fluid level in the outdrive fluid reservoir. When it is low and you throttle up the fluid move towards the back of the reservoir and trips the level sensor to fire off the alarm.

 

[jamesgang]

I was plagued with that alarm a couple of years ago on take-off and while running. Sometimes it would alarm and sometimes no alarm at all. Finally my mechanic decided it had to be a main water pump going bad on the starboard engine. Replaced it and no alarm since. Might be worth a look-see.