Engine Shuts Down

[gtstarr]

Hello, I have a 07 320 Sundancer with 350 Mag Horizon engines and for the past year I’ve been chasing an intermittent shut down on my starboard engine. Wondering if anyone else may have experienced the same situation. Some background.
Last year our first trip out with the boat the starboard engine shut down after idling through our marina. It seemed to be temp related because after I let it cool down it would restart. My digital temperature gage never got above 167 and analogue stayed btw 170-175 degrees F. After reading some posts I changed the fuel filters in the cool fuel module and never had the problem again.
This year we took the boat for our first cruise and everything ran great at idle and at speed. On my second trip after running great we anchored for dinner for a few hours. After idling away from shore I throttled up. The starboard engine came down on power then back up, down again and back up then stayed up and ran great the rest of the way back. Took it out a few days later with a friend for a test run after changing raw water impellers and it ran great. Then Monday we took it for a cruise and after a short stop at another marina got back on way and the engine came up and down on power again, but this time shut down. I idled on the port engine to let the temp gauge drop and tried to restart. It cranked but no start. I waited a little while longer, cracked the throttle open a bit and it fired up. I left it In neutral and throttled btw 1500-2000 rpm for a minute before backing down to idle. Engine ran great all the way back to our dock.
Things I’ve done:
Changed raw water impellers as part of normal maintenance.
Changed cool fuel filters as part of annual maintenance.
Changed water pressure sensor. Starboard engine traditionally measured lower, but I noticed it was fluctuating. Changed and now consistent with port engine. Have not had any problem with the port engine. Inspected heat exchangers.
Observations: Starboard engine seems to Heat up faster than port. When running at 1000 rpm or above temp gauges almost identical. At idle Starboard is maybe 3-4 degrees higher. Both sides have a gauge difference btw digital smart craft temp and analogue gauge. Digital on port usually 161 at idle and starboard 165. Both analogue gauges stand with needle just over 170 and never above 175.
I feel like it is temp related because when it happen the first time I could pretty consistently get it to shut down by idling the boat at the dock, let it cool down and restart.

Today I had Sea Ray tech put it on an analyzer. They did not see any codes, but thinks it could be the coil or something in the wiring harness. They are going to put on a new coil tomorrow. The other observation today was that the wires running to the fuel pumps in the cool fuel module are getting very hot to the touch. He is going to get some information on what the standard amp load range is to check this as well.

Sorry for being so long but I’m hoping someone might have some answers/input to share on the symptoms and as well get information out there on what I find in case someone experiences a similar problem.

 

[Espos4]

Has this boat ever had the cool fuel modules inspected/replaced due to the paint flaking issue??

 

[gtstarr]

No. The tech mentioned that problem today. Asked if I ever seen signs of paint in the filters when changed. The tech’s that changed them in the past never mentioned it and I’ve not seen any in the last two filter changes I did.
I’m not to familiar with the paint problem, but would it cause an intermittent problem or just cause the engine to stop running?

 

[scoflaw]

The paint doesn't show up in the filter. Easiest way to check is take the Fuel PR off the side of the module.

 

[gtstarr]

Thanks. I’m going to give it a check. Do you think the fuel pressure regulator being clogged/restricted would cause the wires leading to the module to get hot due to the pumps working harder?

 

[Sea Joy]

I just had the same thing happen to me. My first experience on a boat this size and I had just bought it. Was taking it from marina I bought it from to my home marina. Starboard engine just stopped about 2 hrs in. I tried to restart and it attempted to a few times but wouldn't turn over. I hit the button that transfers battery power and now it only makes a whistling noise. This just happened yesterday. Of course no mechanics work on the weekend. Hopefully someone will look at it this week. A 4 1/2 hr trip took 2 days, 14 hrs on day one and 3 1/2 the next. Had to run one engine rest of the way. Everyone says welcome to boating.

 

[gtstarr]

Working with my local dealer I finally got the fuel pressure regulator pulled from the cool fuel module. It had chunks of black paint all over it and you can see in the bore the paint is bubbled up and delaminating.

 

[gtstarr]

Like others have posted Mercury agreed to provide parts for both my engines. They sent injectors and new fuel modules to my local dealer. They replaced them today in 8-8.5 hours. Old injectors had paint in them when the tech removed them. They did not pull the fuel rails to flush them out. Said anything in the lines comes out when they purge air from the system. Also noted any paint would get trapped in injectors due to pump pressure and not hung up I the lines.
Engines started right up. Only concern is the wires leading to the fuel pumps are still getting very warm. Tech was not sure if this was normal and is going to call Mercury tomorrow. Wondering if anyone has experience with this or has felt the wires while running to see how warm the are getting.

 

[Motoguy2158]

Check the main wiring harness lead. Its a round connector with hose type clamp...My engine quit a couple times and I was crawling around looking for loose wires and it fell off. I reinstalled and secured the hose clamp and problem has never come back. I was having weird readings from time to time on tack's and gauges prior to this.

 

[Escape4]

We have a 2009 330 Sundancer and have had issues with the starboard motor as well. It quits after 45 min to 1.5 hours, typically when at no wake speed. Let it sit for 20 to 40 minutes and it will start again. Tech thought it could be ECM and switched to port motor. Did a test run and after 2 hours the starboard motor quit. I think we'll be looking at the wiring harness next? Frustrating as the boating season in michigan is quickly coming to an end.

 

[gtstarr]

Escape4, what you are describing is how my starboard engine was acting. It would shut down at low/idle speeds. Once it sat, I could watch the Temp gauge and as soon as it got back to the ~140 range it would fire back up. As long as I got up to cruising speed no problem. Start idling into the marine and after a few minutes it would shut down again. I would take the time to pull the fuel pressure regulator and look for paint flakes / delamination in the bore. My regulator came out with strings of paint stuck to it. The when they got my parts and pulled my old injectors there was paint in them a as well. I’ll try to upload the photo of the pressure regulator when it was removed. I would also call Mercury customer service if I were you. I finally did it and wished I had sooner. Even though I had a Mercury certified dealer working on it, I gained a great deal of knowledge from the tech support. They were super helpful. I found something new this weekend I will post in another response. Also, not sure if it is against the rules of the form, but I would be happy to give you my cell number to call and I can tell you everything I’ve been through chasing the problem.

 

[gtstarr]

Pictures of Fuel pressure regulator after removed.
One picture is the regulator, the other the bore it presses into on the fuel module

 

[gtstarr]

So with injectors and fuel module changed the last thing of concern I have is the wiring to the pumps feeling hot. The dealer technician that changed everything out Thursday made mention the wire still seem hot. He called me Friday and said they could not reach Mercury tech support but some of the tech’s at there other shop mentioned that the B-drives have an extra harness and do run hotter than others. I decided before taking the boat out I would do another day of investigating. I started the starboard engine and let it get to temp. I reached down and started feeling the wires from the pump back. The temp in my bulge was about 80F and I did not feel anything that I was excessively hot. I continued feeling further back until I got to the sleeving. Then I found a very hot spot. I peeled back the sleeving and found two crimp wire connectors. There is one wire coming from the power and ground source feeding both pumps ( attaches diagram might help explain). The connector for the ground wires was very hot. I separated the wires. The power (+) seemed fine, no excessive heat. I put a thermocouple on the ground (-) and got readings as high as 160F on the connector. The single (-) wire leading to the crimp connector measured 95-100F (which’s felt fine given the outside temp in general). After the connector the two (-) leading to the pumps were 115-120F. I took amp readings with a DC clamp on meter and got about 2 amps before the crimp connector and 10-11amps on each of the wires after. The power (+) gave me readings of 2amps in all locations. I’m going to talk to Mercury and my local tech tomorrow, but my guess is 1)the crimp connector or the wires after are corroded 2) something wrong in how the crimped the two grounds on the one end of the connector. I did not check the port engine, but based on what the tech told me last week I expect to find the same problem.
Now that I have a fuel system that should be clear of black paint, peace of mind on the wiring will have us back on the water.

 

[gtstarr]

I’m back on the water and running great. Ended up cutting out the SeaRay crimp connectors on the harness going to the pumps and soldering the connections. Harness no longer getting hot and boat is running great.

 

[sparky90731]

replace IAC and crankshaft sensor
it was the crankshaft sensor that had similar issue and did not show up on scan