1994 ocean runner 200 power pack woes

" Dear Joe, thanks for the adv

" Dear Joe, thanks for the advice to take the boat into a competent mechanic. I had an erratic idle and was very concerned. I guess I had good reason to be, the mechanic found that 2 cylinders on my v6 outboard were firing intermittantly due to burned off insulation on wires out of the power pack. He stated that he was getting strange values on his meter out of the pack and I have authorized him to obtain a replacement. We have looked at the tach, and the reads at idle were very high, so we are going to run a temp tach when the new pack arrives to see what is up with the existing tach. He told me that some of the powerpacks fail and this can cause the engine to literally explode. Im wondering how the insulation on the wires got so hot, and the connections started to fail. We think that the previous owner ran the boat on flat batteries. Would this cause excessive heat due to the alternator running all the time to try to charge the dead sulfated batteries? So far the diagnosis of the charging system is fine. I know that I have a 35 amp alternator, and am running two group 29 die hard marine deep cycle/ starting batteries. I have a habit of running my engine for about 15 minutes every hour to keep my batteries up while I'm at anchor or drift fishing. what are your thoughts? thanks "

"Tom....
1 - The only cause o

"Tom....
1 - The only cause of burning and/or melting of the insulation of the powerpack wires would be (I should think) a overheating problem or a malfunctioning (shorted) water cooled voltage regulator.... or of course a real bad direct 12v short.
2 - Hooking up a temporary tachometer is the proper and fast way to troubleshoot that erratic reading problem.
3 - A failed powerpack will not cause the engine to explode... unless you continue to run the engine with no ignition to various cylinders.
4 - Running the engine with dead faulty batteries would have the effect that the charging system has nothing to charge. The voltage, ampreres, power, whatever one wants to call it, would back up and cause problems with the stator assy and other items pertaining to the charging system.
5 - I'm puzzled as to why you would want to run the engine for 15 minutes every hour. Are you running something that draws a great amount of current when you're fishing/drifting, or do you possibly have a bad battery drain of some kind? I assume that the rig sits for many hours when you're not using it and the batteries stay charged? I've never heard of anyone doing that 15 minute thing. Got me curious. Keep me informed of your progress.

Joe "

" Dear Joe, thanks for your fe

" Dear Joe, thanks for your feedback. The current drain would be caused by my bait tank, and maybe the fish finder also. Out here in So. Cal. we use live sardines and anchovies for bait. They require a lot of water to circulate thru the tank to keep them healthy. I wonder if the voltage regulator is bad also. My mechanic said that he wants to install the new powerpack first and then check the whole system again. I'm hoping that we haven't got any more problems. What would cause the engine to overheat to the point that it affects the ignition components?thanks again, "