Alarm and engine cutout after several ski pulls

10 year old +/- Tige with PCM engine. Boats starts and runs fine through four skier pulls. Next skier gets ready and when accelerating out of the hole, engine cuts out and alarm comes on. After that for the rest of the time on the water, boat barely able to accelerate without alarm, and when accelerating even lightly under alarm, engine nor allowed to go beyond just a few hundred RPM. After leaving the boat overnight it works fine the next day. Problem doesn't seem to happen when light use, just under multiple heavy pulls with skiers.

The alarm is telling you something is wrong and the ecm is most likely entering the "reduced power" self protection mode...

Based on your description, I would suspect it is overheating...when was the last time the raw water pump was serviced?

Would also suggest making friends with a local that owns a scan tool made for marine engines...a mechanic with one would be second choice and, if you can afford it, buying one is another option.

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

makomark said:

The alarm is telling you something is wrong and the ecm is most likely entering the "reduced power" self protection mode...

Based on your description, I would suspect it is overheating...when was the last time the raw water pump was serviced?

Would also suggest making friends with a local that owns a scan tool made for marine engines...a mechanic with one would be second choice and, if you can afford it, buying one is another option.

Click to expand...

I am having precisely the same problem, down to the "fourth or fifth" skiier. My dashboard temperature gauge is acting very normally (starts cold, warms to about midrange, will go a little higher but then come down, etc...). From this I am deducing that the engine temperature is actually OK, but that something in the engine-temperature-to-computer path is deciding that the engine temperature is high. Am I obviously and naively wrong on that? Is there a way that the engine temperature could actually be high and the dashboard gauge not reflect that (assuming that the gauge itself is working)

The ECT sensors as well as the Gauge senders are capable of multiple failure modes...the most insideous being the "out of calibration mode"...this is where the sensor provides a valid output but one that is not accurate. Being as the ECU uses the ECT as an input to calculating how much fuel is required, any error from the sensors can cause incorrect fuel delivery.

An IR temp gun is an ideal tool for doing the troubleshooting...a scan tool is great too. You can measure the resistance of the sensor and, based on its temperature, can assess if it is accurate enough...