hardrider5
New member
Fuel System Problem 2002 F225 Yamaha twins (700 hours) on a Parker 2520
I’m a Master Auto Tech and decided to write this so I might be able to save others some time and expense. I launched my boat a couple weeks ago and while the engines were warming up, one died from a fuel system issue. If we pumped the fuel line bulb it would restart and then die again after a couple minutes. About ten minutes later the second engine died with the same symptoms.
I was pretty sure this could not be fuel pump failures especially on twin engines 10 minutes apart. So the testing began. It started with checking the feed pump fuses which were good. I was told to listen for the low pressure pumps coming on for 10 seconds after the key was turned on. I heard pumps running. I was told to check the pressure of the high pressure pumps and both tested good at 38 – 40 PSI. Fuel pressure would drop in half as the engine neared stalling. So now I was sure it had to be either bad fuel or the fuel supply system and I started down a path of unnecessary repairs trying to cure the problem.
I took samples of fuel and let it stand to see if water was a problem. I even tested the alcohol level. Both water separator filters were replaced with the clear bottom filters so they could be drained. Both engine filters were replaced. I replaced both fuel lines from the tank to the filters. I punched out the one way valves the fuel lines attached to at the tank. I measured and cut the fuel tank pickup tubes because they were originally installed a little too long. I was sure this would fix the problem and after all that I discovered none of the listed changes did a thing. Both engines died exactly as they had before I did a thing.
You may be asking yourself why I did not run a separate tank of fuel before all this and I will tell you I did. Put a piece of cut fuel hose into a 5 gallon gas can and attached the other end to one of the water separator filters and started the motor after pumping the bulb. That engine continued to run. After discovering the actual problem I’m sure the 5 gallon can set on the stern of the boat was feeding the fuel line with fuel from a siphon effect.
So after working on this boat for a couple days I decided to remove enough parts from the engine to gain access to these low pressure pumps and guess what I found. Both low pressure pumps were dead. The pump noise I had heard at the beginning were the high pressure pumps and the low pressure pumps were silent. Removal of the pumps and hot wiring them also showed they would not pump at all. I’m still at a loss to understand how two separate pumps on two different engines fail within 10 minutes of each other but they did. Both engines had 700 hours and both had failed pumps. I’m attaching photos to help others try to avoid the same waisted time. I’ve read allot of posts about this problem but have read none indicating the findings and correction. Good Luck !! My problem has been solved.
Had I taken this to a good shop like West Coast they would have found the problem quickly but with Yamaha pumps listing out at $500 each plus labor I’m still pretty happy spending about $500 total with the aftermarket pumps costing me $160 ea. Time will tell if that was a good decision and now I know where the components are located should I have a future failure of either pump or VST issues. I educated myself learning more about my boat and that is a good thing in my book.
Good Luck. It was pretty easy after finding the real problem.
I’m a Master Auto Tech and decided to write this so I might be able to save others some time and expense. I launched my boat a couple weeks ago and while the engines were warming up, one died from a fuel system issue. If we pumped the fuel line bulb it would restart and then die again after a couple minutes. About ten minutes later the second engine died with the same symptoms.
I was pretty sure this could not be fuel pump failures especially on twin engines 10 minutes apart. So the testing began. It started with checking the feed pump fuses which were good. I was told to listen for the low pressure pumps coming on for 10 seconds after the key was turned on. I heard pumps running. I was told to check the pressure of the high pressure pumps and both tested good at 38 – 40 PSI. Fuel pressure would drop in half as the engine neared stalling. So now I was sure it had to be either bad fuel or the fuel supply system and I started down a path of unnecessary repairs trying to cure the problem.
I took samples of fuel and let it stand to see if water was a problem. I even tested the alcohol level. Both water separator filters were replaced with the clear bottom filters so they could be drained. Both engine filters were replaced. I replaced both fuel lines from the tank to the filters. I punched out the one way valves the fuel lines attached to at the tank. I measured and cut the fuel tank pickup tubes because they were originally installed a little too long. I was sure this would fix the problem and after all that I discovered none of the listed changes did a thing. Both engines died exactly as they had before I did a thing.
You may be asking yourself why I did not run a separate tank of fuel before all this and I will tell you I did. Put a piece of cut fuel hose into a 5 gallon gas can and attached the other end to one of the water separator filters and started the motor after pumping the bulb. That engine continued to run. After discovering the actual problem I’m sure the 5 gallon can set on the stern of the boat was feeding the fuel line with fuel from a siphon effect.
So after working on this boat for a couple days I decided to remove enough parts from the engine to gain access to these low pressure pumps and guess what I found. Both low pressure pumps were dead. The pump noise I had heard at the beginning were the high pressure pumps and the low pressure pumps were silent. Removal of the pumps and hot wiring them also showed they would not pump at all. I’m still at a loss to understand how two separate pumps on two different engines fail within 10 minutes of each other but they did. Both engines had 700 hours and both had failed pumps. I’m attaching photos to help others try to avoid the same waisted time. I’ve read allot of posts about this problem but have read none indicating the findings and correction. Good Luck !! My problem has been solved.
Had I taken this to a good shop like West Coast they would have found the problem quickly but with Yamaha pumps listing out at $500 each plus labor I’m still pretty happy spending about $500 total with the aftermarket pumps costing me $160 ea. Time will tell if that was a good decision and now I know where the components are located should I have a future failure of either pump or VST issues. I educated myself learning more about my boat and that is a good thing in my book.
Good Luck. It was pretty easy after finding the real problem.
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