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Help Diagnosing Issue on a '97 Mercruiser 3.0LX That Left Me Adrift

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WestIslander

New member
Hey guys,

Hoping someone can help me out since I've been doing a lot of googling but nothing seems to match completely.

I was out on the water last weekend and hit a wave a little faster than I would have liked after about an hour in fairly rough chop for the size of the boat. The engine stalled out and died for no apparent reason

I tried restarting it and it would run for a second or two and die immediately. If I gave it throttle in neutral it would run above 3000pm but die as soon as the revs came down. I put the blower on, opened the engine cover, pumped out what was in the bilge and let it sit. After about 5 minutes I was able to start it normally and it ran fine while I took it back to shore.

-Vapor lock?
-Flooded engine from letting off the throttle aggressively as I hit the wave?

If anyone has experienced similar issues I'd appreciate any input. Supposed to be going out on Friday but I'm a bit gun-shy since I was adrift for 5 minutes...

Thanks!!
 
WestIslander said:
Hey guys,

Hoping someone can help me out since I've been doing a lot of googling but nothing seems to match completely.

I was out on the water last weekend and hit a wave a little faster than I would have liked after about an hour in fairly rough chop for the size of the boat. The engine stalled out and died for no apparent reason

I tried restarting it and it would run for a second or two and die immediately. If I gave it throttle in neutral it would run above 3000pm but die as soon as the revs came down. I put the blower on, opened the engine cover, pumped out what was in the bilge and let it sit. After about 5 minutes I was able to start it normally and it ran fine while I took it back to shore.

-Vapor lock?
-Flooded engine from letting off the throttle aggressively as I hit the wave?

If anyone has experienced similar issues I'd appreciate any input. Supposed to be going out on Friday but I'm a bit gun-shy since I was adrift for 5 minutes...

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

Westislander,
I had a similar problem on a different engine. I hit a wave too hard, and jerked the throttle backward. I must have squeezed the grip that
let the engine go past neutral and the emergency switch for reverse shut the engine down. It wouldn't start for over 10 minutes, then
started and ran normal. I did it again another time, talked to a mechanic, and decided the safety switch shut the engine down, and wouldn't
let it restart for a specific time. It never happened again.
 
Lou McGoldrick said:
Westislander,
I had a similar problem on a different engine. I hit a wave too hard, and jerked the throttle backward. I must have squeezed the grip that
let the engine go past neutral and the emergency switch for reverse shut the engine down. It wouldn't start for over 10 minutes, then
started and ran normal. I did it again another time, talked to a mechanic, and decided the safety switch shut the engine down, and wouldn't
let it restart for a specific time. It never happened again.
Click to expand...

I had thought about that, but the fact it ran at higher RPM doesn't really make sense in this situation :(
 
Sounds like water and crap in the gas. Had a similar problem with mine just this week. Took a while to 'chew through' the crap and get to good gas. Ran fine from then on.

Jeff
 
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