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Engine strained and stopped

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My 125hp 1994 Mariner engine ran great in the morning. I have an 18 foot C Hawk, center console. I had put in a new starter, filters, fuel line, oil previously. Then in the afternoon when I had more people on board 4 including me with two in the bow, about 400 pounds in the bow, as I was starting out and very slowly increasing speed, the engine seemed to strain and then it stopped. No smoke just clicked when I tried to restart. The sprocket on the starter does raise and it turns the flywheel but only half a turn then stops and the sprocket stays in the up position engaged with the flywheel I need to move the flywheel and then the starter sprocket lowers to its normal position. Solenoid? Or something worse?
 
Was oil injection in service and operating properly ?---Water pump maintained ?----If motor will not turn properly there is a cover on the port side with 25 bolts.----Removing that cover will help in the diagnosis.
 
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The flywheel turns, but I have not tried to turned it 360 degrees I have just turned it 189 degrees. I will try to see if I can turn it completely around.
 
Thank you, this is a 2 cycle engine oil was filled in the reservoir. Not sure about the water pump. I will remove that cover and see what it looks like. Just 3 hours before on the same day the engine ran perfect for 90 minutes in the water. The difference later was the load in the boat was much more. I might not have provided enough acceleration to get it up on plane.
 
Batteries are good. I had starting issues at the beginning of the season and replaced the starter. It was working that day better then when I bought it a year ago, it just seemed like it was straining and then pop and it stopped. I jumped the starter and it did the same thing the sprocket from the starter raises engages the flywheel spins it a quarter or at beat half a turn and stops. The starter sprocket stops in the upright position still engaged with the flywheel, I can move the flywheel to release the starter sprocket which returns to its starting position then I try it again and same thing happens. Could it be the solenoid? But then when would the starter even engage if i had a faulty solenoid. The starter engages and stops.
 
I am not sure if the system was removing oil, but, when I checked the level after. I was surprised that the level had not really decreased after running it for 90 minutes.
 
Perhaps a compression test if you can get the motor to turn over.----Oil level should be going down.-----Does the oil pump rotate ?----You must be aware that the oil pump is driven by a plastic gear on the crankshaft.---I have seen those gears stripped / damaged.-----Oil pump stops turning and motor goes ---" BOOM "
 
I will check whether the oil pump rotates, I did hear a pop, not loud but a straining type noise then a low pop as I was accelerating.
 
Racerone, things are starting to make sense now, I did hear a high pitched alarm when the boat was running good in the morning coming from under the center console, it was hard to hear, but I did not recognize that last year.
 
The alarm or noise was a very high pitched barely audible screeching type noise from the ignition switch box under the console, I had no idea boat engines have alarms. I would have never thought this was an alarm but now that I think about it it probably was, it was a continuous alarm which means overheating from what i read but the oil level is confusing how can it be overheating if every indication is an oil issue because of the oil reservoir not reducing after 90 minutes. So it sounds like the engine seized ? Is it lost ?
 
Take the covers off the side.----Allows you to look at pistons / rings.----Somehow it think this will cost you some serious coins.---Hope for the best.
 
Sounds like I did, scuff up the pistons. For whatever reason seems like the engine was not getting oil. Or it overheated. I will take off covers and look at the pistons and start there. But why won’t the engine turn over, starter engages turns the flywheel a quarter or half turn and stops. Click click.
 
But why won’t the engine turn over, starter engages turns the flywheel a quarter or half turn and stops. Click click.
Motor is trying to push piston past a wedge of aluminum transferred from piston to cylinder wall.
 
So the piston is stuck because of this wedge of aluminum in its way, how did the wedge get there from lack of oil and overheating ?
 
I tried to turn the flywheel it went about three quarters, then I could not move it. I then pulled the spark plugs and #2 plug seemed to have its gap squeezed close the other plugs looked fine with a normal gap, I looked in the spark plug hole and #2 hole had metal pieces, not shavings but a piece of metal I moved it with a screw driver, it was on top of the piston. I need to get a metric socket to take off the screws to look in the cylinder fully as I was just looking in the spark plug hole. I guess this is a big $$ problem ?
 
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