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1996 Vindicator - Engine getting hot

fickesd1

New member
History and Issue:
Ran the engine on muffs today and started right up and ran normal (decent amount of smoke). After just a few minutes alarm went off (I think it was the Chk Eng) but honestly I shut it off so fast I'm not sure. I had a decent spray of water coming from the tell tale and I pulled both thermostats and tested in boiling water and both seemed to work. I haven't taken the blow off valve apart since I thought I read that it only affects operation at high RPMs. (Is that true?) I still have the VRO system active but took it to the mechanic recently for a different issue and they recommended that I remove and start pre-mixing just due to the age of the boat. So now I'm overly scared that something can be wrong with the VRO thus causing it to overheat (even though I don't have any reason to believe it's not working, nor do I know how to test if it's working). I did check and the VRO pump has four wires going to it so I think that means it's better than the 3 wire version (I think I read it has an alarm in case something goes wrong). I did touch both sides of engine below where the thermostats are located and both sides were hot to the touch.

Questions:
What else should I check for the cause of the hot engine and alarm going off? Should I pull one of the thermostats while engine is running to see if water is pouring out? Should I pull the blow off valve and inspect or is my theory of it not affecting the engine temp at low rpm correct? Should I feel the temp of water coming out of tell tale and does that mean anything? Is it possible I should be getting a stronger spray from the tell tale? Is there something I should do to check the VRO system functionality? Or just disable it? If I disable it, do I need to buy a new fuel pump of just plug the port that the oil is coming in and disconnect the 4 wire and the 2 wire coming from the oil tank and then begin pre-mixing?

I'm nervous to run it again (even for a short while) due to fear of damaging something.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Steve
 
You could put a 50:1 premix in your gas tank and take it for a test run, if you are worried about lack of lubrication.
Then, if and when the alarm goes off again, you could pull the VRO wire off the sensor and see if the alarm stops. Might be a way to narrow down where the problem lies.
 
Listing your model number will be helpful for troubleshooting.

A warning horn with a check engine light is often the vacuum switch getting triggered due to a fuel restriction. Your System Check gauge will have separate lights for temperature, low oil, and no oil.

KJ
 
So tonight I believe I successfully bypassed the oil injection system by disconnecting the oil input to the pump and plugging the line from the oil tank and putting cap in port of the pump, I disconnected the 2 wire plug coming from the oil tank, disconnected the 4 wire plug going to the pump and then took a spare gas tank with Pre-mix and went straight into the fuel filter (after disconnecting the boat gas tank). Engine started right up and sounded great. I let it run for about 5 minutes monitoring the tell tale and temp of the engine by touching next to spark plugs. Both sides got hot to the touch so I chickened out and shut the engine off. I never got a warning sound or warning light on the console like I did last time. But engine was too hot to keep my hand on it. Water from tell tale was warm but not hot. After that I took one of the thermostats off and started the engine again thinking that I would see water coming out of the thermostat hole. No water came out but I can't remember if I need to wait longer or not but I didn't want to run too long with the thermostat off since the tell tale spray weakened with the thermostat off.

The question I have is this. Which way does the water flow thru the thermostat? From the blow off valve thru the hoses and into the thermostat housing (which is my guess). Should I take the blow off valve apart and inspect and how would I know if it's working? How does the water flow thru that part of the engine to keep it cool?

Also, if no alarm went off, did I just panic too early because the engine felt too hot to my touch. What else should I consider doing? Should I buy a temp gun and get an accurate reading of engine temp? Is the tell tale flow too weak and do I need to replace water pump?

Any help would be appreciated as I'd like to get the boat out on the water once this year before the snow starts falling.
 
So tonight I believe I successfully bypassed the oil injection system by disconnecting the oil input to the pump and plugging the line from the oil tank and putting cap in port of the pump, I disconnected the 2 wire plug coming from the oil tank, disconnected the 4 wire plug going to the pump and then took a spare gas tank with Pre-mix and went straight into the fuel filter (after disconnecting the boat gas tank). Engine started right up and sounded great. I let it run for about 5 minutes monitoring the tell tale and temp of the engine by touching next to spark plugs. Both sides got hot to the touch so I chickened out and shut the engine off. I never got a warning sound or warning light on the console like I did last time. But engine was too hot to keep my hand on it. Water from tell tale was warm but not hot. After that I took one of the thermostats off and started the engine again thinking that I would see water coming out of the thermostat hole. No water came out

So you disconnected the oil side of the fuel pump AND you switched to a different fuel tank? That makes it hard to determine the cause of the warning horn since you changed 2 things at the same time. I'm still guessing you have a fuel restriction in your main fuel tank. Either a sticking anti-siphon valve or your vent line is plugged up causing a vacuum to form. To figure this out you should switch back to your main fuel tank and try again. If the warning horn returns you can start tracking down issues in the tank.

When running the engine, are you doing this on a hose and muffs or is this with the lower unit submerged in water? It's really hard to get a good sense of water flow on muffs and I would only recommend those if you're trying to fog the engine. For trouble shooting you should have the lower unit in water, either in a barrel or in the lake, and let the water pump do it's job. When using a barrel i like to have an outlet in the barrel about 6 inches above the water pump and then dangle a hose in the barrel running at a low volume so a constant stream of new water runs in while I"m running the engine.

Do you know the age of the water pump? If you don't know, or it's over a few years old you should replace it.

KJ
 
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