I have an '06 Opti 115 with an intermittent problem. No issues with the engine until 2 winters ago when I was out in far below temperatures and had the engine off for hours and then started it and ran only about 5 minutes back to ramp and right at the ramp the temp alarm was flashing on the Smartcraft gauge and the alarm was buzzing steady. I look back and notice the tell tale tale wasn't peeing. I tie off to the dock and clean the ice out of the tell tale and restart the engine and all is well again...no alarm, good water pressure and good temp. The remainder of that winter I started getting random overheat alarms. I can shut the engine off and immediately restart and no alarm. Last Spring I pull the intake strainer out and it's clean as new. I verified that the poppet valve is opening and closing based on RPM readings. Last summer, no issues at all. Last Winter, same thing...random overheat alarms that go away with a simple shutting off and restart. This Summer I had boat in FL and engine overheated. Tried shutting it off and restarting and temp alarm came right back. Trimmed motor up and intake was completely choked off with sea grass. Let engine cool down and re-started. No alarm but temp on Smartcraft gauge was still a little high but with water circulating again it dropped down to around 120 pretty quickly. This tells me that the temp sensors are working as they should and aren't falsing because this time it was truly overheated and just cycling the key didn't stop alarm. Last week in below freezing weather, it overheats again. Cycle the key and it's gone. So the false overheat problem seems to be isolated to use in below freezing weather.
Any suggestions as to what I can do to solve this problem? Bad Smartcraft gauge? Anything at all with the thermostat?
This makes me question also what is the temp reading on the Smartcraft gauge monitoring? Is it block temp or compressor temp? If I understand the cooling system correctly, the compressor cooling path exits the tell tale, correct?
Thanks!
Any suggestions as to what I can do to solve this problem? Bad Smartcraft gauge? Anything at all with the thermostat?
This makes me question also what is the temp reading on the Smartcraft gauge monitoring? Is it block temp or compressor temp? If I understand the cooling system correctly, the compressor cooling path exits the tell tale, correct?
Thanks!