'05 Launch 24SSV died, gas gone bad?

Went out on Sunday and the day was great for the first hour and half, boat ran great and it was a beautiful day. We were sitting near the dock waiting to pick some more people up when suddenly the boat died. It would start back up and run for varying periods of time, from thirty seconds to two minutes then it would die again. I had an issue last year with what I thought was the fuel pump but turned out to be a bad battery, replaced the battery and fuel pump and it ran fine, plus the fuel pump is priming when I turn the switch to on so I know it's in operating order. The fuel is from July of last year, I filled it up and because of distractions and life I only used about a quarter of that tank the remainder of the season. I didn't think about it until December/January but I realized I forgot to put Stabil in the fuel so I put some in around January. The boat was stationary so it probably didn't mix well and I didn't put any fresh gas on top of this gas when I went to the lake. This was my second trip to the lake this season, the first trip didn't last an hour (just testing to make sure everything worked) and was trouble free. The second trip was this past Sunday and like I said, it died after about an hour and a half. So, does it sound like the gas has gone bad? It wouldn't surprise me, I'm not sure what else it could be. It's weird that it ran for about two and half hours on this gas before problems began, but maybe the stabil helped some and that's why it worked? I'm not sure. Should I siphon the rest of the gas out and put fresh in? It's about 35 to 40 gallons and it would suck to waste it, is it worth trying to rehabilitate it or just start fresh, assuming gas is the problem?

Sounds like vapor lock. Next time poor a cold bottle of water on the fuel pump and see if it solves your problem.

I don't think so, I've vapor locked before and I've done the cold water remedy successfully, this was something different. When it vapor locks it won't start, this was starting and running but only for brief periods of time before dying.

Change the fuel filter?

I did, I had an extra on board. It ran better at first but then it continued to die.

Pull the plugs and look at them, they should be coffee brown. Old gas will leave them wet looking and sometimes a milky like residue. An engine will start and idle on old gas but when you start putting the throttle to it a reasonable amount of unburnt gas will stay in and around the cylinder spark plug fouling it and causing engine to die. Drain the tank as much as possible and fill with fresh gas. This is definitely where I would begin when the fuel is that old.

I think that's what I'm going to try on Friday, and put some fresh gas in the filter so I can make sure the engine is getting fresh gas.

Does the boat always run good at first and then have issues on the water??? Then when you get home everything is A1 again??

Here is my thought. Drain the gas tank using a old garden hose and keep the boat on an angle using some 2x4's under the port side wheels. Get as much out as possible and let the siphoned fuel sit. I bet there is a ton of water on the bottom of the tank. When sitting the water is at the bottom and fuel on top. Then with the movement of the boat on the water it is shaken up to the point here the boat sucks a gulp of water... Thus creating your stalling out issues.

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Originally Posted by DAFF

Does the boat always run good at first and then have issues on the water??? Then when you get home everything is A1 again??

Here is my thought. Drain the gas tank using a old garden hose and keep the boat on an angle using some 2x4's under the port side wheels. Get as much out as possible and let the siphoned fuel sit. I bet there is a ton of water on the bottom of the tank. When sitting the water is at the bottom and fuel on top. Then with the movement of the boat on the water it is shaken up to the point here the boat sucks a gulp of water... Thus creating your stalling out issues.

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Yea I thought water in the tank from condensation was a possibility, which is part of the reason I want to siphon all the gas out. I put a tablespoon of rubbing alcohol in the tank when I was on the water, it's supposed to evaporate a significant portion of water in a gas tank but it didn't do anything to help so there's either a lot of water (which wouldn't surprise me) or the gas is simply bad, either way it needs to be flushed.

Well, after pumping out 30 gallons of gasoline it turns out that's not the problem :mad: Replaced the distributor cap, rotor button, fuel pump, fuel filter and gasoline. At this point it has to be the computer or the harnesses going out from the computer. We put a code reader on it and when it dies it's not just that the fuel pump is going out, but the computer locks us out of the brain, we can't even get into it.

Is that using a mefi V mercruiser or rinda diagnostic reader?

I'm not sure, it's my tech's reader, it's a pretty elaborate code reader. Told us a lot of history when it was working.

listen to your symptoms runs then dies....... this is a 05 correct ? so we are going to have crank sensors , camshaft position sensors , knock sensors , fuel pressure regulator,
fuel pressure , MAS, IAC, ? input voltage , output voltage ... with a volt meter , fuel pressure gauge , and a Noid light you should be able to verify key ingredients for running ....

after you verify those then i would start with the crank sensor ... bad signal ohms will tell ECU to shut the motor down ... have you put it on a fake lake (hose) to check
these ?

We checked voltage, fuel pressure, and knock sensor. We checked (the numerous) grounds too. The reason we believe it has to be the computer is because when we have the computer and scanner hooked up and the boats running on the fake a' lake. We'll have everything, boat will be running and the computer is downloading the info from the brain then all of the sudden the computer kicks the scanner out of the brain and the boat dies. If it were a sensor or fuel pressure we'd still have access to the brain with the key in the on position. Instead it goes dead and locks us out. When we pulled the computer off one of the pins in the MEFI 4 was missing and the harness showed signs of getting hot and was slightly burnt. Middle of last year I had a raw water pump hose pop off running at full tilt and everything got hot. Up until now I think the only thing I had to replace was a hose clamp from the raw water pump from that incident, but I think somehow the computer got cooked when all these codes presumably pushed through the computer.

Does the ECU have a sealed case ? Can u Un screw the case ? I would think it would have a gel coating over the board to eliminate water issues but if it heated the case when the hose popped off then , I could melt some of the gel coating .. Just run continuity throughout the main harness and make sure u are good there . And then move to the ECU .. Will the computer let u Into the software with the key on and engine off ?

Lively,

Whether the switch is in the on position or the boat is actually on, it will only let us in randomly. And when it does let us in it won't let us in long before kicking us out (and turning the boat off if the boat is on). The computer is inside a case just above the V-Drive unit, we've taken it out. It does show some signs of water exposure but not much, the connections are what look to be the worst problem and what we believe is causing the problem. We checked all the relays and they're all good. About the only thing it could be, in our opinion, is the computer or the harnesses connecting the computer to everything.

Cause it sounds like it just loosing it's connection and this is what's killing communication to the data link ..
Might start calling dealer and asking them some questions ... Or it just might be something simple as a loose connection ...
How long will the engine stay running before it kaputs ?

It varies, from 10 seconds to 5 minutes. And it's stationary on land.

The dealer technician is the one doing the work with me, in conjunction with a contact at Skiers Choice.

Not like I know as much as you 3 (no where close) but curious as to why not in touch with Indmar, they have been pretty good when I have dealt with them. THis is an interesting thread for me.

Doc, that's my next plan if our fixes tomorrow morning don't pan out. I have a contact at Indmar who I spoke with about this at the end of last year when these problems first started and we thought it was the fuel pump. We've since replaced the fuel pump and that is obviously not the problem given the computers behavior.

Any signs of melting of the wires or burt casings. I wonder if there is a continuty issue in the harness causing the computer to shut down communications. A wiring diagram and schematic would help greatly. With this you can unplug the computer and check the basic wires for voltage, grounds or amperage..... It could be as simple as a wire rubbing the block causing dead shorts. Typically computers are good or bad, not both.

We've got a wiring diagram and plan to experiment a bit if the computer replacement doesn't fix the problem. We were hoping to avoid running the wires, hoping the problem is simpler and...less time consuming :(

This is just a wag if you are loosing comunication with the scan tool/code reader.

Unplug your sensors one at a time to see if it goes away.

Some ecms will shut down if a sensor is grounding the signal wire.Pp

Just had this happen on my jeep the crank sensor shorted out scanner would not read no cel flash on power up.

We checked the wires on some of the sensors, I'm not sure exactly how many there are but my tech was in there checking lots of wires, including grounds. We found one wire that looked to be hanging by just the insulation, we cut it and gave it a good connection but that didn't resolve the problem.

I've got the computer in my possession now and will be installing it on Friday morning, here's hoping that fixes it.

Sound like you are at the point of a wiring diagram and dig in.


Before I changed out the computer make sure all of its grounds are good.
Check for voltage where it shouldent be. Would hate to see you smoke the new puter.

I'm thinking the computer got smoked last year about mid-season. I had the hose for the raw water pump pop off (the one that went out from the pump and into the engine). It was a scary, smokey, hot-engine experience. It was the result of a faulty hose clamp, I tightened it down and idled back but basically ever since then I've had this problem. In an ideal world I'll put this computer in and everything will work splendidly, we'll see on Friday. We actually started with a wiring diagram last year and everything was good, we ran the wires last year thinking there was a short somewhere so I don't think that's what it is. If it's not the computer we'll need to start checking harnesses.

Great news, the new computer seemed to do the trick! I ran it for an hour with no problems, it even sounds like it's running better, but that could be the new distributor cap. I'm going to knock on some wood just to be safe. I'm going to take it out by myself and run it for a few hours just to make sure it's behaving normally in use and not just on a fake-a-lake.

The thing is most of the time somthing takes the puter out.

Good luck happy to hear its running.

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Originally Posted by 86 century

The thing is most of the time somthing takes the puter out.

Good luck happy to hear its running.

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Well I'm hoping that when my raw water hose came off and the engine overheated that maybe it caused the problems with the computer. I didn't have any problems with the boat at all until that incident, 4 years of easy ownership. I don't know what possible things could have taken out the computer otherwise? I'm hoping that the fact that the computer was missing a prong is what caused the problem and this new computer remedied it.

I would say a missing prong would do it.

If it was a ground missing could wipe it out in hurry.

Congrats atleast you have to worry about it only 55° with 20mph wind today.

True, haha. I spoke with a friend at Skiers Choice and he told me those computers from time to time would have the injector drivers in the ECM go bad, so if it wasn't the prong it could have been that. It's a little reassuring, at least.

It seems like we're back in business. I put 11 hours on her this weekend, not one problem, she ran great. Put two hours in on Friday just to test it and nine hours in on Sunday with a boat full of people surfing and cruising all day. Seems the crisis has been averted.

Where's the like button?

Glad you got it figured out.

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