[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by Vezo, Part II

. . . She is currently mounted in third from top, and the previous owner stated that was best performance, with cavitation plate even with keel, including the Viper SS prop. I now have the prop lock key, here in SC, but Frigg It!!! is in Florida so I do not know prop size yet. I had brought her back to SC to have my guys here raise the engine one hole. River tested and she very quickly overheated and went into limp mode. Back to the shop and the engine was lowered to third hole just hours before my last trip to Hernando Beach. No problems with temperature issues but at WFO she again went into limp mode, in the freaking HB Canal. Threw the anchor and waited. Primed the bulb, which I've never had to, and she fired. Thought maybe she had pulled air. I assisted with the nightmare of installing the NMEA cables thru the loom, and the ducer cable back thru opposite direction. The (factory?) blue fuel line from the hose barb located dead center of block to the EFI rail, was removed for some reason and replaced with black ethanol compliant fuel line, causing me to have some doubt. Also, I've been told that outboard may require a trip to a dealer to have the overheat code cleared before getting back to full RPM. I know. A lot of variables. I do not think this arrangement will hold plane much below 3K, which sucks. This is without using tabs.

Michael,

Glad to hear you hooked motor up to chart plotter, so you can use the NMEA system to read engine data from the EMM (Engine Management Module)! Generally I don't think those System Check analog tachs are accurate enough to use for selecting a $300-500 prop! Yours is the first one I've heard of that's accurate! It's really false economy to not spend $200 for a good gauge to keep an eye on a $10,000+ engine!

Here's a few suggestions and some answers to your questions.
1. Join the E-TEC Owners Forum! If you use the search function and spend a couple hours on there, you will find tons of useful info about your motor! That site is very much like CSC, with several very knowledgeable techs and BRP engineers on there who can answer any questions you have! Forum member jimh is an electrical engineer that can answer almost any question about hooking up the motor to a chartplotter to read out engine parameters. (They like you to post your engine model and serial no. with your signature, both to weed out trolls, and so that they know exactly which model you're asking questions about!)
2. The I-Command Gauge will list fault codes if EMM detects a problem, and I would think you could also get that info out of the NMEA/chart plotter set up. It will set different codes for engine or EMM overheat, so you need to know if it's the engine or EMM that's getting hot! The water that comes out the tell tale in the back is the same water that cools the recirculated fuel in the Vapor Separator Tank (VST) and also cools the EMM, so check to make sure you're getting plenty of flow there and that the water coming out isn't super hot; sometimes folks run aground and pick up small shells and stuff that can plug the cooling coil in the VST. That cooling circuit is a high volume/low pressure system, so if you leave a quick disconnect fitting in there for flushing the motor, make sure the hole in it is AT LEAST 3/8" in diameter so it doesn't restrict cooling flow to the EMM and VST! I use a brass fitting that's 1/2" in diameter. (Note - BRP sells a quick disconnect flushing attachment fitting, but it's for the big block V-6 ONLY! - the 3.3/3.4L 200HO/225/250/300 hp motors, which have a different high pressure/low volume WP tell tale like most other motors.)
3. Order a factory service manual for the motor from Barnacle Bill, who pays for Forum, for about $85. (see ad at top of home page on Owners Forum; they only take phone orders) If it saves you a trip to the dealer, it will pay for itself! It should say if you have to use the diagnostic software to reset an overheat fault code. I'm at my daughters place for a few days or I would check my manual for you.
4. Barnacle Bill's also sells the cable to connect the EMM to a /Windows laptop and the diagnostic software if you want to do all your own maintenance and troubleshooting. (I think software is about $300.) I bought the cable, but have never had a problem with the motor where I really needed it. Since motor is now over 10 years old with over 600 hrs on it, I may eventually get the software too, especially if I were to do a Bahamas run! The software will display an engine history report of the entire history of the motor, including all fault codes detected and histograms (value vs. % of time at various levels) for RPM, EMM TEMP, and right and left cylinder head temps, since the motor was new!
5. Do you have a water pressure gauge? Good to have when raising motor, but I'm surprised you had a problem if you raised motor 1 hole from where AV plate was flush with keel. Capt. Terry's is at 3/4" above keel and that put his AV plate above solid water. Mine is 6" above keel with 30" of setback and I've had no overheating or low water pressure problems. You can either add a mechanical WP gauge or a BRP water pressure transducer and display value on chart plotter, but then you (or dealer) would have to use the diagnostic software to tell the EMM to look for the transducer!
6. How long has it been since your water pump impeller was changed? On a 2006 vintage motor, it should have been changed in 2009,20012, and 20015. If motor sat for a long time, those impeller blades can take a set, so it won't pump like it should. Also, is sonar T-ducer mounted on bottom ahead of motor where it could disturb water flow?
7. Do you know what your WOT rpm is with that Viper prop? (Optimum for your motor is 5300-5500 with the load you typically carry.)The Viper is BRP's bow lifting speed prop that most dealers fit as a best guess, but if you want something that hangs on plane at low speed with good hole shot and better fuel efficiency, a 4B might be better, and I have 4 different 4B props you can try when I'm over there next month.
8. My fuel lines, which have never been changed, are all black, so don't know where a blue one came from. You'll have several different lines - one between lift pump and hose barb that connects to boat tank at front of motor near rigging tube; another from lift pump to on-engine filter to HP pump; and another one from HP pump discharge to the "fuel rail"/manifold to the injectors, and then another manifold returning the heated fuel from the injectors (which are cooled by the fuel) back to the VST. There is a small conical mesh filter inside the nipple of the VST return line that was almost completely plugged with some black tar-like stuff on my motor after using e10 gas for over 6 years from new! Since I have two 10 micron filters between boat and HP pump, I suspect the black goo was from the fuel lines that were being dissolved by the ethanol! The same stuff was evidently starting to clog the injectors too, as motor was starting to run rough, but only at 900 rpm, so BRP just replaced all my injectors under warranty! Have run nothing but Rec 90 ever since and motor is running like new! Checked the little VST filter last year, and it was clean, so I decided not to change fuel lines on motor. Denny