chyanke
New Member
- May 2, 2012
- 7
- Boat Info
- 2004 Sea Ray 280 Sundancer
- Engines
- Twin MerCruiser 5.0 MPI w/ Bravo III
Need some help diagnosing a problem with my Mercruiser 5.0 MPI. I have a 2005 280 Sundancer with twin 5.0MPI Bravo III’s with 260 hours on the engines. At the end of last season, I put STA-BIL fuel stabilizer into the tank at the ratio stated on the back of the bottle. I ran the boat at cruising speed for 30 minutes and then came into the marina to put the boat on the trailer for the winter. Approaching the marina, I slowed to no wake speed and the Port engine stalled. Never any problems prior to this incident. It would not restart in the neutral idle position. I was able to start it in neutral by revving the engine to 1k RPM. As soon as I backed it down to the idle position, it stalled. I repeated this a few more times and it stalled at idle each time. The Starboard engine ran fine with no issues. I put the boat on the trailer and forgot about it since it was the last trip of the season.
Fast forward 6 months to this weekend, I hooked the water up to the engines to start and change the oil. The Port engine would not start again. In neutral, I gave it some throttle and it fired right up. Back it down to idle and it stalled. I started it again by giving it some throttle and let it rev at 800 RPM for 5 minutes to warm up so I could change the oil. About the time I was ready to shut it down (5 minutes running) I noticed some white smoke coming from behind the air intake cover. The white smoke got thicker in a matter of seconds and I immediately shut down the engine. Upon inspection, the white smoke left some white residue next to where it was billowing from. In the pic below, I identified where the smoke came from. Starboard engine started and idled just fine with no issues.
Does anyone have any idea what the problem is? I always use fuel stabilizer at the end of every season with no problems but could it have affected the engine? Is the stalling at idle related to the white smoke? The location where the white smoke came from, what is that part called and what does it do? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Fast forward 6 months to this weekend, I hooked the water up to the engines to start and change the oil. The Port engine would not start again. In neutral, I gave it some throttle and it fired right up. Back it down to idle and it stalled. I started it again by giving it some throttle and let it rev at 800 RPM for 5 minutes to warm up so I could change the oil. About the time I was ready to shut it down (5 minutes running) I noticed some white smoke coming from behind the air intake cover. The white smoke got thicker in a matter of seconds and I immediately shut down the engine. Upon inspection, the white smoke left some white residue next to where it was billowing from. In the pic below, I identified where the smoke came from. Starboard engine started and idled just fine with no issues.
Does anyone have any idea what the problem is? I always use fuel stabilizer at the end of every season with no problems but could it have affected the engine? Is the stalling at idle related to the white smoke? The location where the white smoke came from, what is that part called and what does it do? Any help would be greatly appreciated.