CJ Martin
Member
Cruised to Oxford, MD with the family last Friday, returned Sunday. About 13nm out from Oxford heading home the starboard engine set a "check engine" alert on the Smartcraft, and beeped twice every minute or so. All guage indications were normal, and the engine seemed to be running fine. Decided it was likely a sensor issue we continued on to Solomons, where we shut down to take on fuel. Restart and return to our marine were uneventful, except for the Smartcraft alert and that damn beeping. Inspection of the starboard engine wiring harness back in the slip revealed nothing loose.
Called my local boatyard and they told me to bring her in so they could put the laptop on the motor and see what codes were set in the ECM. Took off work early yesterday and grabbed the boy for the short 2.5 nm run over to Solomons. The plan was to get the boat over there by mid-morning, let them scan the codes and if it was an easy fix, they would do it right away.
That was the plan, anyway.
Got to the boat, checked fluids on the mains, all is well. Tried to start the starboard engine. It turned over fine, caught, then stalled. Neither main has ever done that. Tried again, heard some squealing, so I stopped and raised the hatch. Tried a third time, heard major squealing - like a bad engine water pump. Ugh. Brought the port main on line and limped over to the yard single engine. Fortunately it was a perfect morning, flat calm. Had a bit of drama getting tied up at the yard as I had to tie portside to between two other boats and that was not so easy with a dead starboard engine.
Still waiting for the word on the yard...since it was obviously no longer a "quicky" job, they won't get to her until today. Not sure how the check engine indication caught the apparent water pump failure...I was monitoring the temp closely the whole way back from Oxford...plus I can't explain how I was able to shut down (twice actually, as we pumped out at our home marina) and restart with no issues Sunday, only to find a dead pump on Tuesday. Hot engine vs cold? Dunno.
Stay tuned...
-CJ
Called my local boatyard and they told me to bring her in so they could put the laptop on the motor and see what codes were set in the ECM. Took off work early yesterday and grabbed the boy for the short 2.5 nm run over to Solomons. The plan was to get the boat over there by mid-morning, let them scan the codes and if it was an easy fix, they would do it right away.
That was the plan, anyway.
Got to the boat, checked fluids on the mains, all is well. Tried to start the starboard engine. It turned over fine, caught, then stalled. Neither main has ever done that. Tried again, heard some squealing, so I stopped and raised the hatch. Tried a third time, heard major squealing - like a bad engine water pump. Ugh. Brought the port main on line and limped over to the yard single engine. Fortunately it was a perfect morning, flat calm. Had a bit of drama getting tied up at the yard as I had to tie portside to between two other boats and that was not so easy with a dead starboard engine.
Still waiting for the word on the yard...since it was obviously no longer a "quicky" job, they won't get to her until today. Not sure how the check engine indication caught the apparent water pump failure...I was monitoring the temp closely the whole way back from Oxford...plus I can't explain how I was able to shut down (twice actually, as we pumped out at our home marina) and restart with no issues Sunday, only to find a dead pump on Tuesday. Hot engine vs cold? Dunno.
Stay tuned...
-CJ
