New (used) 2004 Sea Ray Sundancer giving me fits

[ktchristie]

Hi Folks.

I'm sure there are multiple threads but I can't seem to find the right one. Newbie.

Just bought a 2004 Sea Ray Sundancer, 5.7 Mercruiser, Bravo III and it passed the surgery with flying colors. First day our on the lake I burned through 50 gallons cruising all over the place with no issues.

The next day I started to overheat and this is when the fun began.

Took the sea pump off and although the impeller was good, the housing was really worn bad. REPLACED IT!

After replacing, same thing....anything up over 3500 RPM's and it alarms. :smt021

I'll add I'm trying to baseline this thing because there weren't any service records.

Figured I'd replace the Thermostat and while at it, replace the serpentine.
I did that today and guess what??? It didn't fix it AND it introduced a new issue. Every 60 seconds I have 2 beeps. :smt038 JOY!!

I'm reading a lot of horror stories online about having to pull the motor. I'm reading that I need to replace the IAC or at least that seems to be the most notorious culprit.....another $100 and it won't solve my overheating problem.

At this point I am guess i have a clog somewhere in the system so if I can get the beeps to stop, it'll be slow going until fall when I plan on getting a bottom job and a tune up.

PS....6'1. 290 lbs so maneuvering in the engine compartment is NO BUNEO. I can't even see where the outbound water from the sea pump gets to because I though I would check that for clogs. :huh:

I've only this boat 3 weeks and I've spent more time in the hole than on the lake. Any words of encouragement or direction would be GREATLY appreciated.

NEWBIE

 

[Ididntdoit]

probably has bravo III disease......there is a fitting on the transom plate where the raw water hose comes into the boat......that crushes and closes up.....easy to check, if you pull the hose fron the back of the pump water should gush in really fast (have a plug ready) if it comes out like a garden hose turned on half way, thats your problem......some people (myself included) switch to a traditional seacock and strainer araingement.......another cause could be clogged manifolds or risers...Ive been told either problem can throw an alarm as there is a separate smart craft sensor for the low raw water pressure (have not verified this myself)

 

[Stee6043]

It's boating, right? If you think everything is working properly you simply haven't found the next item that's broken.

I'd bet on the clog as mentioned above. I wonder if there is a way to backflush your system? If it's not the crushed hose you may just have junk in the drive.

I assume you are not keeping this boat on the water so perhaps your first step should be to hook it up to muffs in the driveway and see how much water is coming out when it's running. Perhaps a good first indicator of whether or not you're getting flow.

 

[brewster16]

Clogged intake hose. A plastic bag? Eel grass? My advice is to loosen hose clamps, work the hose off and either high pressure spray water through and/or run a flexible coat hanger. Don't spend any more money until you do that on each segment of hose.

 

[skibum]

See posts 58 & 59 of this thread for pictures and a video of what to check. http://clubsearay.com/showthread.ph...nt-Continuous-beep-no-Smartcraft-output/page2

It's not too hard to fix, but you'll need to remove your bellows and move the bell housing out of the way to install the new pick up tube.

 

[ktchristie]

Thank you much for the advice. I will take a look this weekend. I am keeping the boat in the water at a slip as opposed to trailering. No trailer with the purchase.
I've looked at the video but given I am in the water and have no trailer, it would be impossible to get to the Bellows and bell housing. I understand the water is drawn from the lower unit so I may have to pay for a pull out of the water. Getting to where it enters the engine compartment could be a challenge as well as I'm a big guy. As information, when I replaced the sea pump, the red hose was continually dumping water into my engine compartment. I let the bilge take care of that when I was replacing the pulley onto the new pump. It wasn't gushing but it was coming out at a pretty fair clip. Bilge was coming on every minute and running for more. I was also thinking it could be old impeller parts up in the black hose, but again, not much room in the compartment. I would probably have better luck taking the back seat out and removing the engine compartment lid to access behind the motor.......ugh. Stay tuned......will see what I can do this weekend.