2001 Utopia 185 will not start

[guyandlisajo]

Hi guys, while out of the lake today, I was coming back into the marina and the boat just died. I went from about 5k RPM to 2k RPM to 0. I tried to restart it and it turns over but never catches. Before we had gone out, I topped off the oil and gas. I thought maybe an air filter issue so I swapped that but it will still turn over but not catch and run. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tim75]

Hi guys, while out of the lake today, I was coming back into the marina and the boat just died. I went from about 5k RPM to 2k RPM to 0. I tried to restart it and it turns over but never catches. Before we had gone out, I topped off the oil and gas. I thought maybe an air filter issue so I swapped that but it will still turn over but not catch and run. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Air filter???
What engine do you have?

 

[guyandlisajo]

Air filter???
What engine do you have?

I thought air filter to so I pulled it just to see if it would start. Same thing. I am thinking fuel filter or something is in the gas line, but not sure where the fuel filter is on this. Engine is the Direct fuel injected V6. 2 stroke.

 

[Tim75]

I thought air filter to so I pulled it just to see if it would start. Same thing. I am thinking fuel filter or something is in the gas line, but not sure where the fuel filter is on this. Engine is the Direct fuel injected V6. 2 stroke.

Is this a Mercury engine? Never heard of a Merc with an air filter. Except the Optimax series. They have a small filter for the air compressor.

 

[guyandlisajo]

Is this a Mercury engine? Never heard of a Merc with an air filter. Except the Optimax series. They have a small filter for the air compressor.

Yes it's a Merc engine. This is where I show my ignorance. I call it an air filter. It was a blue filter and looks like the air filter from my lawn mower. Sits on top of the engine under the cover on top of the engine.

 

[Tim75]

Yes it's a Merc engine. This is where I show my ignorance. I call it an air filter. It was a blue filter and looks like the air filter from my lawn mower. Sits on top of the engine under the cover on top of the engine.

Ok, we narrowed it down some.
Do you know year and model of engine?
Can you u/l a couple of pix?

 

[guyandlisajo]

This is a pic of the engine. You can see what I call the 'air filter' in the upper left hand corner. It is from a few years ago when I swapped out the belt. It is the original engine. The boat is a 2001. There was a sticker on it that says 200 - Jet Drive DFI - serial 85961034 Mercury Marine.

 

[Tim75]

View attachment 62510
This is a pic of the engine. You can see what I call the 'air filter' in the upper left hand corner. It is from a few years ago when I swapped out the belt. It is the original engine. The boat is a 2001. There was a sticker on it that says 200 - Jet Drive DFI - serial 85961034 Mercury Marine.

Optimax engine.
Not real familiar with this engine, but check compressor pressure and fuel pressure.

 

[CantComplain]

Any chance there's anything funky going on with the lanyard? Is it connected and making good contact? The behavior sounds somewhat similar to that having been being removed. The switch itself can also go bad, causing the same behavior but of course being more difficult to troubleshoot. The switch can be bypassed by simply accessing the wiring harness in the helm and disconnecting it--the engine should run in this state.

Anyway, I know nothing of this from experience, I've just read about it. Good luck.

 

[guyandlisajo]

Update: Brought it to my local mechanic. After testing everything (compression, etc..) they found the issue to be a bad reed assembly and water in the gas. Not sure how I got the water in the gas. Put a full reed assembly in, swapped out the plugs, drained the bad gas and replaced with new and refreshed the oil. It is firing well now. I only put it on the lake for about 60 minutes but it was working and running well, so happy for the moment..