2003 Islandia with Mercury 240 2 Stroke

[Storage]

slandia ran fine in 2017.
Last year in June the engine was started on trailer, to be sure the battery was good, and that
everything checked OK before taking to thee Lake. Upon launching and clearing the No Wake Zone, I
gradually reved up to 1500 rpm, and then attempted to rev up rpm's to plane. The motor sputtered
untill I lowered below 1,600 Rpm's. As I attempted to get it to rev up rpms, my crewmember opened the
Motor hatch, and exclaimed there was water gushing from the "Flush attachment". The CAP was off the "flushing
connection" located beside the motor.!
After a month of a light being in the engine compartment with a small fan circulating the air, to dry the engine, and wiring.
Launched again at Lake, said a prayer, and gave it 3/4 throttle.......same issue...sputtering after 1,500 rpms, and engine dies, unless I am below 1500.
I am assuming that the water caused the problem, BUT perhaps there was this problem before
the water, as when I cranked in the driveway I did not rev up the motor.
The Motor cranks up instantely, and idles fine. Motor increases when steering wheel is turned
right or left, as it should. No Beeps or warning of any kind.
I took to a Mercury repair shop, he worked on for 7+ hours. He said everything
checked normal, but would keep over the Winter, when he had more time to re-check everything.
I went by 2 weeks ago, (8 months latter) and he said everything checked .OK, but he could not
locate the problem, or repair!
I have tryed to locate the "Throttle guardian" behind the console, as I read that it could cause such issues.
It is not next to the fuses, or anywhere behind the console. I cannot find any wire ends that have been
cut, or terminated. It appears it has never been installed behind the console. Is there ANYWHERE
else, that the "Throttle Guardin" could be located??
.....Any HELP or advice would be appreciated!

 

[Tim75]

As crazy as it sounds, not all boats had the th. grdn. Apparently, yours does not.

You did not say how high in the bilge the water rose, but it would have to be high to harm any wires. However, there are some wires to check the insulation. There is small bundle of six that is the trigger wires coming out from under the flywheel. Merc used some crappy wire on some of these units. The insulation crumbled over the years.

Have you checked that you have spark on all 6? Have you changed all the fuel filters (3, I believe.) 2 are easy, 1 is a pita.

 

[Storage]

Tim..... 8 months latter, and gone through another Mechanic! This guy is bout 50, and works on ANY boat engine! I took it to him July 8th 2019, and he has worked on it, and put it in lake 3-4 times. He put it on the Merc engine computer, and EVERYTHING checked FINE...nothing adnormal! He cleaned the injectors, and replaced spark plugs. He says it runs up to 2,700 rpms now, and will run ALL day at 2700! He replaced a gasket somewhere around the fuel Pump, that he said sometimes dry-rots.......but no change. He checked fuel pressure, and said it was normal! He is "giving up", so I picked up Friday.
Answering to your questions from last June....... I did not ask if all cylinders were "fireing".........but think if anything was not fireing corectly, that it would have shown up on the Computer. The water that day was about 10-12 inches deep around the engine, so I suppose the trigger wires could have been below water. I did ask him a question, that I got a "weird" answer. I told him that I thought I read the Stator has a "Dual-Low/High rpm Stator" and could that be the reason it was not reving above 2,700 rpms. He replyed..."Some engines have that", which I thought he "would...should" have KNOWN by his working on it!! I am at my "wits end" as i am 73, 100% disabled, otherwise I could do a LOT of this work myself! Sorry....venting a Bit...getting Old....Sucks!
Anyway....... What I am thinking NOW.....is drain that 5-7 yr old gas from tank, and put bout 10 gals of non-ethnol High Test! Replace those 2 "easy fuel filters", and try to get my weekend helper to remove/replace the 3rd filter. Is that 3rd filter inside the Tank? Is there a foot sock, at the fuel pick up point? Then I will see if that results into anything positive! Next would be the Stator....and or Trigger........ Can you tell me if there are 2 triggers & an a combination 2 coil Stator on this 240? Thanks.... Bill

 

[El Toro 33809]

I perhaps had a similar problem last year, minus the water in the engine compartment. Boat started fine, but wouldn’t rev out in the water. Checking I found out two cylinders were not getting spark. Made sense, 4 cylinders didn’t have enough power to push the boat up to speed. Thought it may have been the coil packs, but when I replaced them, still no spark. As Tim75 mentioned, the crappy wires were shot. When replaced, all 6 cylinders got power and the boat was back to normal.
Good luck

 

[Tim75]

Tim..... 8 months latter, and gone through another Mechanic! This guy is bout 50, and works on ANY boat engine! I took it to him July 8th 2019, and he has worked on it, and put it in lake 3-4 times. He put it on the Merc engine computer, and EVERYTHING checked FINE...nothing adnormal! He cleaned the injectors, and replaced spark plugs. He says it runs up to 2,700 rpms now, and will run ALL day at 2700! He replaced a gasket somewhere around the fuel Pump, that he said sometimes dry-rots.......but no change. He checked fuel pressure, and said it was normal! He is "giving up", so I picked up Friday.
Answering to your questions from last June....... I did not ask if all cylinders were "fireing".........but think if anything was not fireing corectly, that it would have shown up on the Computer. The water that day was about 10-12 inches deep around the engine, so I suppose the trigger wires could have been below water. I did ask him a question, that I got a "weird" answer. I told him that I thought I read the Stator has a "Dual-Low/High rpm Stator" and could that be the reason it was not reving above 2,700 rpms. He replyed..."Some engines have that", which I thought he "would...should" have KNOWN by his working on it!! I am at my "wits end" as i am 73, 100% disabled, otherwise I could do a LOT of this work myself! Sorry....venting a Bit...getting Old....Sucks!
Anyway....... What I am thinking NOW.....is drain that 5-7 yr old gas from tank, and put bout 10 gals of non-ethnol High Test! Replace those 2 "easy fuel filters", and try to get my weekend helper to remove/replace the 3rd filter. Is that 3rd filter inside the Tank? Is there a foot sock, at the fuel pick up point? Then I will see if that results into anything positive! Next would be the Stator....and or Trigger........ Can you tell me if there are 2 triggers & an a combination 2 coil Stator on this 240? Thanks.... Bill

The 2700 rpm is the key. That is the range where the system switches to high speed mode. It seems you need a trigger. About $100 on Ebay. You also will need a flywheel puller. About $35 on ebay.

My trigger tested good, but was not good. Same conditions. Now runs 1100-6200 rpm smoothly.