2010 Challenger 180 Overheating - Long story

[Haggard]

Hi All, I'm new to seadoos, new to boating, and I'm new to the forums. So I apologize in advance if this problem has been brought up already, I didn't find it in the searches I ran. Yesterday I took my Challenger out for the fourth time, I was getting more confident with it, that is until the tow rope got caught in the intake. The engine turned itself off to prevent damage, and long story short the boat was taken out of the water and I got all the rope out of the intake. I put it back in the water drove it around for a few minutes and didn't notice anything amiss that couldn't be chalked up to me just looking for something wrong. So I docked the boat at my slip figuring everything was ok.

Today I decided to take it out for a little fishing. The boat fired right up and before I could get from my dock to the entrance of the marina (about 100 yards) the console went into alarm flashing EXHAUST along with the temperature indication. I waited for it to cool off and started it up again to take it over to the launch drove it around a bit, sounded good but I noticed some smoke coming out the back end. Took the boat out of the water and this time the intake was packed with weeds. So my questions are as follows; Can weeds cause the types of problems I've described? What are the best ways to get the weeds out? What damage may have been caused by the rope incident? I've read the manual and I understand the error messages, but do you folks out there think that it's worth taking to the dealer to give it a once over, or will I be ok? Thanks to all that made it this far, believe it or not, this is the short story.

 

[davo]

hasn't happened to me, but others have found some rope still caught up inside, causing problems after they thought they removed it all. If driven it may get worse. If it was me I'd prob take it to the service centre just to get it looked at. As for weed, hmm, I've collected a chunk of wood, heard the diff immediately, put her back on the trailer, & removed the offending bit of tree.
cheers

 

[devonte007]

As far as the overheating is concerned I would guess that there is some type of blockage in the exhaust cooling system that may have been caused by the weed buildup you described. It is amazing how tiny debris can cause a problem like this so inspect the pump area very closely. On the top of the jet pump there are a few very tiny holes that direct a small amount of water up through the exhaust cooling system to cool the water jacketed exhaust manifold, then some of that water is injected into the exhaust gases which cools it down further so the rubber exhaust hoses will not melt. Therefore, the exhaust actually exits the boat as steam which may be the ‘smoke’ you described. This is normal and all boats do this to a certain extent. It may be helpful for you to download the repair manual from this site and review the section that describes how the exhaust cooling system works, it helped me a bunch in understanding how these boats operate.

Back to the problem, I would put the boat on the trailer and hook it up to the hose using the flushing port in the jet pump area. Start the engine first, turn on the water immediately after, let it run for maybe 1 min or so (but not much longer than about 2 min) and make sure that water is running out of the jet pump area (if not shut everything down immediately), turn the water off, then shut the engine off. This may be enough to back flush the exhaust cooling system and clean it all out. If you still have a problem you will have to dig in a little deeper and maybe take it into the shop. I have heard that the exhaust temp sensors often go bad and can cause this problem, but your boat is practically new so I would tend to rule this out.

I hope this helps some, since I am by no means and expert. Good luck and let us know what you find!

 

[Scott0321]

Haggard ,

I had similar problem you described from a weeds perspective. Unfortunately in my case I fried the temp sensors which in turn triggered the light on the port side engine. The other was fine but still had an active code. Ended up replacing both.

That being said the dealer saw the codes when he plugged in the BUDS system and told me an easy way to flush them out is to go WOT , and then just pull the DESS out. The force of the water should flush any build up out. I have remembered this since day one and it seems to work if I know I've gone over some weeds or debris. Just did it on Sunday as the launch in our are was packed full of crap due to a wind shift

Hope this helps

 

[Haggard]

That being said the dealer saw the codes when he plugged in the BUDS system and told me an easy way to flush them out is to go WOT , and then just pull the DESS out.

WOT, wide open throttle?

Thanks for all the help. I called the dealer today and they think the two incidents are unrelated, just bad timing. I also asked my marina for a slip closer to the entrance of the bay so I wouldn't have to idle so far, and he obliged. I don't have the boat back in the water yet, which is really painful because today is about the nicest day Syracuse has had so far.

 

[Scott0321]

Yep, hit the throttle (s) get up on plane. It will happen fast as you know and then kill the engine. The surge of water should help clear it out. Like I said it's worked for me in the past. Hope this helps.

My sister has a Yamaha jet boat and they had to move as well in their marina because toward the back where they were got weed choked and it always caused problems.

 

[dootndo2]

There are two situations here. If the boat has an active overheat light, then I wouldn't recommend WOT. I had weeds so bad last year, I just ended up getting in the water and cleaning them out. If you put the ladder up, you can reach under the boat with your toes and clean the grate. I recommend getting familiar with the underbelly when it's out of the water and go very slowly with your feet. It takes a few minutes, but then everything will work fine. My boat has the ICS, so I only have to get in very rarely.