1 reply to this topic

[Giligan]

I finally had a chance to take my 05 sportster out to the lake. It seemed that it was bogged down just putting around the launch. I relized that there was something wrong when I opened it up on the open water. we topped out at 37 mph and rpms were above 7000. On the way back to the launch to remove it from the water I started seeing some smoke out the rear and the idle was unstable.
I immediatly took it off the water to attempt to determine the problem. There was nothing in the grate, and when we removed the engine cover all we smelled was a strong fuel aroma (no burning). Beyond that I didn't know what to do so I took it to the dealer. They said that they could not see any issues and could not reproduce the conditions. After $160 bill, I still don't have a idea where to look next. If you have any ideas, I would welcome the help.

One more question though. I found that the dealer was doing some tests without water running through the boat. Does it hurt the boat to run it dry?

[stevenh]

I finally had a chance to take my 05 sportster out to the lake. It seemed that it was bogged down just putting around the launch. I relized that there was something wrong when I opened it up on the open water. we topped out at 37 mph and rpms were above 7000. On the way back to the launch to remove it from the water I started seeing some smoke out the rear and the idle was unstable.
I immediatly took it off the water to attempt to determine the problem. There was nothing in the grate, and when we removed the engine cover all we smelled was a strong fuel aroma (no burning). Beyond that I didn't know what to do so I took it to the dealer. They said that they could not see any issues and could not reproduce the conditions. After $160 bill, I still don't have a idea where to look next. If you have any ideas, I would welcome the help.

One more question though. I found that the dealer was doing some tests without water running through the boat. Does it hurt the boat to run it dry?

You can run the engine very briefly without water. I normally will start mine dry for 10-20 seconds to ensure its ready to go before I take off from the house (trailer the boat). It is normal to see quite a bit of steam from the rear of the boat. The fresh water cooling water can be turned into steam and it can look like the boat is smoking. If you don't smell any unusual exhaust smells, thats probably the smoke story. As far as the poor idle, or poor top speed, I don't know. If the dealer did not water test the boat, they can't really know if there is an issue. For $160.00, I would have expected a water test!

Good luck.

Steve