Good day?? Not so much....Boat is sick

So it was 75 and sunny for the first time in ocer a month here in Missouri so we got the wet suits out and headed to the lake one last time this year. We got some gas at the marina and got 3 pulls in before we had to stop.....


Boat ran fine for about an hour then when I was pulling up a surfer there was a vibration in the boat. When I gave it power a loud clanking noise was heard. Sounded like something was up with the prop or shaft. Without seeing it sounded like something was loose ar the prop was hitting something as it spun. We limbed back to the dock and waited to get my trailer and when I tried to start the boat it would not start. It cranked and cranked and finally kinda sounded like a lawn mower when it backfires and then quit. I did this a few times to no luck.

I got the boat out of the water and took a look on the bottom and there wasnt anything out of the ordinary below. So I am stumped...

Hypothesis: I know nothing about engines but just a shot in the dark...It kinda seems like I got some bad gas as to why the boat wont start and as far as the clanking noise and vibrations? I have no clue

Good thing is its still under warranty...

That sounds a lot like water in the gas. If the engine is running really rough, it could cause vibration. I too, don't know crap about working on engines, so no help there.

Any oil pressure? What was the water temp when this was happening? Why wouldn't you shut it down & get out of the boat & actually look at the prop to make sure there wasn't any obvious problem? Did you open the engine cover to see if there was any obvious issues you could see while it was running?

Oil pressure was fine...There were no alarms coming from my computer on the boat either. Water temp was 55, and I did shut it down but we were about 200 yards from the dock so just limped home. We opened the engine hatch and didnt see anything. I am hoping it is all a gas problem but the vibration thing seemed a bit odd.

Flex plate. The flex plate springs came apart in the bell housing. That might be the vibration, clanking and no start. Look behind the trans at the bell housing, any cracks? Only a guess.

Water temp as in what did the engine water temp gauge say? Hopefully a lot more than 55 degrees. Should be around 160 - 180.

The fact that it would crank but wouldn't start would make me think some kind of timing problem.... like the distributor gear skipped a tooth? Or timing chain?

Ya water temp was fine...I think it was around 170...The vibration was when the boat was in idle and when I powered it up some it became a clanking noise that got louder as more power was increased. I only gave it power to get a wakesurfer up then brought it back down cause I had no clue what the heck was wrong.

My Nautique did the same thing and it was the high pressure fuel pump. Sounded like midgets with hammers in the engine compartment and the boat died. It fired back up just barely idled (very Rough) and then died again and never restarted. I thought about the bad gas too and my dealer talked me out of that idea and told me to bring it in. Sure enough Fuel pump. They fixed it under warranty and no more issues since. I had friends with me when it died. They had the flex plate issue with their x2 and they said it sounded like their boat did when the plate went out, but it turned out that the idle rpms when running were so low that the flex plate wasn't engaging all the way which caused the clanging(midgets with hammers) sound. Hope that makes a little sense. If it were me I would check the fuel pump first.

good advice Dave...That sounds like the exact scenario that my boat went through Tuesday....

ever find the problem?

I took the boat in this weekend but they have a bunch of boats to winterize before they can look into my problem...Its cool I told them they have until April lol I had a buddy come over that knew a lil about engines and he looked at it and I tried to start it again and the engine would turn over a couple times then it sounded like it locked up and woultnt turn. I turned the key off tried it again and it cranked then would not crank and once again sounded like it locked up and woulnt turn. I have no clue but my buddy said it might be a (forgot what he said) but he was not sure either.

DO NOT TRY TO TURN IT OVER AGAIN!!

i bet you got water in the cylinders since you said it sounded locked. either via a lot of water in the fuel or a head gasket.

good move taking it to the dealer for their mechanic to look at it. Dont let them let it sit too long either, if it is water in the engine they'll need to fix it asap before other bad things happen.

but like the Dr. says, it's nothing an expensive operation cant prolong.

good luck.

Ya know it's interesting you say that.... I said from the start I thought I got bad gas... Can that lead to a serious problem or something a mechanic
can fix easily? I ask cause it's under warranty but is this something warranty would cover or what?

They won't warranty bad gas, if they do you have the best dealer in the world and they lied to Indmar.

depends. If it IS water in the fuel, then how did it get there? thru a boat part that is covered under warranty or thru a gas station pump (which is prob pretty rare honestly), who knows, it takes a fair amount of water thru the injectors to hydro lock an engine but it is very do-able. and yes, water in the cylinder can do major major engine damage. it can be removed and cleaned out, but if you run it until it craps on itself then thats muy bad.

if the water got there by way of blown head gasket or cooling system failure then most likely warranty.

check the fuel filter for signs of water in it. your mechanic will prob pull the spark plugs and crank the engine over, if it has water in it he'll go from there to find the source. pray it was not your neighbors sprinkler system or something that was your fault.

but hopefully it is something simple like the fuel pump or midgets with hammers...have you checked the entire boat for midgets with hammers?

Sounds like hydrolock to me. Take out the sparkplugs disconnect the distributor and turn engine. Water should come out of the plugs. You will still need to find out why it hydrococked in the first place. On my boat it was a dirty spark arrestor.

Ya my dealer mentioned hydrolock to me today when I called them. I will let everyone know what the final answer is when they look at it.....My main question is how did this happen and was it my fault cause I have no clue what I did or if all this is just something that sometimes breaks ya know