Rinker 280 with 496 Isle under load - no power

tk1973

Hey guys... Hoping I can pick some brains here. I've got a 2008 280 with the 496 and just splashed it for the season. Fresh oil change and new plugs according to the marina. No issues on land, starts, idles fine. As soon as it was in the water there was no power and sounded like some popping occasionally from the engine. 50 Gallons of fresh fuel added to whatever I had in it last year. I putted to the dock under full throttle and that's where it's sitting. Is this a fuel issue? I ordered a new fuel filter. It's the gen 3 cool fuel module and waiting for it to arrive. As well there's a loud vacuum from somewhere and not sure how to go about troubleshooting it when I get on the throttles. 

Any assistance would be appreciated. 

earl1z19

Could be bad gas but start by checking fuel pressure at the rail. This could also be a bad high pressure fuel pump in the cool fuel module

LaRea

Water in the fuel filter.  Does it have a spin-off filter?  Remove it and dump it into a plastic container.  You'll probably see it's half water.  

Dream_Inn

Could also be a clogged regulator in the fuel cool module.  Oh this reminds me of some very bad days with the boat.  Hopefully you don't have the ole paint inside the fuel cool module coming off and clogging the regulator.  Typically the symptom is not getting on plane, but idle is ok.

davidbrooks

I agree with all the recommendation's above.  If you dont find water, paint in your cool fuel filters or bad fuel pressure.  The next step after that would be to get a simple test of cylinder compression.  You should be around 150 with all of your cylinders being within 10% of that. If you get other readings then you could have some bad news.

LaRea

Also, because the yard replaced the spark plugs, I'd inspect the plug wires.  Maybe they screwed up, but -- you said it idles smoothly, right?  

tk1973

OK thanks for the advice guys... the fuel filter comes in tomorrow so I'll check it out over the weekend. The paint issue I had and we actually replaced the injectors so should be fine unless there was more paint peeling. But you're right it was a nightmare 

I'll check the wires and fuel and take it from there... 

Cableguy Greg

I had an issue a few years ago where the boat would idle and run well while not under load. When I smashed the boat, it would bog down and not get on plane. No codes were thrown on the computer. I talked with Al and he suggested changing the cap and rotor, which were bad. I then emptied the cool fuel module and it was 50% water. I sucked out all of the fuel and replaced the filters. Ran the boat on an aux fuel tank and she ran great. Checked the fuel from the tank and it had no water. I would start at the fuel filter and check the tank for water. 

mattie

My vote is for CAP & ROTOR. Cheap fix.

Ours did that a couple years ago. Ran fine until under load. Then it sounded like the world was ending.

RiverRunnerNB

You likely have this sorted by now, but further to @LaRea's post (or clarification for my own benefit) about the spark plugs being replaced, is it possible the wires were reconnected to the wrong cylinders causing the firing order to be wrong? From my limited experience, this could result in apparently ok idle, but no power once throttling up.  

MH342

@tk1973 - what did you find? Were you able to resolve your issue?