Performance expectations for FV 250 with Merc 5.0 MPI and bravo 3

212rowboat

The dealer is FOS.. belay that concern.

Pull a spark plug.. take a picture of the business end and post it..
From that we'll know lean or rich, and will give us direction.

What is your fuel consumption like? Any exhaust smoke? Any vacuum leaks? How old is fuel filter? Fuel regulator? Fuel pump? Get a pressure reading under load off the rail.. you can pick a gauge up for cheap at auto parts store. Any obstructions on spark arrestor/air hat? What rpm can you get under no load? Does it rev smooth and high quickly? Are your throttle cables adjusted properly? Throttle plate linkage? Do blades on throttle body open and close all the way and freely?

jason

Hey Piper,

Here's what I know from my performance ordeal.  I have the 5.0 and now that all is well, I get out of the hole in around 10 seconds with a couple of adults and a full tank of gas.  She stays on plane nicely anywhere over 21 mph and tops out at 32mph.  My main prop is 22p and Randy Rinker confirmed that this was the correct prop-set for the boat.  BTW, Rinker was wonderfully helpful.  Give them a call if you are unsure of any specs.

Regarding the design comments, Rinker is not a bad boat at all.  I did tons of research, much of it after the purchase, and found a very consistent respect for the company and their designs.  The common sentiment is that they are one of the best 'value for money' boats.  The designs are good, they include lots features that others call extras.  Where they keep their costs down is in some of the fit and finish in hidden areas.  Pull a cup holder and look inside.

As for the boat needing to be re-powered with a bigger engine, that is way off base.  If it was the shop doing the 'investigation', I would settle up and take my boat somewhere else.

Finally, here is what I found with my boat.  Firstly, do a compression test. It's fairly cheap and it will tell you a lot.  In my case we found that 1 cylinder had 0 compression.  Normally 0 compression comes from 2 possible problems, Cracked cylinder head or a hole in the piston.  In my case it was a different, very odd problem.  The valves had been adjusted so far that they were not seating at all.  So instead of $2,000 or $5,000, I got away with $500.  If you have 0 or very low compression, you can get the cylinder 'scoped' so they can see inside.  If they can't see anything, make sure they open the head, turn it and look for problems with the valves before they rip the heads off. That's how they found my initial problem.  I also found out that plugs wires and rotor can make a world of difference.  I talked to several people who had new plugs be the magical solution.  As you can see from my picture above, the rotor can be a real problem too.

I hope some of this helps.  Just remember, Mercruiser makes bullet proof engines and Rinker makes great boats.  You'll find the problem.

Regards,
Jason

TikiHut2

Jason, Really through follow up on your thread. Gotta love hearing the whole story and the end result. Of course we're glad it was a happy ending too. $500 and confirmation that it wasn't a disaster is a real relief I'm sure. Cheers, Mike