180 stalls and alarms sounds

[stormchaser]

I have acquired a 2000 Rinker 180 this summer.  It has the 4.3L Mercruiser in it.  Have had it out multiple times this summer thus far with no problems.  Today, toward the end of a long day of use, we were pulling a skier for one more ride.  She was up out of the water for about 5 seconds (full throttle then beginning to back off) before the engine cut out (stalled?) and we lost power.  An alarm then came on until the key was turned to "off" position.

The boat would start up again just fine and idle just fine so we could get back to shore.  We attempted full throttle again on the way back to shore with the same results, cuts out and loses power. 

We are speculating that it may simply be out of gas as we had it out for two days of decent use without refilling.  Is this typically what happens when a Rinker is low on fuel?

I have read forums about other boats with similar problems and it seemed to be carbs, fuel lines, etc.  Haven't looked into it any further at this point though. Also, in my panic that this newly acquired boat may not be working properly, I did not recall looking at any gages, etc so I don't have any of that info.  As far as I know, everything had been working properly up until that point and there were no signs of anything to go wrong.

Hoping a simple refuel is all we need.  Thanks for any help!

[AlexisandChad]

It does appear to be a low fuel issue.  I know that on my boat that when I'm going from idle to full throttle that sometimes if there is a "slosch" of fuel that I get a slight hesitation when low on fuel.  But I have carbs so I don't know if EFI systems work the same.  I hope that a fill up will fix this for you.  If not, I would start looking for a clogged fuel filter or maybe  crushed line.

Are you by chance hitting the rev limit?  Just another thought.

[Madcow68]

Correct me if I am wrong but Rinkers do not have a low fuel alarm, especially one that small.

[ParkRode360]

No low fuel alarm that I'm aware of, not unless installed by a prior owner (custom)...

[AlexisandChad]

This sounds like an Al or MVN question now.  I do not have any alarms on my boat except for the fireboy.  Watching this one. 

[kleake]

The alarm was likely low oil pressure. As the engine died, it went to 0 sounding the alarm.   I had this happen to mine, it ended up being the oil pressure switch.  There is one sending unit for the guage, and one for the computer.  The one for the computer was failing so the computer would shut off the fuel pump.  When I would restart, the fuel pump would run just long enough to fill the carb with fuel.  Yours could simply be a clogged fuel filter as well though. I would start with the fuel filter as that probably needs changed anyway, and then check the oil pressure sending unit/wires.   If that's it, autozone is much cheaper than a marine supply for the same part.

[stormchaser]

The solution...3 months later. 

Took it in to the shop, and $99 dollars later (and 3 weeks of no use), we learned that the boat was most likely "vapor locked."  The mechanics could not find a single thing wrong with it otherwise. 

I had never heard this term before.  It was pushing 110 degrees that day and we ran it hard from one side of the lake to the other, killed the engine and let it sit for awhile.  Mechanic said the combination of running the engine hard and allowing it to heat up then killing it suddenly with no chance to cooldown (i.e. let the engine idle and continue to have water run through it) created too much heat in the engine compartment and actually vaporized the fuel in the fuel lines.  The boat would turn on, idle fine but if we gave it some gas, there was any gas there and that's why it would kill. 

Obvious recommendations to prevent this from happening are to not kill it suddenly after running it hard on a hot day.  Or open the engine compartment to get some air circulating.  And sure enough, we took it own the following weekend, and it ran perfectly.  Temps were only in the 80s that day though.