Ouch! That looks serious.
Garth, you may want to send those pics to the person you are talking to at HydroTec.
A very good outboard mechanic who took care of my V6 Mercs said the first order of business is to verify what caused the power head to blow. Until that is known a replacement power head will likely pop for the same reason.
You seem to be thinking this through with a level head and looking at all options. I believe it will work out just fine over time.
hydro tec has building full of great used parts they most likely will have any part you need all they do is yamahas all day everyday for people all around the globe
Hi performance parts or a Yamaha power head visit
Hydro-Tec's web site @ http://www.yamaha-rebuild.com/
Paul Hottman Hydro-Tec's Pro staff since 1998
Thanks Gary. Unfortunately after giving Matt at HT a detailed explanation of what happened, it's going to get pretty pricey to rebuild it. And that's assuming the block is okay as they don't have an extra one. I'm still looking for a remanufactured powerhead but haven't had much luck yet. It's a good thing I got the winter to figure this all out.Originally Posted by 1Holeshot
Time is your friend. Lots of time to research options this winter.
If I hear of any leads, will let you know.
I appreciate that!
If I don't need a block HT will probably be my best bet. I got to get into it first and be sure it's okay before I spend the money to ship it to them.
I guess I was lucky when I bought my 1996 200 ZX as it was the last one that had a 200 Mercury EFI .I sold it last year and still going strong out here in the College circuit.
Im going back in time where my dad says ..if it anit broke dont fix it . We use to pour a cup of water down the carb of old chevy 350's to decarb..worked ! ...to much water to fast and it didnt .... lots of good info on here tho...
So I wanted to update everyone on my situation. After calling HT and finding out that they didn't have a replacement block in stock in case I needed one. I called Chris Carson Marine. I intended to do it anyways as I've heard great things about him as well as HT and wanted at least 2 opinions on my motor.
So I called him last Thursday around 2:30pm my time which was 5:30 his time and didn't get an answer and left no message. The next morning I was working and got a call back from him saying he'd got a call from my number and was following up. So I started to explain my situation. He went over my options and pricing and was extremely thorough in explaining the process. Once I let him know that I had experience building car motors and machining from my youth, he started discussing things on a more technical level which I really appreciated. He also let me know that he had a replacement crank and block if needed. If so it was going to cost more, but the price was very reasonable.
When I initially told him about the rod failure he thought maybe one of my oil injectors had failed on that cylinder. However, as we spoke more and I mentioned blowing the head gasket and replacing it along with the overheats that happened, he told that because of the blown head gasket I got water in my crankcase and that was most likely the cause of my rod failure. I never even though about it, but that totally made sense; especially given it was one of the 2 rods at the base of the motor where water would pool up.
As we continued to talk, I told him I would be pulling the powerhead myself and had the Yamaha shop manual. He asked me if I was by the motor and I said I could be. So I went into the garage and Chris began to step-by-step walk me through removing the powerhead. By this time, I was thinking to myself this is the guy I want to work with. I couldn't believe he took the time explaining all of this to me. After explaining how to remove the powerhead, he gave me detailed info on how to properly pack it up for shipping to him. The entire call took over an hour and left me feeling extremely comfortable about having him rebuild my motor. In fact, it was the first time I started to feel my stress level lower from the whole situation. So as of this Monday my motor is on the truck and on its way to CCM in Key Largo FL.
I'll list some of the other things that really impressed me about my experience with Chris.
-The time and thoughtfulness he took in working with me to prepare me for getting my motor to him for rebuilding, including telling me to call him if I have any other questions; which I did several times.
-He scheduled the freight pick up of my motor and sent me the required bills of lading and paid the up front shipping cost. I have yet to pay anything.
-On several occasions he took steps to save me money. For example, he told me I could save $200 if I could get my motor to a place with a loading dock and forklift because the freight company charges extra for residential pickup and extra for using their lift gate.
-When I asked if he could get more HP out of the motor as milligjg suggested, he said they could do that, but it would put more stress on the motor and he'd rather see me have it last another 20 years than to get a little more HP out of it and possible early failure. He could have easily told me yeah and got more money out of me. Plus it made total sense. I used to build auto race motors and we ran those things hard. Despite using high quality components, they still wore more and required more maintenance.
-He told me he would throw in several items for free in the rebuild process and would only increase the cost if there was any electrical issues, which he didn't foresee to be and issue. Of course he said that he would call me and let me know before doing anything like that. He even said he would install the throttle cam and roller assembly I had already purchased at no extra cost and to just zip tie it to the motor for shipping.
All in all I was extremely impressed with Chris. Every bit of my experience with him tells me he's a no BS stand up guy. If the rest of this process goes as well as it has up to now, I'll be as happy as a guy could be after blowing up his motor!
I'll keep everyone posted. I expect it will be about 3 weeks before getting it back given shipping and time to rebuild.
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Garth, now would be a good time to consider solid motor mounts.
coming late to this thread. I would have recommended CCMS, top shelf all the way! I sent my motor to him from Ma/NH. border and can't say enough good things about him/ them. Hope you get back on the water asap!
Fart proudly. Author, Benjamin Franklin.
1998 SKEETER ZX 202-C
150 V-Max TRP
MinnKota Ultrex-112. All paid with cash of course!
I can't tell you how much my wife appreciates that suggestion Gary!
Especially since I just bought a hot foot with adjustable base, heavy duty control cable, blinker trim, control flange and hose, and replacement speedo tube to install while the powerhead is off.
When I first bought the Skeeter my buddy told me "you know what boat stands for, right?" I said no, what's that? He said "break out another thousand!" Boy he wasn't kidding...
Seriously though, I never even knew about the motor mounts on this thing. So I did a search, and sure enough there they were. I looked at mine and they still seem pretty stiff. I did notice play coming from my Sea Star hydraulic unit where the shafts connect to the brackets which I should tighten up. I read some brief pros and cons about them on another site, but didn't find much other info about it. One thing that was mentioned was that solid ones transmit more vibration to the boat. I wasn't sure I liked that.
The only place I found solid ones for sale was on Bob's Machine here: https://bobsmachine.com/product/moto...set-yamaha-v6/
Is this the only place to get them, and could you please give me your thoughts and experience on them?
Thanks!
Thanks yanknbass! Winters coming, but it sure would be nice to get it back in time to give it a try before it gets too cold. Even if I do, I don't think I'll be able to get enough hours on it to complete the break in. Hopefully that's not going to be a problem.
I'm sure Chris will steer me right on that as well as anything else I need to know to get the most out of my motor. He's been absolutely amazing to work with.
I'm pretty sure CCMS does the break in for you??? Idaho probably gets early ice, Chris will take care of you for sure.
Fart proudly. Author, Benjamin Franklin.
1998 SKEETER ZX 202-C
150 V-Max TRP
MinnKota Ultrex-112. All paid with cash of course!
As I understand it, he does the first 2 hours (at sub 2k rpm) of it on the test tank. I'm guessing those are the most critical hours. That leaves 6 more hours at increased oil mixture levels and varying speeds. The lake I fish, Coeur d' Alene, doesn't usually ice up unless we get sustained sub zero temperatures, but it is starting to get cold. Cold enough to keep me from wanting to spend much time cruising around on it in a bass boat!
Hopefully I can just give it a good fogging and store it for the winter and then spend the spring getting it broken in.
Last edited by Tiptonite; 10-25-2019 at 08:11 PM.
Garth, the picture I sent to you of my Laser with 2.5 Merc 200 hp had rubber mounts when I bought it and it was very difficult to drive. A local hot shot bass boat driver and mechanic suggested I raise engine on my jack plate just as I was considering lowering it due to severe chine walking. He also suggested solid motor mounts. Made those changes and it drove like a different boat......in a very good way. Much easier to drive with more trim and no chine walking. You saw the picture of me running it.
Yes the engine does vibrate more but mostly at low rpm and I soon became accustomed to it and didn't notice after awhile.
I would do it over again.
I agree about busting out another thousand.
There is a reason why as a 75 year old retiree I don't own and run Bullets and Allisons anymore. I know just bust out another $75000.��
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