Dropped it off at the dealer this morning. Hopefully know something in a day or two after they tear into it.
Dropped it off at the dealer this morning. Hopefully know something in a day or two after they tear into it.
2014 Ranger Z520C, Yamaha 250 SHO
Same thing happened to me with my 2012 250 SHO, ended up being a cracked head. No alarms for overheating somehow. I was running down the lake and started to lose a little power, looked back and I looked like one of the snowbirds blowing white smoke. Cowling was hot to touch it. Replaced the head for about 9G Canadian, blew her again last fall and am now waiting on a 2020 SHO. I am hoping the newer generation motor is good to me!
Do you remember how many hours on the 1st head? How many hours on the 2nd head? As I mentioned in an earlier post my first head failed at 250 hours. I have 180 hours on the new head. I'm wondering if I'll be having another blown head soon. I was hoping the replacement heads had countermeasures in place to avoid repeat failures.Originally Posted by Mark from Canada
Hear anything yet?
2014 920/SHO
Not a peep. Been at Toledo Bend this past week for Texas Oilman’s and didn’t get back til 3 this morning. Have given them plenty of time to get back to me on their own since they said they’re “backed up” so calling tomorrow.
Last edited by Mike A; 03-15-2020 at 06:55 PM.
2014 Ranger Z520C, Yamaha 250 SHO
120 hours on the first head, think I put 60 on the new one before it went, but the second one went due to a main thurst bearing failure apparently. I'm a moron when it comes to mechanics, so can't answer too many questions!
Well as of yesterday I picked up the boat and delivered it to a Yamaha master tech. Dealer had it “spread all over the floor” and couldn’t tell me what was wrong with it. Next step was to send it out to machine shop for pressure test. Shut em down and got with tech recommended to me by buddy who works for Yamaha. Shoulda called him to begin with but didn’t want to “be that guy”. Tech said he’ll know in a couple days and we’ll go from there.
2014 Ranger Z520C, Yamaha 250 SHO
Internals spread out all over the floor? If so.....wow.
08 Ranger Reata 210
Yamaha VMAX 225 HPDI
Any up dates ???
Took a little while but here’s the update and I’ll try to keep it as short as possible. One reason for the delay is I had to go BACK to the dealer (who charged me $600 for they’re accumulated labor by the way) and pick up a valve cover that they had neglected to include with everything else when I originally picked it all up. Then had to wait nearly two (COVID related) weeks on a couple of gaskets that the tech had to order so they could re-assemble everything in order to do the compression and bleed down tests.......neither of which had been done by the dealer. He was puzzled by the dis-assembly because it should have been tested first.
Anyway, finally got the call today and it’s a cracked port side cylinder head. They contacted Yamaha who in turn agreed to replace it under warranty. Absolutely thrilled! I will be out more unnecessary labor that the tech has in it to do the re-assembly of the motor but Yamaha is covering the head and the re-install labor for it.
At the time I picked up the missing valve cover, the owner of the dealership (not present when I picked up the first load) asked me what lead to “the move”. Gave him the run down on my Yamaha friend and needing to get it to a certified Yamaha Master Tech. He smiled and then as asked me to let him know “how things turn out” as well as repeated what his mechanic said about their hands being tied once Yamaha says the warranty is up. Figured I’d wait until after it’s all completed. Obviously not happy about the unnecessary labor on both ends and plan to let him know everything that I’ve related here. Don’t expect anything out of them but definitely going to politely let him know how I feel about it.
There you go. Replacement head should be in hopefully by the end of this week and I should have it back hopefully sometime early next week. Mercy!
Last edited by Mike A; 04-15-2020 at 09:15 PM.
2014 Ranger Z520C, Yamaha 250 SHO
So, they're just replacing the cylinder head or the powerhead?
Lake&Bay Boca
SHO
Cylinder head, Not the entire power head.
2014 Ranger Z520C, Yamaha 250 SHO
Hopefully you'll be good as new.
I would be very concerned about rust on internal parts. Mine 2016 blew a gasket and mixed water with oil, when the dealer pulled a valve cover the camshafts were covered with surface rust. My powerhead was replaced under warranty...
As I mentioned in post#16, my 2014 had a cracked cylinder head and it was the port side too. The engine was contaminated with water and Yamaha replaced the entire long block (power head). My local Cabelas marine shop did a great job quickly under the supervision of a Yamaha field rep.
Hopefully your engine is now being serviced by a competent shop and technician in which case he would determine what needs to be changed. Still, I would be asking questions about the condition of the remaining components.
There are some lessons from your story many of which I learned the hard way myself. Regardless what the shop or technician states regarding warranty coverage it is always worth a phone call to the engine manufacturer to ask for assistance. It is worth doing even if the engine is out of warranty because if the failure mode is known by the manufacturer then they will be more likely to cover it for you. In this case, Yamaha knows they have an issue with cylinder head castings and your engine fell in that run or bad cylinder heads.
Another thing to watch for with mechanics is what do they work on. When I lived in another state, I used a shop where I had established a friendly relationship with one of the techs. He was a pretty good tech and helped me out of many pinches especially when I was in a time crunch. Great guy, and was able to help me out in most cases. I was running a Merc and had an alarm starting to intermittently come on and when it did it rev limited the engine. No codes stored in computer. He couldn't find it and I even tried two other shops on road trips and they could not find it. Then I was fishing a tournament with a Merc support trailer. I described the issue to him, he disconnected a wire from a sensor and told me to go fish the rest of the day and then come back. When I came back he asked if there had been an alarm. Since there had not he replaced the neutral safety switch, problem resolved. The point is my local mechanic is tasked with working on a multitude of engines ranging from 9 to 250 hp with three or more different makes. The Merc mechanic on the trailer is dedicated to that single engine for the most part so he is experienced with typical failure modes. So finding a shop and tech that mainly work on your model of engine is desirable.
Then there is the issue of just poor mechanical work. It is really important to do work by the book. That means using the factory specified parts, torque specs etc. Once I had a shop install a jack plate on my Ranger. Rangers use a 3/16" thick washer on the inside of the transom for the engine mounting bolts. The shop I went to apparently managed to lose the washers they took off and instead used some conventional hardware store washers, 1/8" thick if that. Soon after that I came off of a rough water on Lake Ontario to find a loose engine hanging on the back of a damaged transom. Massive failure due to that mistake. I could tell you several more stories about shoddy shop work. But finding a competent shop and tech is critical. There are a lot of hacks out there.
I hope you are on your way to a successful repair. Ask questions at the shop about whether the engine was contaminated with water. If yes, then what is the condition of the remaining components, are they corroded? If needed call Yamaha and ask whether replacing the power head is necessary instead of just the cylinder head.
I would also ask the dealer that took apart your engine prior to properly diagnosing the issue for a refund. There was no excuse for what they did. If they don't want to refund your money then small claims court is an option. You have a legitimate right to get your money back.
Wishing you success!
Great info H2 and I really do appreciate everyone’s input and interest. I had an extensive conversation with the Yamaha tech as well as speaking directly with Yamaha customer service and my friend that works for them. Because my motor was out of warranty they are just covering the replacement at this point. They’re basically going a piece at a time and the consensus is that should the other head go that the precedent is set and the result would be the same. The potential corrosion issue was discussed at length and the tech has assured me that they are checking every component before they reassemble it. Don’t get me wrong, I would certainly be much more comfortable with a complete power head replacement but believe I’m in good shape should the other one fail anytime in the “near” future. I’ll obviously be operating at the instructions of the tech and Yamaha on running once I get it back but my assumption/plan is to treat it like a break in, get just a few hours on it and then do an oil change. I’ll update when I get to that stage. Thanks again everyone!
2014 Ranger Z520C, Yamaha 250 SHO
Same exact thing with my 2012. Lost compression in cylinder 6. White smoke as far as I could see
Well the saga finally came to an end today. Thought it was over several days ago but the Yamaha tech was calling to inform me that they buttoning it up but couldn’t finish cuz they were short both intake manifolds from when I picked the motor up from the dealer. Yes, this after having to go back the first time for the valve cover (see post 30). When I had the GAUL to ask the dealer mechanic how that could happen he went off on me and said it wasn’t he is job to “babysit my shit”. Pretty much done there. Will be emailing the owner with ALL the details. If he didn’t want to know he shouldn’t have asked. Anyway, I made another 2 hour trip to pick up the intakes and take them to the tech. He called yesterday and I picked the boat up this morning. Stopped at the ramp and ran her for a bit. All good. I asked the tech how much of the $1000 bill was attributable to having to undo unnecessary re-assembly. He said every penny of it. Could not figure out why the intake manifolds and all the “externals” were all removed in the first place. Said all of that was completely unnecessary to check for the issue I was having. Dealership owner will get to read that as well. Regardless off all dat I’m very happy to be back in the saddle! Y’all take care and thanks to our vets and those that gave it all so I can whine about my first world problems!
2014 Ranger Z520C, Yamaha 250 SHO
Glad you got your engine back together. Thanks for letting us know how it turned out. Hope you have trouble free times ahead. My engine is so far 190 hours since the repair.
Having the same issue. So damn frustrated. 2014 SHO on a 15 FX20. 90 hours. Smoke at startup and water in the oil. My mechanic can not find the crack. He’s a certified Yamaha tech. We’ve spoken to customer service and it seems like they will help me out even tho the warranty is up. Just waiting for the mechanic to find the issue so he can call them back. So damn frustrating . This is the year I need my boat the most too!
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