After 21 years of absolutely trouble free boating my 1999 Evinrude 225 HP FICHT injected outboard threatened to make me call Towboat US. I was comfortably cruising along at 4400 rpm when she inexplicably bogged right down to about 2200 rpm slowing from 30 mph to about 15 in a few seconds. Due to the fact that we were crossing the east channel of Grand island, Lake Superior, about 10 miles out with 2 women and a couple aboard who were on the lake for their first time, l didn't have the luxury of being able to stop and check things out. So I firewalled the throttle and forced it the 30 miles back to the harbor. The rpm's got back up to 4000 but it was obvious the engine was laboring and seriously not right.
When we got into the harbor and I backed off on the throttle for the no-wake zone, it rattled and rocked and felt just like I had lost a blade off the prop (I hadn't). At the ramp, there was a nice fuel sheen and when we trailered it out of the water, fuel leaked out of the exhaust.
Once back at the cottage, I checked for anything obvious like split hoses, fuel leaks, blown fuses, etc. Nothing. I pulled the plugs which, though brand new, were in deplorable condition. Burnt, oil & ash fouled, wet with fuel (I can include a picture if that will help). So I changed them all, gapped and indexed and tried to start the engine. It would fire once or twice and die. Once or twice it did fire 8 or 10 times in a row, but it smoked like hell and fired very rough and died. Prior to this, it never spun through one full revolution before it started, even if it had been sitting for 8 months.
When I got the boat home, I performed a full compression test (all of the plugs had been removed for the test and the safety lanyard was not on the ignition switch, also I didn't know the throttle needed to be wide open so it wasn't), all cylinders read 85#, absolutely no deviation between them. I have the Evinrude diagnostic software & cables (which I really don’t know how to use but I’m trying) so I hooked it up and ran all the tests I could run on a non-running engine.
I found two very old 'over temp' codes from 2012 when I picked up a plastic bag over the water intakes in the Detroit River (see attached reports). Both seemed to be minor over temp faults 212 & 213 degrees. I never cleared them and still haven’t. I ran spark tests on all the cylinders (again, no plugs in the engine and the safety lanyard not installed) and heard the obvious spark ‘click’ on all cylinders. I did not see a report at the test conclusion nor have I been able to find a report saved to the computer - is that normal? I then ran lift pump and high pressure pump tests, injector tests, oil pump tests and everything else I could figure out how to do with the software. One thing I did notice was in the fuel injector tests. As I cycled through the cylinders I heard distinct activation sounds (clicks) from each of them until it got to #6. That one clicked twice then made no noise at all after that. All other tests, spark, oil pump, fuel pump, etc., seemed normal - as far as I know. Again I have no reports that I know of, unless I do and just don’t know how to access them. That last sentence is not true, I've since discovered several reporting type features and ran as many as I could, they are attached to this thread.
A couple more things. I got the engine running (sort of) and ran several more tests with the diagnostic software. They are included below. I went through and disabled each of the injectors under the dynamic test section and as I did, the motor stalled on each one except #6. That one made no difference. I find it odd that I have no engine codes in the report, and there are no 'check engine' type codes on my dash gage but this thing is coughing and wheezing like an old smoker losing at the slots.
So. Any advice or direction would be appreciated. I’d especially like to know if there is a step-by-step guide for operating the software (yes, I’ve written the software developers but they have not responded as of yet. The merchant sent me an email stating the software does save reports but couldn’t tell me how to access them and also told me the developer would be in touch ‘shortly’ which was about 10 days ago).​4694771_Diagnostics_Identification.jpg4694771_Diagnostics_Faults_Occurred_Faults.jpg4694771_Diagnostics_Monitor_DI.jpg4694771_Diagnostics_Monitor_DI(1).jpg4694771_Diagnostics_Profiles_Engine_Speed.jpg4694771_Diagnostics_Profiles_Engine_Temperature.jpg