Welp, blew my 2015 Mercury Fourstroke Sunday heading back to weigh-in... (PICS)

[Cribbnation]

Decent bag of fish, making the 60 mile run back from the mouth of the Suwannee River up to the Santa Fe River for weigh-in and to try to cull a couple of the smaller ones before weigh-in time. Strolling along at 5600 RPM when suddenly a loud BOOM and rattling. Look back, cowling is shaking and smoking. At first I thought I spun the prop out and limiter shut the motor down, but trimmed up and prop was good to go.

Used trolling motor to get to the side of the river to a sandbar and took the cowling off, just to see if anything was unusual. Now, I am not a marine mechanic or motor expert, but something told me that 4-inch gash in the engine block with smoke coming out of it wasn't supposed to be there!

Mercury has been awesome, sending a new powerhead from Wisconsin and will arrive today, dealer will have it installed this weekend and have me back on the water early next week to break it in. Just wanted to share. No idea what caused it, Mercury is planning to do a full breakdown to determine the cause.







And the obligatory beer-for-scale picture...




Everyone is safe, wasn't scary, nothing in the logs to indicate any errors. She just went Tango Uniform! Fortunately, another boat in the tournament picked up my partner to go weigh-in our fish, and he got the truck to come pick me up. Motor blew about 100 yards upriver from a public boat ramp, so I got to troll down to it, tied off, sat on the boat in the warm Florida sun, and turned some Bob Marley on, smoked a Cohiba, and drank beer for an hour until my partner got there. I should break down more often!

Moral of the story: Always, even if you don't plan on using them all, HAVE AN 18-PACK OF BEER IN THE COOLER!

Will update when Mercury determines the cause, if they let me know.

UPDATE: Mercury has not told me what happened on original motor. I don't expect they will.

New powerhead arrived 2 days after I dropped it off at shop. Tech put it on and called me Friday to come get it for break-in. I carried to the river that weekend, and boat would not crank. Turned over, no catch. Back to shop Monday morning, had zero compression on #4. BRAND NEW POWERHEAD.

So, motor #2 goes back to Mercury and motor #3 is shipped out. Motor 2 arrives Thursday this past week, tech puts it on. This time he puts one hour on the motor at a lake to verify. After lots of mistakes and miscommunication, I have her back and going to break in more today.

Third powerhead in 2 weeks...

[PECo]

You better be very careful from here on out, because you probably used up ALL of your luck on this one.

[berudd]

Man, I gotta hand it to you. Sounds like your attitude through this was exceptional.

I'm not familiar with this engine so where on the block is the hole? Upper end, bottom end?

[trenthamp]

Might have something to do with the cohiba cigar and 18 .

Man, I gotta hand it to you. Sounds like your attitude through this was exceptional.

I'm not familiar with this engine so where on the block is the hole? Upper end, bottom end?

[trenthamp]

Yea, I think there might be something wrong with that motor. Thats a gash!

[Cribbnation]

You better be very careful from here on out, because you probably used up ALL of your luck on this one.

I was afraid of that. Why couldn't I get my luck dump on one of them high-dollar powerball tickets?!?

Man, I gotta hand it to you. Sounds like your attitude through this was exceptional.

Haha, it is a LOT easier to be calm and collected when the motor is under warranty. It blew up at 57.6 hours on the motor, so plenty of warranty on it. Bright side, my darling baby TR-196 gets a new powerhead on her.

I'm not familiar with this engine so where on the block is the hole? Upper end, bottom end?

The hole is on the #3 cylinder, I believe, the lower end of the port side. The techs have said they have never seen anything like it.

[Savage]

Mercury will make it right..........Keep going with the positive attitude. Sometimes mechanical things just break!

[Ranchhand02]

I like you positive attitude. Unfortunately all the tournaments I fish having alcohol in the boat is and autimatic DQ

[PowellSixO]

I like you positive attitude. Unfortunately all the tournaments I fish having alcohol in the boat is and autimatic DQ

Yep. We can't even have it in the locker for afterwards. We put it in an ice chest and leave it in the truck for the awards and boat wipe down.

[Erie660]

What size motor?

[eblankendaal]

That's another reason I ALWAYS recommend Mercury. No motor is perfect but Mercury will take care of you... If it was other brands, you might be waiting 6+ weeks before the problem was resolved.

[bigtoad]

Man, I gotta hand it to you. Sounds like your attitude through this was exceptional.

I couldnt have said it better!
Cribb, great attitude, and taste in music and stogies! Can I look you up the next time I am down there?

[fishmaster]

Glad Mercury is taking care of you so well (sounds like you have an excellent dealer as well) . That is a pretty bad failure which is unusual because that motor has been bulletproof since it's introduction. By what I have seen and heard there is very few problems with that motor. Just out of curiosity what will your boat run with that motor on it? I have a Tr 19 that I was thinking of upgrading the motor to the 150 4s. I'm waiting patiently hoping they release a pro xs version like they did with the 115 though.

[21xTriton05]

I've sold atleast 20 new 150 Four-strokes and none of them have had a single issue. Stinks yours blew but on the bright side, you have a new engine now!

[Todd Hendrick]

I was afraid of that. Why couldn't I get my luck dump on one of them high-dollar powerball tickets?!?



Haha, it is a LOT easier to be calm and collected when the motor is under warranty. It blew up at 57.6 hours on the motor, so plenty of warranty on it. Bright side, my darling baby TR-196 gets a new powerhead on her.



The hole is on the #3 cylinder, I believe, the lower end of the port side. The techs have said they have never seen anything like it.

They saw this EXACT same failure 6 mos ago. My 2015 150 four stroke did the exact same thing in the same cylinder with 42 hours on it. Mercury tech said "he had never seen anything like it" and also said all computer readings were good. Mercury was awesome with their urgency and service and had a new powerhead at the dealer in 5 days. The tech said it had to have been bad from the factory. New one runs like a dream.

[berudd]

Glad Mercury is taking care of you so well (sounds like you have an excellent dealer as well) . That is a pretty bad failure which is unusual because that motor has been bulletproof since it's introduction. By what I have seen and heard there is very few problems with that motor. Just out of curiosity what will your boat run with that motor on it? I have a Tr 19 that I was thinking of upgrading the motor to the 150 4s. I'm waiting patiently hoping they release a pro xs version like they did with the 115 though.

I was hoping to see that released too along with a 175 but nothing was announced at the Miami boat show.

[Cribbnation]

The 150 Fourstroke.

[Cribbnation]

I couldnt have said it better!
Cribb, great attitude, and taste in music and stogies! Can I look you up the next time I am down there?

Absolutely, my friend. Beers are on me.

[Cribbnation]

Just out of curiosity what will your boat run with that motor on it?

Trimmed out at 5600 RPM and in good water, the GPS bounces between 60 and 61.

[Cribbnation]

I have heard that Mercury is going to release the 200/225/250 Fourstrokes this fall. I would love to hang a 225 4S on my Triton. That info is from the marine tech that works at the shop, so it may not be 100% accurate and I have not been able to verify it.