Lost cylinder on 225 HPDI Series 1

[SkeeterJohn]

Well they say it's not "If" it'll blow but "when" and mine went this weekend on a tournament right by the launch at the end of the day.

I took the plugs out and the top left cylinder plug is fouled badly and looking in the hole i can see fillings. All the other cylinders look fine.

Time to make some decisions

[5 keepers]

Don't feel bad. Mine popped too this weekend...#2 cylinder is down. I'm right there with ya.

[SkeeterJohn]

What's your plan rebuild or repower... any ideas to the cause?

[Team Stratos]

I just went through the same thing on my '03 250. Just picked her up Friday. I put on a new power head but mine was out of warranty. If yours is out by only a couple months you may be able to get a dressed head if you contact Yamaha. Have you replaced all your filters? If not go ahead and do that. I would recommend having your injectors cleaned and calibrated also. My performance didn't return with the new head until I replaced all 6 injectors. It's very possible the injector is the cause of the lost cylinder. I say lost, have you had your compresson checked? Good luck.

[SkeeterJohn]

It's out of warranty by about 15 months and only has 325 hours on it. If i decide to go for a rebuild i'll certainly get the injectors sent away for testing.

I religiously change all the filters and it just goes to show that even when you take care of them they can still go bad.




Modified by SkeeterJohn at 6:46 AM 9/15/2010

[Charlie206]

Sorry you lost the engine. If you decide to part it out I need some parts. cswann@gt.rr.com

[wildkat7]

Hate to hear about your motor...that sux...

If/when my OX66 goes boom, I will not rebuild. I'll either get a new(er) boat with a SHO on the back...or hang an SHO on my boat.

[5 keepers]

My YES warranty expires in October...I'm VERY lucky. I'll have it rebuilt. I don't know the cause of the failure yet. I had a little over 200 hours on mine. It's going to the shop today so I'll know more by the end of the week.

[Pacer]

I went the cheep way with my 225, and its worked out so far. I sent the powerhead to Hydrotech for a rebuild. I only replaced what was needed. 1 piston, rod and one set of bearings. The total was $2,700. It would have been a lot cheeper, but my block was damaged, and I bought a used block from Hydrotech. It probably would have been $1,000 cheeper if I didn't need the block.

I pulled the powerhead and stripped it myself. I also installed everything on my own. This saved a lot of $$ for labor. I've got close to 50 hrs on it since the rebuild with no problems.

[SkeeterJohn]

That's most likely the way i'll go. I had 325 hours on it and will drop it off to my mechanic this week for some diagnosis.

[Texas Larry]

It is hard for me to believe these new high $$ engines won't run 1,000 hours without blowing up!!

I hope the new 4 Strokes are more reliable!!

[SkeeterJohn]

Well it looks like I'll be parting out the existing motor but keeping some items for spares such as the lower unit. I've sourced a replacement motor with 1 years warranty for a great price but wish i didn't need to be doing this in the first place.

I'll make a post when I'm ready to sell parts once the replacement is installed and running. Wish it could have been an SHO but I'd need to win the lottery to afford one of those

It'll be another HPDI on the back of the skeeter but this one will be special thanks to Wayne & Mat


I am VERY meticulous when it comes to maintenance making sure all fluids, filters, plugs are changed on time. I also used chemicals in the gas which we all love to discuss (you know which ones ) and have a water sperator installed. So i should have been fine right?

Well it turns out i lost cylinder #2 when it leaned out due to a clogged injector. There's a lot of perfectly working items on this motor but a repair is risky if there was more to it than this. It's costing me a bit more but in my mind i feel confident it is the best move.

My advice to EVERYONE here is to have your injectors pulled off and serviced yearly.. it's sad to think a $25 x 6 service could have prevented this and i bet a lot of you don't get this done.

[rid 05 198]

Wow! Sorry about that SkeeterJohn! What oil did you use and chemicals in the gas?

So pull off injectors, just clean or get new ones? Do you know price?

Good luck and it'll be good as new!!

[SkeeterJohn]

Well it does suck but the new motor coming from Hydro Tec will make me smile again even if the unexpected costs don't.

I did everything except clean the injectors yearly... aren't the chemicals we all talk about "supposed" to do this for us anyway... kinda makes you think.

I've always used YamahaLube... when i first got the boat almost 3 years ago i used seafoam then added marine stabil... i then switched over to merc quickleen as a substitute for seafoam (ring free was hard to get in my area) which judging by my plugs was doing an excellent job. I'd also switched from marine stabil to startron at the begining of this year. Again i'd had no issues all year and infact i'd pulled the plugs 2 weeks before it went and they looked great.

I believe a few places can service your injectors for $25 each.. you pull the fuel rail off and send them then injectors... just number them so they go back on in the right order. I'm sure a shop can pull them off for you but i've been told it's easy to do.

[5 keepers]

#1 and 6 went. So far no word on the cause. 222 hours on engine. No overheat, no low oil codes thrown. If and when I know the cause I'll post it.

[SkeeterJohn]

You've lucky it went before the warranty ran out

[silververt]

I lost #2 on my 300 HPDI...4 months out of warranty

They said bad gas was the cause.....the other 5 pistons/cylinders were perfect..I still believe it was an injector failure...
Either way, it cost me a pile of money...

[SkeeterJohn]

I hear you I'm already over 10 but i just didn't feel comfortable with a repair job around here.

[5 keepers]

Yes I feel fortunate. Feel lucky yourself, you get a HT engine!

[rid 05 198]

What does a new power head cost?