2010 Bass Cat Pantera IV
2009 200 Optimax Pro XS
S/N: 1B766129
Prop: 25p Fury
Current Max RPM: 4200-5500
Idle W.P.: 2-3psi; WOT W.P.: ~20psi
Smartcraft gauges
Cranking Battery: Duracell (East Penn) 31DCX Flooded Lead Acid, MCA: 860, CCA: 700, RC: 205Minutes
Checked compression at operating temp, all plugs removed, battery (above) freshly charged: 80-88psi.
Hi All,
Hoping for some advice here. Just had the motor in the shop to address a hard starting, rough idle, low power situation, after which it was determined the fuel pressure regulator diaphragm was cracked and was replaced (along with spark plugs and new batteries, cranking and 2 trolling are the model above). Next trip out, motor starts, idles, runs great; back in business. Second trip out about two weeks later, motor starts and idles fine, but is down on power and can barely get boat to plane and maxes out at about 4200rpm. However, this only happens about half the time. Can sometimes shut it down and restart and everything is fine for a run across the lake. Sometimes it will surge/sputter (normal power/low power/normal power, etc.) while trying to get on plane. After doing some reading, I feel like my cranking battery might be too small, but I am hesitant that it's the cause of my performance issue. The shop I used is booked out a couple months so I started doing my own troubleshooting. I checked spark in the driveway with muffs on with a timing light and have spark at all cylinders. Checked plugs and one looked to have alot more carbon deposits that the other 5, so I suspected a bad coil (after some reading that coils can fail intermittently under power, and I can only check spark at idle). I then replaced that one coil (with a rev C coil, all others are rev B). No change in performance and noticed the new coil runs HOT, too hot to touch. Tried swapping to a different cylinder and no change in performance, still runs hot. I now suspect I have purchased a bad (new) coil. I'm tempted to spend the roughly $1000 to replace all 6 coils, but am hesitant to spend that kind of money just to 'see what happens'. Any other low hanging fruit I can try first, or advice on how to proceed? Thanks in advance!