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Random Quote: It's only a short run from here....what could happen?
I will settle for a postcard!! All I can say is good pictures and well done for sticking with me and finding them. You have identical symptoms to me and these filters cured my problems. Cheaper than a new pump. Good luck with the trial and keep us posted.
__________________ Thabhair dom an airgead agus beidh se cosuil le nua.
you sure are a handy man gringo, I have a wheel bearing/water pump/timing belt that needs to be changed on our Vue if you wanna give that a wack here in michigan
Hey guys, I don't seek this stuff out! I would love to just be able to call the local dealer and say "Come get this boat and lemme know when it's fixed". And then know for sure (and this is important) that if the guy says it's fixed, that it actually IS fixed. But I don't have that option. Local Yamaha guys told me up front I should never have imported this here, that it doesn't like the local fuel, etc. etc. They don't work on HPDIs or stock parts for them. Yamaha USA is not going to be any help at all. Even though the motor was sold in the USA with an extended warranty. Out of the country? tough noogies, as far as Yamaha is concerned.
I am in the same situation with our vehicles, plumbing, electrical....if you want something done right down here, you either need to be able to figure it out and do it yourself, or have enough money to hire someone honest and competent to do it for you. We ain't got THAT kind of money.
I am actually getting to the point where I think I know a little bit about this motor now. It was a big, complicated looking conglomeration of unknowns when I started. Now I got a real good feel for a big part of it, and it's the most alien part. the rest of it, gears and pistons etc. is pretty standard stuff. No big mystery after the HPDI stuff. The whole electrical and ECM stuff is still alien, but all motors are like that now. If I am going to be my own mechanic on this, I guess I am going to need the Diagnostic software and interface.
Hey, as long as I can justify a new toy...
Anyone contemplating setting up their own workshop, I gotta tell you, I can't believe how useful a compressor is. I don't know how I got by without one for so many years. It basically doubles your capabilities, no kidding. And the tool assortment is incredible. And so far, it's looking real cost effective. For me to go buy a 3/8" electric hand drill, for example, would be about $150 for something like a $ 60 Black and Decker. I can pick up a 3/8" reversible, variable speed and torque air drill for about $ 40. And it doesn't have a dedicated electric motor in it to start rusting away immediately. Aluminum and steel and easy to lubricate. Just for this Yamaha thing, for example, I have discovered I can blow gunk out of filters quite easily, and that it takes about three seconds to sandblast a sparkplug clean as new. I know I come across as cheap, and it's true to an extent. (My second ex-wife called me a "Scottish Jew", whatever that is supposed to mean.) But I hate wasting money. I don't hate investing it. Now that I know a little about the motor, I am assembling a small list of stuff to buy for it, including a set of filters, a Racor 3 micron, and the YDS software package.
If the forecast is right, we should know today whether this helped the motor or not.
I'm curious, if the fuel blockage problem is fixed today....what caused the loss of rpm? Was is strickly the fuel flow or did one of the six engine sensors connected to the ecm "tell" the ecm to lower your rpm?
Wow, Ludicrous, great graphic! Got any more of those?
I guess I won't know until we try the boat out and see if we can achieve and maintain something around or hopefully over 5,000 RPM.
If it's in the ECM or sensors, of course I probably won't know that until after I buy the YDS. I think that between the coils, plugs, compression, injectors, and filters....I have taken this about as far as I can take it without some diagnostics.
Anybody know if one of these motors could be modified to run on propane?
Okay. Just got back. Cleaning the little filters in the HP pump didn't fix it.
Started out by going down to the Texaco station and buying two five gallon tanks of their freshest fuel which I then lovingly siphoned...
through a clean, clear hose and new 27 micron Racor filtered funnel...
So, at this point the tank has around fifteen gallons of fresh fuel bought at an automobile gas station, not marina gas. It's been filtered at the pump, again when I siphoned it, and then it runs through a new Racor 10 micron boat filter/seperator, before going into the Yamaha's primary fuel filter/water trap, and then through the VST screen, and then through the mid pressure canister filter, and then through the little bitty HP filters. It's friggen filtered.
We had quite an adventure. launched the boat, and were motoring into the wind, and into the current in a rock canal, when the motor just quit. Fuel starvation. I frantically was pumping the bulb as we started drifting sideways at about a knot and a half in about a forty foot wide canal...solid rock on both sides. The bulb would not pump fuel. It was an air leak. We were drifting too fast to mess around with it at that particular moment. I thought about dropping the hook, but that would have caused some issues, like swinging us into the rocks. We decided to try to make the slip.d
So, we discovered that with La Gringa standing by with the boat hook pole to fend us off, and me raising and lowering the outboard tilt, we had a little directional control. Not much. We just controlled the drift, several hundred yards on a flood tide, and then as we were approaching the cut where the little boat ramp is, I jumped overboard with swim fins, grabbed the bow line, and towed the boat into the cut, which got it out of the current. Whew. This is when I realized that I had made it, and that I had managed to tow it out of the current and could now turn it into protected waters.
and now all I have to do is a relatively relaxed and leisurely tow up to that boat ramp behind me:
Back at the ramp, I fiddled around with the fuel lines I had just re-hooked up, and found out that the second pickup from the boat's tank was not pulling fuel. So I clamped that hose shut with a pair of Vise Grips, and then I could use the bulb to prime it again.
We headed off shore, again, and this time made it out to open water no probs. Motor running smooth. Once we were in clear water, I opened it up. Went up to 5000 RPM where it ran just fine for about a minute. Then dropped raggedly down to 4200 RPM. I tried again, this time with La Gringa pumping the fuel bulb. It did not make a difference. So we took it back to the ramp, and once again we did the propane test. I had put the injectors from cylinders 3 and 4 in cylinders 1 and 2. The propane did not make any difference this time, on any cylinder in any way. Other than at low speeds ( 1100 RPM) it ran a little more ragged with propane added to the air intake. At 3000 RPM no difference.
HI Gringo,
First off- Great posts and handy work. Youve got some great ideas. Rather then going thru all your previous posts(I went back a few pages) I would like to ask you a few basic questions. Im sure you probably already checked but what the heck-
1- Did you replace or clean the VST? A local mechainc once had a fuel problem that he couldnt figure out. He cleaned the VST filter which gave him the false sense of fixing it. It did not work. He eventually fixed it by replacing the VST.
2- When you dismantled the VST housing are you sure the pump(holding the vst filter) is seated properly?
3- Did you verify you dont have a leak in the plastic fuel filter housing on the engine. they can allow air to enter the sytem.
4- Since you did such a great job in veryfying the physical fuel system it sounds like an ECM issue to me. Maybe there firing the injectors at the wrong time?
5- If I were local I would loan you mine to verify it. I also have a 300hpdi.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gringo
Okay. Just got back. Cleaning the little filters in the HP pump didn't fix it.
Started out by going down to the Texaco station and buying two five gallon tanks of their freshest fuel which I then lovingly siphoned...
through a clean, clear hose and new 27 micron Racor filtered funnel...
So, at this point the tank has around fifteen gallons of fresh fuel bought at an automobile gas station, not marina gas. It's been filtered at the pump, again when I siphoned it, and then it runs through a new Racor 10 micron boat filter/seperator, before going into the Yamaha's primary fuel filter/water trap, and then through the VST screen, and then through the mid pressure canister filter, and then through the little bitty HP filters. It's friggen filtered.
We had quite an adventure. launched the boat, and were motoring into the wind, and into the current in a rock canal, when the motor just quit. Fuel starvation. I frantically was pumping the bulb as we started drifting sideways at about a knot and a half in about a forty foot wide canal...solid rock on both sides. The bulb would not pump fuel. It was an air leak. We were drifting too fast to mess around with it at that particular moment. I thought about dropping the hook, but that would have caused some issues, like swinging us into the rocks. We decided to try to make the slip.d
So, we discovered that with La Gringa standing by with the boat hook pole to fend us off, and me raising and lowering the outboard tilt, we had a little directional control. Not much. We just controlled the drift, several hundred yards on a flood tide, and then as we were approaching the cut where the little boat ramp is, I jumped overboard with swim fins, grabbed the bow line, and towed the boat into the cut, which got it out of the current. Whew. This is when I realized that I had made it, and that I had managed to tow it out of the current and could now turn it into protected waters.
and now all I have to do is a relatively relaxed and leisurely tow up to that boat ramp behind me:
Back at the ramp, I fiddled around with the fuel lines I had just re-hooked up, and found out that the second pickup from the boat's tank was not pulling fuel. So I clamped that hose shut with a pair of Vise Grips, and then I could use the bulb to prime it again.
We headed off shore, again, and this time made it out to open water no probs. Motor running smooth. Once we were in clear water, I opened it up. Went up to 5000 RPM where it ran just fine for about a minute. Then dropped raggedly down to 4200 RPM. I tried again, this time with La Gringa pumping the fuel bulb. It did not make a difference. So we took it back to the ramp, and once again we did the propane test. I had put the injectors from cylinders 3 and 4 in cylinders 1 and 2. The propane did not make any difference this time, on any cylinder in any way. Other than at low speeds ( 1100 RPM) it ran a little more ragged with propane added to the air intake. At 3000 RPM no difference.
Thanks. I am about to place an order with Andy at SIM including replacements for those filters and the VST o-ring. I can't find any fuel or air leaks. The primary Yamaha filter ( plastic one) shrunk back down to normal size after it dried out for a few days, and I put it back together tight. I can pump the fuel bulb now and it holds pressure. No apparant leaks.
Still working out the list of stuff I need to buy from SIM. I think it's finalized, although we kept thinking of little things like those special hose clamps Yamaha uses. I need a bunch of those. A racor 2 micron filter element in a Yamaha filter fixture, etc. I broke two plastic wire harness clips that hold the injector harnesses to the fuel rails, and we can find no reference to those in Yamaha literature. It makes more sense to buy two complete boost pumps instead of the diaphrams to rebuild them..even though they are not worn out yet... Stuff like that.
The order should be finalized and on it's way like tomorrow I hope.
I have found, btw, that the new sandblasting cabinet is excellent for cleaning spark plugs. I will be spending some time this morning trying to get "Off Cay" back in action. Of course we are expecting the remnants of that Tropical Storm to screw up the weekend....
Still working out the list of stuff I need to buy from SIM. I think it's finalized, although we kept thinking of little things like those special hose clamps Yamaha uses. I need a bunch of those. A racor 2 micron filter element in a Yamaha filter fixture, etc. I broke two plastic wire harness clips that hold the injector harnesses to the fuel rails, and we can find no reference to those in Yamaha literature. It makes more sense to buy two complete boost pumps instead of the diaphrams to rebuild them..even though they are not worn out yet... Stuff like that.
The order should be finalized and on it's way like tomorrow I hope.
HI Gringo,
Just an FYI- You probably already know this(or would have figured it out on your own anway) but you can use a dull pair of "tile snips" to squeeze down the yamaha fuel line clamps. Just make sure there dull!!!.
HI Gringo,
Just an FYI- You probably already know this(or would have figured it out on your own anway) but you can use a dull pair of "tile snips" to squeeze down the yamaha fuel line clamps. Just make sure there dull!!!.
Good idea, but it seems those got left out of the order. Slipped by me I guess...
If I can figure out what these originally looked like, I can probably re-bend and re-use the ones I took off. Meanwhile, I'll double up on conventional hose clamps.
Plan is to take the boat out today for another test run with a new canister filter. That's the one between the VST and the HP pumps. I am changing one thing at a time because I want to know which component makes the difference.
Remember take your YDIS software hook it up and run it live you will see what the motor is doing real time. you will also be able to test things on the fly like turning off injectors and plugs to see if it has any affect on performance. Also when it says to run at full power it means to have it in gear and running on all 6 cylinders, not at WOT (wide open throttle) good luck this will help alot.