Michigan Motorz
By: Loren Haus
As we come into another season of boating, I wanted to say a few things to the members and visitors on BOC to help everyone have a great year.
First and foremost, I want to thank the customers on this site who have purchased engines from us. We greatly appreciate your business, and we are making changes all the time to continually serve you better!
We realize, as boaters ourselves, when you go out to use your boat, you want to USE it. No one wants to be tinkering with a carburetor, or figuring out why its overheating, or is blowing oil everywhere while you are trying to get a couple of well-deserved relaxation hours in with your family and friends.
With that said, I would like to point out a couple of things to remember if you choose to re-power your boat with a long-block (new or re-manufactured) or a partial engine package (such as our bronze, silver, or gold packages) that will keep you on the water longer....
1.) If you are looking to replace just your long-block and reuse your accessories....
Before you make the call to order a replacement engine, it is VERY important to determine the exact cause of failure so a replacement engine will not fail the same way the original engine did. When you call to place an order, we need to know what happened so we can make sure you have all the necessary parts so it DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN.
For example: if your engine overheated, make sure to replace the water shutters (flappers) inside the exhaust Y pipe. They are there for a reason-to prevent water injestion into the engine. If a customer calls to order a engine, and does not specify that his engine overheated, we will not be able to recommend purchasing additional parts to correct the CAUSE of the problem....like a new water pump impeller, new thermostat, etc.
One nightmare is bad enough...better to make time to do it right the first time.
2.) In the case that your are replacing a long-block for a throttle-body injected or multi-port fuel injected engine....
Engine ignition systems are very dependent on clean, tight ground connections. This is even more important in the case of fuel injected engines. As a tech, I get more calls on fuel-injected engines not running properly after purchasing a longblock than anything else. I have had customers request sending their complete bobtail engines back to me for diagnostics on my engine runstands.
In nearly every case, it is ground-wire related. Most sensors on fuel injected engines have 3 wires: a sensor wire which provides information to the ECM by means of voltage change, a 5-volt reference wire, and a GROUND wire. Without a good ground, the sensors will NOT communicate with the ECM properly, because it cannot send the proper voltage signal to the ECM. Because wires are so thin on fuel injected engines, it is VERY important when disassembling your old engine to take care not to tug them out of their sockets. Always make sure you disconnect sensors by grabbing the plug.
Thermostats are also a huge contributor to a fuel injection engine not running properly. A thermostat that is stuck open will make the engine run cooler than it should, which will make the engine run pretty rough at idle.
Fuel systems are also a major contributor to TBI and MPI engine trouble. Low fuel pressure from tired and old fuel pumps, fuel lines that got kinked during the removal and installation on the new engine are all common.
3.) Engine timing is crucial! I cannot over-emphasize PROPER ignition timing. It's such a simple thing to do and check. Failure to time an engine properly will cause catastrophic failure within 10 hours of using a new engine. I STRONGLY recommend to customers to check their ignition base timing AND the total advance yearly during the annual boat tuneup/oil change. This simple 2-minute check can save you THOUSANDS of dollars by identifying early failure of an ignition module or photo eye in thunderbolt distributors.
4.) Everyone who owns a boat should know by now to do the basics. Water pump impeller, oil & filter change, spark plugs, cap/rotor/plug wires, etc. Maintenance is good, preventative maintenance is best. It never fails....that one thing you "forgot" to do always comes back to bite you in the butt.
While we do our best to help hundreds of customers weekly, we simply cannot be there to see the original engine(s) and what caused them to malfunction. We DO want everyone to be on the water enjoying their time with family and friends. Please help us by being detailed about what happened so we can help you better!
From the Michigan Motorz Team: Happy boating 2012!!!!!!!!
By: Loren Haus
As we come into another season of boating, I wanted to say a few things to the members and visitors on BOC to help everyone have a great year.
First and foremost, I want to thank the customers on this site who have purchased engines from us. We greatly appreciate your business, and we are making changes all the time to continually serve you better!
We realize, as boaters ourselves, when you go out to use your boat, you want to USE it. No one wants to be tinkering with a carburetor, or figuring out why its overheating, or is blowing oil everywhere while you are trying to get a couple of well-deserved relaxation hours in with your family and friends.
With that said, I would like to point out a couple of things to remember if you choose to re-power your boat with a long-block (new or re-manufactured) or a partial engine package (such as our bronze, silver, or gold packages) that will keep you on the water longer....
1.) If you are looking to replace just your long-block and reuse your accessories....
Before you make the call to order a replacement engine, it is VERY important to determine the exact cause of failure so a replacement engine will not fail the same way the original engine did. When you call to place an order, we need to know what happened so we can make sure you have all the necessary parts so it DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN.
For example: if your engine overheated, make sure to replace the water shutters (flappers) inside the exhaust Y pipe. They are there for a reason-to prevent water injestion into the engine. If a customer calls to order a engine, and does not specify that his engine overheated, we will not be able to recommend purchasing additional parts to correct the CAUSE of the problem....like a new water pump impeller, new thermostat, etc.
One nightmare is bad enough...better to make time to do it right the first time.
2.) In the case that your are replacing a long-block for a throttle-body injected or multi-port fuel injected engine....
Engine ignition systems are very dependent on clean, tight ground connections. This is even more important in the case of fuel injected engines. As a tech, I get more calls on fuel-injected engines not running properly after purchasing a longblock than anything else. I have had customers request sending their complete bobtail engines back to me for diagnostics on my engine runstands.
In nearly every case, it is ground-wire related. Most sensors on fuel injected engines have 3 wires: a sensor wire which provides information to the ECM by means of voltage change, a 5-volt reference wire, and a GROUND wire. Without a good ground, the sensors will NOT communicate with the ECM properly, because it cannot send the proper voltage signal to the ECM. Because wires are so thin on fuel injected engines, it is VERY important when disassembling your old engine to take care not to tug them out of their sockets. Always make sure you disconnect sensors by grabbing the plug.
Thermostats are also a huge contributor to a fuel injection engine not running properly. A thermostat that is stuck open will make the engine run cooler than it should, which will make the engine run pretty rough at idle.
Fuel systems are also a major contributor to TBI and MPI engine trouble. Low fuel pressure from tired and old fuel pumps, fuel lines that got kinked during the removal and installation on the new engine are all common.
3.) Engine timing is crucial! I cannot over-emphasize PROPER ignition timing. It's such a simple thing to do and check. Failure to time an engine properly will cause catastrophic failure within 10 hours of using a new engine. I STRONGLY recommend to customers to check their ignition base timing AND the total advance yearly during the annual boat tuneup/oil change. This simple 2-minute check can save you THOUSANDS of dollars by identifying early failure of an ignition module or photo eye in thunderbolt distributors.
4.) Everyone who owns a boat should know by now to do the basics. Water pump impeller, oil & filter change, spark plugs, cap/rotor/plug wires, etc. Maintenance is good, preventative maintenance is best. It never fails....that one thing you "forgot" to do always comes back to bite you in the butt.
While we do our best to help hundreds of customers weekly, we simply cannot be there to see the original engine(s) and what caused them to malfunction. We DO want everyone to be on the water enjoying their time with family and friends. Please help us by being detailed about what happened so we can help you better!
From the Michigan Motorz Team: Happy boating 2012!!!!!!!!
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