Boat Won't Start

Hey guys, has been a while since i posted last. I bought a 2001 MC Prostar 205v a few months ago. Yesterday I was just idleing around and the boat just died. I tried to start the boat back up all I would get was a click. Threw in a new battery and that did not fix the problem. When starting the engine it looks like it tries to turn over but is locked up. I know this is not the best description, but some help would be greatly appreciated.

I've noticed that if my battery is low on juice my starter tends to do the click sound, if it isn't your battery your starter is probably done.

Sounds like you may have hydrolock. You can remove one of the spark plugs and see if you have water in the engine. If you do then remove all of the spark plugs and turn the engine over until all of the water is gone. Then add a small amount of oil into the spark plug gap, install of the spark plugs and see if it will fire up. Usually a good idea to change the oil as well. The reason I think you havbe hydrolock is your desciption of the engine being locked up. Good luck.

I'll check tonight when i get home to see if there is water in the engine. We did have some heavy rains last week. i hope this is an easy fix i wuold like to be out wakeboarding soon.

I guess it seems like the engine is locked up, it just wont turn, does not click like a dead battery.

Well some catastrophe would have to occur for the engine to hydrolock.

The boat was running, the just died. Doesn't sound like the starter either....

What else happened???

nothing else happened. We cruised around, then shut it down for a min. After that started up and was ideling around, engine just died, almost like it ran out of gas, sputtered out. (yes there is plenty of gas) Other than that, nothing else

anything get wet?

no water came into the boat, the plug was in the entire time. We had huge rain/thunderstorms a week ago and this was the first time I took the boat out since then. It ran fine for 45 mins. Could this be bad electrical connections on the starter or the engine ground itself?

So i got a chance to check out the boat this afternoon and I think its pretty bad news. Pulled spark plug on number 6 and water came out of the cylinder. The spark plug was all messed up (have pics on my phone) it looks like the piston or valve hit the ground electrode, it looks all mashed up.

So anyways we ride and boat in brackish water (low salt but a mix) Is my engine toast? After removing the spark plugs I again tried to turn the engine over, still nothing. Need some opinions, not a good day.

Hmm that's not a good sign. We hydrolocked our 350 with salt water, did a number on the rings and lost compression (down to about 30psi) on 2 cylinders. I'd say pull the heads and get it looked at. The busted plug isn't a good sign either, we tore our motor down before sending it away to be rebuilt. It didn't have any signs of damage apart from a few shavings in one bore from the dead rings. No bent pushrods or valves, cracked head, cracked pistons or bent rods. All of which can happen when you hydrolock the motor.

Can you turn the motor over by hand with the plugs out? If you got water in the motor it might have killed your starter too, they don't like to get wet.

You'll probably need to pull the main pulley off the crank and use a lever in between the bolts to turn it over. If you can get it turning over spray WD40 or some other kind of light oil down the plug holes as you go. Helps to get rid of the water and stop things like rings binding to the block.

(Message edited by jtnz on September 01, 2009)

Probably rusted out the exhaust manifolds. Has this boat always been used in brackish water?