So, I get an email (he tried to reach me on the phone) from Don at European Marine (and BTW, i trust Don explicitly with advice and my motor) stating that my fuel rails and injectors are "REALLY, REALLY NASTY"!! The remainder of his explanation below:
"Substantial carbon buildup (such as we usually see with a combination of wrong oil, no Quickleen, and a TON of idling). The good news is that I was able to clean up the rails and direct injectors successfully!"
Ok, so in October when I had my rig in to Don for annual maintenance (which is when he advised me to send in the fuel rails and injectors for service during the winter) he pointed out that the diagnostics of my engine showed that 65% of my engine run time was 1500 RPM's or less which was not good and I should run it more in the 5500 RPM range. This is from idling around graphing and from where i live with small lakes. " Maybe the TON of idling"?
# 1 & 2 fuel injectors were rich and #4 was "CRITICALLY low flow". "Injector was damaged due to a carboned/sticking #4 DI (which caused high-heat damage to the #4 fuel injector)."
I still need to speak to him next week to get a better idea of what the heck I did to this motor for this to happen and going forward to have it not happen again. I am diligent with good fuel, Mercury Racing oil and Mercury additives added to each and every fill up. It almost sounds as if my motor was ready to blow at any time.
Lesson learned. I will report after I speak to Don for further clarification
Craig.
This is just me thinking out loud here... I wonder how the fuel rail gets dirty? It's just clean fuel getting pumped through there right? How could any dirt get there. If the rails were dirty wouldn't all the injectors be clogged before any dirt could build up in the rails? Also, if you run the "cocktail" that's supposed to be so great, how could it possibly be that bad? Makes you think snake oil if you went thru all that and it's still all out of whack. You'd think that even if you do a bit of idling up there that all the running hard down here and your other trips would keep it cleaned up?
I know my motor isn't an opti, but I run the non Mercury approved black fuel lines from the parts store (5 + years now), run seafoam every once in a blue moon, stabil in the winter months, don't change my fuel filter like they say (I cut my last one apart after a couple few years on there and was clean as could be) and when I sent my injectors off after 4+ years they were almost perfectly in spec before cleaning. I do idle a bit, although not as much as you doing graphing, but I run mine like a normal boater with the occasional wide open pass when I'm playing. A lot of trips in the summer I bet I'm never over 40mph.
Another side note, I use a petroleum product of some sort when I put the water impeller in for a little lube, do compression tests without the hose hooked up, sometimes bump the key at the house with no water, and that same impeller has been in there for well over 2 1/2 years now and water pressure is still great.
I just wonder how often we're sold a bill of goods with so much of this stuff? Not that I don't take care of my stuff, because I do, but I don't necessarily believe in all the "you have to do this and that" to make your motor live a healthy life. How many of these motors go 1000 hours with minimal maintenance and care? I like to do what's best, but somewhere there has to be a line.
Just an out loud ramble...
Brian
