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02 islandia trouble

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pmacdo01

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So I drove out to ohio from eastern pa, excited I just bought a 02 islandia on ebay. We got out there and test drove it and it ran great during the test drive for over an hour. The boat has a fresh rebuilt motor, and new battery. I drove home and the next day the issues began.
The previous owner who works on sea-doos for a side job instructed me to briefly start the boat on land for 2-3 secs with the blower on, just to make sure she even starts. well, i forgot to put the kill switch on so I flooded the motor and fouled the plugs. I eventually put her in the water and she started, ran great but when I shut her off to tube she wouldn't start back up. It got throaty like it wanted to start but never fully turned over. I eventually got her started, she ran like crap. I pulled her off the lake and swapped plugs. She fired right up on land with the new plugs, so we put her back in the water ( i have boat ramp 100 yrds from my place) and she wouldn't start! what the heck!. So pulled the boat out checked the plugs and they were ok. I checked the wires and they were ok. After some rest and allowing to cool i started on land and she fired up. Quickly shut her off and figured id try to put her in again. So as soon as I put her in she wouldn't start. She was almost there, got throaty but never fully started.
I took her to a boat mechanic who told me I had a wire harness that controlled the main fuel pump, it came loose and the terminals were corroded. He said he cleaned them and placed dielectric grease on and re secured the harness. He said he ran it for 30 mins and the boat ran great.
So I got the boat back and yesterday we took it out. It fired up...yea! but as soon as we got past the no wake zone and I started to give her throttle and pick up speed but she wouldn't go past 4000 rpm. We shut her off, I checked to see if seaweed was stuck in the grate but it was clean. I fired her up again and same thing. idle was 1100 rpm and as I accelerated she felt good no coughing or sputtering just wouldn't let me take it past 4000 rpm. from the point where the throttle is half to all the way forward it didn't accelerate anymore. I tried 5 times from idle. finally frustrated I took her back to the dock for troubleshooting. I also noticed the gas gauge wasn't working. It had been before.
I thought at first maybe I was low on gas....impossible i put 30 gal in the previous week. I called the mechanic and he was anything but helpful. He said "sounds like its something you need a computer to diagnose nothing i can do for you. It ran good for me and the gas gauge well i didn't notice it". So Ive had no beeps, lights or alarms. I called the previous owner and he said it sounds like its in limp mode. The fact that it runs good just stops at 4000 rpm and 14-15 mph. That makes sense but what could have caused it and with no alarms? Im leaving on vacation Sunday! my wife is very upset. just dropped all this coin for a boat that is giving us a huge head/heartache! my brother in law said that the grease might cause cross current through the harness and caused the limp mode. I have a few merc places tomorrow Im going to try and get it in. anyone have suggestions/advice.
 
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good luck

This problem seems to be common with your boat, there are several posts on here about islandia not getting the RPMs up. None of them have a solution. There is a post on your fuel gauge that may help. I would try these:
1-change plugs again
2-check fuses
2-check all connections (ones associated w/ fuel gauge are of particular interest)
3-check battery voltage
4-check injectors are clean
5-check impeller
6-maybe you did go through 30 gallons?
7- Make it easy on yourself, save some coin and let your bro-in-law fix it.
 
yea im going to change the plugs again tonight. maybe i screwed one in to tight or it was just bad. Im gonna change my battery out, On the big fuel filter there is a sensor on the bottom. I unscrewed it a few days ago and fuel poured out. I only hand tightened it. Maybe it needs to be put in better. Hopefully we can check if injectors are clean. my wife is checking to see if the impeller looks bad cause im at work. Also Im having her check all the connections. thanks for the reply
 
I found a link with a similar problem as yours. When you change the plugs, check that each has good spark before putting into the cylinder. The other link said he couldn't get his boat above 4500 due to a bad spark plug wire another link said due to a "wet" plug. Your fuel gauge connection may be linked to your ignition it is on some boats not sure about yours but try to find that. There is a link already started about it just search "islandia fuel guage". I'm leaning towards your injectors so clean them good and put some fresh high octane fuel in the tank and maybe some dry gas encase it a condensation issue. That mechanic may have been driving it for a while and left you using gas from the bottom of the tank. With clean injectors and fresh gas run it for a while to flush out any old gas in the fuel system. Do you see any smoke? Is your oil milky in the tank? Don't forget to check everything from the previous post. Tell me how it works out, hopefully we can get it fixed for your vacation!
 
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yea i wonder if the last mechanic actually checked all of the spark plugs to see if they are all sparking. My wife is trying to hunt down new fuel filters and the tool to pull them. I dont know if she is comfortable diong the fuel injectors. But the last mechanic said he got good fuel pressure and said the pumps looked good.
 
Tried to run her again. I'm on vacation and we've been playing with it everyday. All other fuses and harnesses looked ok. After trying to run her and still only getting 4000 we noticed the top 2 spark plugs had no oil or fuel on them and the other 4 were fouled. What could cause this? We ran Lucas ink cleaner
 
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