Dead Optimax Mercury 200, Need Advice

[Mkotlarczyk]

I have a 2001 Sea Doo Utopia 185 with a 200hp Optimax Mercury Engine. I have owned the boat for the past 14 years and a week ago it died. It was a trip I look forward to every year and we just put her in the water. We got up on plane about 40mph and less than a 1/4 mile the engine shut down. I tried to restart and it hardly turned over and sounded like a dead battery. A second try and it fired right up. Thinking this was a fluke we headed down river again with the exact same response. This time as I attempted a restart there was a long 5 second engine beep and after some coaxing with throttle the engine started up.

We decided to fast idle back to the boat launch just about a 1/4 mile now. As we approached the launch the engine began to knock hard and we were able to coast in to shore. A compression check shows 4 cylinders at near 90 and one at ZERO, and another about 20. I am guessing a broken connecting rod and broken compression rings.

Now What? I full rebuilt is about $4K and I still don't know what caused the shut down and catastrophic engine failure.

What would you do? I could pull the engine myself, and maybe then have a shop service possibly just the two cylinders?

The bummer is I had no warning other than the first full shutdown after about 4 minutes of running.

 

[Dr Honda]

I think on the first shut down... you already melted a piston. That's why it was hard to turn over. Pushing the engine with a blown piston, turned into a busted rod. The metal shards that resulted, may have gotten back into the air box, and into other cyl's.


SO... yes... a rebuild is in order. If you want to do it is up to you. If the boat is great shape, and you plan on keeping it... then do it.


But before you put a price tag on things... you need to figure out if the rod came though the block. If it is... most shops won't take it as a core. In that case... you may need to find a used engine. OR, find a shop that will weld it up.


My boat threw a rod, and had a catastrophic melt down. I opted to rebuild it, since an islandia was kind of an expensive boat. But, I was able to do all my own work.

FYI... this should be in the Merc section. I'll move it for you.