Engine loud and revs to 8000 rpm

[Mike Barton]

I have a 2009 Challenger 180 215. Friday I took it out after replacing a cracked intercooler hose and it ran fine (7800rpm, engine at normal operating level as far as sound goes) today (Sunday) It idled fine but once I got it to about 1/2 the throttle level position and 5500 rpm there was a lot more noise coming from the engine compartment and the boat was not picking up speed. Also, I noticed the throttle lever would go about 1/2 to 5/8 of the way forward and the boat would be registering 8100 rpm. We headed back to the dock at about 3500 rpm.

Any thought for what happened? Should I check the impeller for weeds/junk or do I need to pull the boat out of the water and have it checked out by a service tech?

The boat has 35 HRs on it, I purchased it with 30 Hrs on it this spring.

 

[pvamax]

Sounds for sure like weeds/junk in the impeller area. Same thing happened today on mine, swam under and yanked out a hunk of weeds. All good. You can also try the reverse method before getting wet but its not always successful. Put your boat in reverse and get moving as fast as it will go, then quickly shut it off and throw the lever in Forward. This gets a reverse flow of water through the pump and sometimes will dislodge weeds stuck in there.

 

[Mudnman]

One time it took me about 10 minutes just to see stick stuck by looking underneath.Finally seen it like the 5th look.Was small and wedged good,hard to see.Went to get tool then couldn't see it,had to really focus.

 

[Mike Barton]

Sounds for sure like weeds/junk in the impeller area. Same thing happened today on mine, swam under and yanked out a hunk of weeds. All good. You can also try the reverse method before getting wet but its not always successful. Put your boat in reverse and get moving as fast as it will go, then quickly shut it off and throw the lever in Forward. This gets a reverse flow of water through the pump and sometimes will dislodge weeds stuck in there.

Thanks for the reply. The boat still had a good idle and ran up to about 3300rpm but anything over that was just a lot of noise and non"go". Additionally the idle would fluctuate between 100-300 rpm during my limp back to the dock. I'll take it out and look into the impeller area for debris.

Thanks again

 

[Coastiejoe]

Sounds like there is something in the impeller area. At least it is an easy check.

I always do a few high revs I reverse as this often cleans out the impeller area.


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