Returning a boat
...Michael waited for my sister while I checked everything over one last time before I took the two families out for a day of boating. When I checked the engine oil it looked like chocolate milk. There was a lot watery sludge both on the dipstick and sludgy oil was visible when looking at the crank case from the oil fill caps. The sludge was almost to the top of the fill caps, and a whitish film covered the top layer of oil. We obviously cancelled the boating plans for the day. Because it was Memorial Day weekend, none of the service technicians were available when we telephoned local places. Larry, who is a neighbor there, towed the boat with his pontoon back to the boat launch and helped me haul it back out of the water. I left the boat and trailer at a local Mercruiser service garage down the street and we left to go back home. Several days later I still had not heard from the service garage (it turned out they were closed for the week for vacation) and I drove back out and towed the boat to a large marina (the next closest authorized Mercruiser service center) and left the keys under their door with a note. Let the repairs begin…..Early the next morning, a service technician from the marina named Kevin, telephoned. He confirmed that the crank case had “an awful lot of water in it”. He said that he would look the boat over, but on his initial inspection he suspected that the backflow preventing boot was a problem, and also said there was at least one hole in manifold. He wanted to pull the service guide for the 1981 series to find out how many boots were actually on that style of motor, but said that both the manifold and the boot(s) could have caused the water problem. Kevin was very interested in knowing both the history of the boat and how long we had run the motor. When he heard is was run for only 20-30 minutes, he said that the motor should be fine, but that because the boat sat out for many years, the rubberized boots probably dry-rotted. He said that he would call me later that day with an estimate, but needed me to authorize the inspection time. When Kevin called back later that day, he gave me a verbal estimate of around $600 dollars to replace the boot and manifold, but indicated that it may take some time to locate a manifold for a 1981 engine. Several days went by until he called again to let us know that he had located the parts and that the estimate to repair the engine would be around $700. He cautioned me at that time that there was also another boot in the engine that could have dry-rotted, but that he would need to pull the whole engine to inspect and replace it. We agreed to fix only the known problems and go from there. The next day he telephoned again to report that he had the repairs complete. They had given the engine several oil changes to get all of the water out, and had run the motor for 2 hours after the second oil change just to confirm that it was in good working order. The actual repair bill was $748 dollars. The problems continue….I picked up the boat from the marina on a weekend when Karen was going to visit her dad. It seemed smarter to test it out without Karen and Michael, in case there were any problems. Lake Michigan is not the place to have everyone stranded in an inoperable boat. When I picked up the boat, I towed it back to the launch area and headed out into both Muskegon Lake and through the large channel into Lake Michigan. The boat seemed to perform fine during the 30 minute trip. I stopped the engine out on the big lake to make sure the oil still looked good. It did indeed seem clean and fine. I was going to head back in, but the motor would not turn over. The starter seemed to whirr and click, and after about 30 seconds of trying, the battery was now dead. I stood on the back of the boat and was able to get enough signal strength on my cell phone to call the Marina. The woman who answered gave me the cell phone number for the service technician, and I wrote his number in the oil grime under the engine compartment cover. I called the service technician and about 40 minutes later, he arrived with another technician to rescue me out in Lake Michigan. They confirmed that the battery and starter were going bad. They said the starter would continue to work for a little while, but that I should have it replaced. However, the battery was the main culprit. It was completely discharged. Because the boat had just come from the marina, they did not charge me for the emergency service call. More problems…….After we got it started, I drove the boat back to the boat slip and went to the store to purchase a new battery for the boat. I installed the new battery the next morning, but wanted to shop around for a different service garage to replace the starter. The marina charges $60/hour and I was sure I could find someone less expensive to do that work. After installing the battery the boat started up after a couple of tries, but the starter motor did whirr a little. Since the boat was now running, I decided to drive it back out into the lake to test it out again. I drove it for about 40 minutes around Muskegon Lake, but decided not to chance going out into the big lake. I stopped the boat over in Snug Harbor near the main channel to check the engine oil again. It seemed fine with only slight traces of foam around the oil caps. I then tried to re-start the boat, and again it would not turn over. Between taps on the starter, I would walk back and try the ignition and adjust the throttle position. In the process, I effectively flooded the motor trying to get it to start. I took the carborator cover off and let the gas dry out from the inside. While I was waiting, the boat drifted into shallow water. I threw the anchor over, but by then I was in pretty shallow water. After another half hour of tinkering, the boat restarted and I ran it at 2000 RPM in neutral for quite awhile so that it would not stall out again. With the engine idling, I got out of the boat and pushed it out into deeper water, but by then I was pretty frustrated and had forgotten to pull the anchor back in. The boat moved forward, but seemed sluggish and would not get up on plane again. The rope finally broke on the anchor that I had forgotten about, and the bo...