Important Question,

[Inliner]

I need to know for those that pull barefooters at what temp your Moomba Outback runs at. Recently (about 4 weeks ago) I blew my motor up pulling a barefooter at between 40 and 45 mph. The max my temp gauge hit during this incident was 180 degrees. Since I am of an automotive background, 180 degrees didn't raise a major red flag with me.

After speaking with my dealer, my belief is that I had a bad set of rings in the number 4 and 6 cylinders that chose that particular moment to commit suicide. When the incident originally occured, there was no noise of any kind. I just had a major power fall-off as the cylinders checked out for the holidays. The engine got hotter than normal (180 degrees) and I shut it down along with the barefooter.

The consensus is that 180 degrees isn't enough to cause the ring failure I encountered and I agree with that. But the dealer's contention is that this temp is above normal and there may have been some problem with the motor to begin with.

For the sake of knowing, I drive a friends Tantrum (a rebadged and stripped MC) and while barefooting with it, it also hits 180 degrees using a 350 SB Chevy motor. So if anyone here pulls barefooters, let me know at what temp your Outback hits during those 40 - 45 mph jaunts with the barefooter on the back. I will begin watching mine very closely when pulling barefooters as well to see what is normal for this boat.

The fact is, the dealer would like to know why this occured. I attribute it to a bad parts failure. If you are a serious skier and use your Outback for what is was designed for, let me know how yours has performed in this area if you have paid close attention to it. Your input would be valued and I will post my findings as they come about over the next few weeks.

[Lpfeil]

Gordon,

We have a new 2004 Outback , Carb. 310 horse motor only have 20 hours on it but once it is warmed up it runs 180-185 wether we're pulling a skier, wakeboarder, a couple tubes or just cruising around.

Its a open cooling system and Ive been told that is the normal operating temp.

Larry

[Inliner]

Originally posted by Lpfeil

Its a open cooling system and Ive been told that is the normal operating temp.

Larry

Larry,

Have you tried pulling a barefooter yet? If it is running at 180 - 185 under normal operating conditions, I would be afraid to see what it hits at 40 - 45 mph while pulling a barefooter. Mine runs about 160 or so at normal operating conditions and climbs up from there based on load. Keep in mind that normal operating conditions are slalom skiers at 36 mph, disabled skiers at 28 - 34 mph, rec skiers at 18 - 26 mph and wakeboarders & kneeboarders at 18 - 22 mph. Barefooters have become an increasing occurence for me thanks to the fact that I have learned to pull jump starts quite well and now find myself in demand in that area. I have talked to several other boat drivers and they all have said that 180 degrees pulling a barefooter is pretty much normal in all but closed cooling systems. 180 pulling lower level skiers either indicates a temp gauge that is not operating properly or a cooling system blockage that may need to be looked at. If you don't smell the engine over heating, you might want to give the temp gauge and sender some looking at.

[DOCDRS]

I'm curious as to how many hours you have on your outback.
Mines a 99 with 245hrs. we barefoot and i've had 12 people in the boat doin 40
and my temp has never gone above 165. Once it warms up to 160 it stays there,
unless the water temp is 84 degrees then it might get to about 165. Curious as to how old your impellar was? My original one still looked brand new but i replaced after 3 yrs
150 hrs. I have a strainer and run in clear water 99% of the time though.Not sure if this
is of any use.

[Inliner]

Originally posted by DOCDRS


I'm curious as to how many hours you have on your outback.
Mines a 99 with 245hrs. we barefoot and i've had 12 people in the boat doin 40
and my temp has never gone above 165. Once it warms up to 160 it stays there,
unless the water temp is 84 degrees then it might get to about 165. Curious as to how old your impellar was? My original one still looked brand new but i replaced after 3 yrs
150 hrs. I have a strainer and run in clear water 99% of the time though.Not sure if this
is of any use.

Doc,

This is exactly the type of input I am looking for. My Outback is a 2003 and here lately I have had a LOT of problems with it. The motor blew up pulling a barefooter and now that the new motor is in place (warranty), I took it out for break-in this weekend and wound up with a cracked muffler (this from a poorly manufactured muffler that was finished when the engine was replaced) and a major water leak for my efforts. So far this season my boat has delivered me 3 major break-downs and has spent 9 weeks in dry dock due to parts quality issues. It is getting VERY frustrating.

But that said, I haven't hit break-in on the new motor yet. Once I do, I will get back to pulling slalom skiers and barefooters and have a better idea. The new motor temp has stayed steady at 165 all weekend. I now have 5 hours on it and have hit speeds of 37 mph unloaded and the temp gauge has stayed steady at 165. I will see what happens once I load it and if it stays steady, then I will know that the dealer was right, there were definitely issues with the other motor from day one.