2002 SANTE 5.7 Died and won't Start

[PDXnautique]

I have had this boat about a month. I was on an afternoon cruise about 10 minutes in and there started to be a couple of weird electrical concerns. The stereo shut off completely and I had to turn off the boat and start it back up. This happened twice before the boat died and had not ever happened prior to that day. Another strange electrical wonder is the 60 amp breaker has been tripped every time I leave the boat sitting for over 30 minutes for the week prior to the boat dying. The boat ran perfectly until we made it to our cove (100+ feet deep in clean water) I blipped the throttle to move us out more towards the middle and the engine bogged and started running really rough, at time time I was hearing a loud sucking sound coming from the engine. The engine died and now will not restart. It will crank and occasionally backfire but it will not fire and run.

I have checked cap and rotor installation and condition, and verified spark. Verified lanyard placement. Verified proper functionality of all three relays, checked the three fuses for the fuel pumps and all are in good condition. I have replaced both fuel pumps trying to correct this problem.

At this point I am thinking it is probably timing related, maybe a faulty crankshaft position sensor. I have the new one and I will be installing this tonight. Any thoughts on other possibilities?

[rcazwillis]

Do you have good fuel pressure? New pumps should have insured this was not an issue, but I would check it on the fuel rail.

[PDXnautique]

Fixed

Do you have good fuel pressure? New pumps should have insured this was not an issue, but I would check it on the fuel rail.

I ended up checking everything again and verified 60 psi at the rail, timing was spot on with the timing mark on the timing cover, so I figured it had to be spark. I pulled the cap off and it looked like water may have made its way in there. There was blue corrosion ever so faintly present on a few of the nodes. I did a late night run to the parts store and grabbed another cap and rotor.

Boom fires up and runs like a champ. 3 weeks of mystery solved. The cap and rotor was only a few months old at the most so I didn't expect that to be the issue. Goes to show, just because it looks fine doesn't mean it is fine.

Back on the water for the 90 degree weekend. CHEERS!

[jkallen21]

What about the electrical problems?

[PDXnautique]

electrical problems

What about the electrical problems?

I'll be honest, I have no idea if those are fixed. However, I found a myriad of loose electrical connections throughout my diagnostic frenzy including BOTH battery terminals and the 60 amp breaker terminals. I am taking the boat out for a test run today so I will have more info once the shakedown run is complete. My hunch is the loose fitting breaker terminals but I can't be positive. **no pun intended