www.iFourWinns.com

Hello. New to the site, looking for help of course.

I have a Sundowner 205 w/5.0 GI VP that I am getting ready for the season after a 2 year layover. I started the engine and it ran for 45 seconds or so, then started to run rough and stalled. I restarted it but now it only runs 5-10 seconds and dies. If I try to give it gas it stalls out. There is also a whistling sound that I have never heard before but it seems to correlate to the times the fuel pump would be running. I read somewhere that the whistling could be the fuel pump running dry? Of course I suspect the fuel and I have a new filter to install tonight. I understand if there is a lot of water in the system I will have to drain the 15+ gallons in the tank but how would I drain 15 gallons of gas? I know the tank is under the floor, do I pull the sending unit on the tank (car talk there because I'm not sure what I will find) and stick a hose in it? Any suggestions to my running or draining issue would be greatly appreciated.

Randy

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2000 205 Sundowner
Volvo Penta 5.0 Gi 250

Well new information; Pulled the filter and there was no water in it. Tried to replace it but West Marine sold me the wrong filter. Nice! Back to the store tomorrow.

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2000 205 Sundowner
Volvo Penta 5.0 Gi 250

I had an entire post on this topic and it was pretty crazy for a couple of days trying to figure out what we did wrong. I will post what we did so maybe you won't run into the same problems we did. I have a 2008 H220SS with the VP 5.7 DP
We started on the path of emptying the fuel tank because the boat was not running well after I turned it on. To drain the gas tank we pulled one of the big hoses off of the fuel tank which is attached by four small screws. Make sure you disconnect the power from the batteries, we ran a syphon hose in the tank and then we ran it into the bilge and out the drain plug hole to awaiting gas containers to save for the lawn mowers. It worked like a charm if you know how to syphon gas out of an old car you do it exactly the same way. Our problems I believe started as soon as we got the lame idea to run the boat dry of all gas in the system. So here we are the boat stops running because of fuel starvation we keep turning it on until it doesn't anymore, seems like a great job( NOT)!!!! We fill her up with half tank 25 gallons of non-ethanol gas and try to start her on the muffs, Nothing.. Changed the water to the blue fitting in the engine it started right up and ran but with a really loud whine coming from the fuel pump. Take her to marina to launch and all she does is sputter in the water and revs up and down so I put her on the trailer and take her home. Turns out after many hours of troubleshooting and the help from this forum we introduced air into the fuel system and the fuel filter was dry. The fix, there are two schrader valves on the engine one near the throttle body and the other on the fuel pump. We filled the water separator with gas screwed it on and pushed a pen into those two valves and air came out for what seems forever. Then finally gas squirt out of the schrader valve on the engine and all the air was bled out of the fuel pump fitting also. The last thing we did was run the boat on the muffs and she ran fine and we bled her out a couple times and the boat is running fine now! Please don't run the boat until it runs out of gas it's a total pain in the stern!

I put on the new filter today and it ran for about 25 seconds and died. I filled the filter before install, I wonder if that was what it ran on? I noticed the fuel pump whine is still there. I was hoping for a clogged filter, no such luck. I pulled the tank hose and was able to draw fuel from the tank. I found both schraeder valves on the pump assembly and they both have fuel, no air.

One of the pumps is running without a whine and the other is whining. They are like my kids! I do not know which is high and which is low unfortunately. It appears to be a single unit but one of the pumps could be replaced. I did finally get smart and pulled the arrester off and could see that when the engine runs good the spray into the carb is nice and strong. When it dies or will not start the spray is spitting or even non-existent. I have read about screens being clogged so tomorrow I am going screen hunting. The weird part is only one of the pumps seems to be in distress. I hope I do not have to fork out $700 for a pump assembly. I am still in shock over that price.

Any ideas? This seems to be very common but never with a smoking gun. A lot of issues and a lot of different fixes. Getting desperate; it is on the trailer in the driveway while the paid for slip is being used for fishing.

Very troubling!!

Thanks

Randy

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2000 205 Sundowner
Volvo Penta 5.0 Gi 250

Update:

I put a piece of clear hose on the boat side fuel line to check for bubbles and there are none because nothing is really being pulled up in earnest. I manually primed the line, put it back on, and then it started to pull ever so slowly. I eventually got it to the point that the pump that was whining quieted down to a low hum. I assume that is the normal sound. I even managed to get the engine to run for 30 seconds before it stalled. I have read posts talking about cleaning out screens, which really sounds like it could be my problem, but where are they? I pulled the inlet fittings off but did not find any screens. I can clearly see unobstructed into the top of the filter assembly.

I also have been experimenting with pulling off electrical connectors and running pumps one at a time. My new problem is which pump is high press and which is low? They sit next to each other and every diagram I have seen just refers to the assembly. I could explain what I have noticed if I knew which pump was which.

I have included the detailed information I took off the engine and the pump assembly below.

Thanks again!

Randy

VP 5.0gi PEFS
4012007848
3869057

Fuel Assy
---------
Carter P612818
3860210
99K29A

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2000 205 Sundowner
Volvo Penta 5.0 Gi 250

Hopefully this thread will tell you where the screens are:
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=489131

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Current Boat: 2000 Four Winns 298 Vista
Previous Boat: 2000 Carver 406MY

I checked the pump pressure and the high pump is right at 30 where it should be, the low is at the bottom end at around 3-4. The spec is 8 +- 4. After 20 seconds or so the pressure on the high side drops off and it stalls. I am using a gas can instead of the onboad tank so I am sure it is not the tank. I pulled the cell tonight and will tear into it tomorrow. Since it looks like I need a new one nothing stopping me from seeing what I can do.

I am going to follow this chaps lead and have a go.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=545407

I will keep posting my findings.

Randy

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2000 205 Sundowner
Volvo Penta 5.0 Gi 250

Ok I tore apart the fuel cell, found tons of paint and grit in it, cleaned it out and put it back together. When I initially turned on the key I noticed fuel pulled from my external tank where before nothing would happen. Progress! The HP pump was still whining though. I started it up and it ran this time instead of just crapping out so I thought I was going to be home free. It even ran long enough to come up to temp but then all of a sudden the pressure started dropping off and it died. Started it right back up and it ran another 5 min and died. I put the pressure gauge on the LP pump and I have 8psi or so, right on the spec. HP is at 30, in the spec. All should be good. Since I am using an external gas can I have no concerns of the boat fuel tank at the moment.

Since the HP pump is still constantly whining I am leaning to replacing that pump. The pressure during operation on the LP pump fluctuates a bit but seems to stay in the range. My gauge is up to 100psi so the smaller pressures are hard to be exactly precise. Any thoughts?

I took a lot if pics and notes during the fuel cell disassemble. I will be putting together detailed information for other folks that want to try this before dropping $700.

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2000 205 Sundowner
Volvo Penta 5.0 Gi 250

The problem is more likely in the reservoir than one individual pump. It is quite common actually, I replace 2 or 3 a year anyhow. Debris gets into them, clogs everything up. I have taken them apart, cleaned them, and even if they work within a few days they act up again. Not cheap to replace but the only way to make sure you won't have problems again for a while. For your engine the part number is 21545138.

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Brian Borchik
The Winds of Cold Springs Harbor Marina
Baldwinsville, NY

Wanted to update this;

First I have not forgotten to put together the fuel cell tear apart. Been busy.

As far as the fuel cell I did tear it apart and reassemble successfully but still had the whining noise and after about 1 minuite of running it would die. I put the pressure tester on each pump one at a time and noticed that the low pressure pump never wavers from its 8psi even when the engine died. Same test on the high and I noticed the psi drop and then the engine quit. I bought a HP pump before I read Borchik post, I hope you are wrong man but now I'm worried , and put it on. As a note I also replaced the water separator with the new bigger cartridge just in case. Key on and the whine was gone, start it up and it runs good. I did not hear any of the whining I had before. I even switched the fuel source back to the tank with no problem. The next test will be out at the lake under a load which I will be doing this week. Needless to say I'm not going far from the dock until it proves itself.

Will update later.

Randy

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2000 205 Sundowner
Volvo Penta 5.0 Gi 250

Another victim of ethanol. Glad to hear it was only the high pressure pump because that was the issue on both of my fuel pumps and my engines have run fine since (especially since I don't use ethanol anymore). Thanks for the update.

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Current Boat: 2000 Four Winns 298 Vista
Previous Boat: 2000 Carver 406MY

well hopefully you have got the issue nailed down...let us know.

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Brian Borchik
The Winds of Cold Springs Harbor Marina
Baldwinsville, NY