www.iFourWinns.com

Newbee on forum,
We bought a 2001 210 horizon 5 Gi this spring. It has the electronic mode/set system(I forget the name of it) Anyway it is part of the low fuel,low oil, hot alarm system. When we are running the boat and drop the rpm down quickly to slow idle sometimes(and not all the time) the electronic alarm goes off for a few seconds on oil pressure. The oil pressure gauge goes down to the top of the red warning area but no lower. Has anyone ever had this problem. We are running 25-40 mercruiser oil in the engine, just changed in april. 140 hrs on engine . Any ideas? Thanks

You could try running a slightly higher viscosity oil. Like a Mobil1 15-50. That is what I use.
If it drops into the red for just a few seconds it is probably not an issue....other than the pain of hearing that shrieking alarm. As long as it doesn't go off continuously at idle when the engine oil is fully warmed up you are fine.
Rob

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Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing
2001 Horizon 180

I know this one! You're going to have to change the oil pump, pickup tube, and screen. It's either clogged from sludge from the oil never being changed or the pump is failing.

You can try to clean it by using Seafoam. According to their website "To clean built-up oil residues and contamination from the crank case, add 1½ oz. Sea Foam to each quart of engine oil. Sea Foam will slowly re-liquefy residues and suspend contaminants for easy removal. Monitor oil for color and clarity and change oil and replace filter when oil looks dirty."

Basically add it, monitor oil color, change oil/filter, add it, when oil is dirty change it, and keep doing that to get the crap out. After a few times if the oil pressure still drops to alarm (0psi) for a second when you let off throttle you're going to have to change the pump/screen/tube.

Oh, don't get that silly mercruiser oil. When cleaning the engine just get cheap oil but always use Mobil 1 Synthetic for the final good one. Change it ever 3 months. Hour meters are worthless. If your boat only has 140 hours on it, it basically just sat around collecting dust it's whole life. For example: If it was used 4 hours at a time.. that means in 11 years the boat has only been in the water on average 3 times a year. That's scary. I would change every fluid, they're all spoiled and sludged.

Mercruiser says change oil every 100 hours so if the previous owner listened to that... that oil was a good 5+ years old sitting in the boat. Nasty. If they didn't.. you might have gave it it's first oil change. Do a full outdrive service ASAP.

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1981 Columbia 8.7
2015 Yamaha FZR - 87mph - sold
2006 Yamaha GP1300R - sold
2003 Chaparral 215 SSI - sold
2009 Stingray 195CS - sold
2000 Four Winns H180 - sold
1976 O'day Daysailer II - sold
Rick's Four Winns H180 Mods/Upgrade Thread

You have 2 things telling you about oil pressure...a sender for the guage and a sensor for the computer. However, if you have the VDO dash if the sender shows the guage a bad reading then the dash will also set off an alarm. The VDO dash clusters are extremely sensative to resistance in the wires and the sender. The Merc system is not really much different other than the oil pressure guage itself won't set off an alarm like the VDO system does. I have dealt with this many many times, not once have I found it to be the fault of the oil or the engine. Have had to replace senders and run new wires to the dash and sometimes it has been the dash that has to go out for repair. There is only 1 proper way to diagnose this and it is putting a mechanical oil pressure guage on the motor and testing.

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

Thanks Borchik, your explanation is what i'm hoping is the problem and makes sense. Thanks to everyone on here that responded and i'm still going to keep looking at other explanations.

[url]http://www.cdielectronics.com/downloads/FourWinnsDash.pdf/url]

Here is a nice list of things you can do to troubleshooting, from CDI electronics that may help.

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Martin
2001 Horizon 230