high speed miss

[jasonli]

i am getting a miss at about 2500 rpm under acceleration. my boat has 60 hours on it, it shouldn't be water in the gas yet? any ideas?

jason

[toyotafreak]

If it's hot or high and you're really pushing the engine, it'll go into knock protect mode (feels like a miss).

If you've got cruddy gas in there, it'll go into knock protect mode (feels like a miss).

Water in the tank could happen to a zero hour boat if it's been stored with a less than full tank.

Could change the water fuel separator.

Could be fouled spark plugs.

Could have a restriction in the fuel supply (failed fuel pump, clogged intake screen).



All that being said, if it were me, I'd get the tank filled with some yummy Chevron super and go drive for a while. This has happened to me before and all I did was put some good gas in it and pretended it was there for a while. Pretty soon, it was running great.

[jasonli]

Wes from Ski Masters told me spark plugs to fix the problem. He said that Toyota recomends replacing them every year. When the boat is stored for a 8 or 9 month period it builds carbon and they foul in mid summer. I don't mind going through the exercise, but at 21.95 each, I'd like to check you all's opinion on it. The Lexus dealer says he's nuts, no iridium plug will foul in 60 hours under any condition. Any place to buy the plugs online?

[toyotafreak]

There's the Ski Masters info we've been looking for. That statement is either a straight-up lie, or the dude was so new or so brain dead that he confused the Toy for another mfr.

These are 1000 hour plugs - which means you should at least get several hundred out of them. And if you were to pull fouled plugs, couldn't they be cleaned and reinstalled?

As far as I can tell, the only place you can get this plug (correctly gapped, etc.) is at a Lexus dealership (except maybe for an ex-TMS dealer). I looked into it last summer and they were maybe $120 for the set.

Do a search for spark plugs on this board - it's been discussed before.

[breakawaydaze]

Had the same problem in my E-21 with only 50 hours.  Could not find the problem anywhere so last effort was plugs.  With engine runnning removed wires one at a time and found two that made no difference when removed.  Pulled plugs and they all looked the same.  Boat only had 50 hours on it but was 4 to 5 years old.  Went to "Pep-Boys" for the plugs and of course they did'nt have them.  Crossed check with some Autolights (Ford) that were 6 or 7 $$'s each.  I figured "why not ?"  and installed.  Boat has run like a champ ever since. Still have the old plugs, cannot detect any visual problems for the failure, hopefully the autolights will be fine.  Somewhere in the posts are the autolight part #'s.  Good luck!

Bill

[phenom_1819]

Derek and Breakawaydaze -- that's exactly what I'm talking about with SkiMasters.  Those guys (the named individual especially) have big heads and bad information.  Wes is brand new at that place, and doesn't seem to know much about the Toyotas (or care much, for that matter), but he will tell you he knows all... oh, how I miss their old service person!!

To be honest, I was very surprised to hear back from a few people that they have been impressed with SkiMasters.  I've hung out in the shop and watched their shop technicians at work, and I'm a bit concerned.

Anyway, I'm going on 6 weeks now waiting for my call from him on a few warranty parts.   The named individual is getting hell from me today.  

[blindside]

breakawaydaze, I got NGK Iridium spark plugs at O'Reilly Auto Parts for 6.99

I'm not sure about those autolights but the NGK's are rumored as good or better than the Denso plugs

[toyotafreak]

Did you guys gap them or not?

Pretty sure our engine manual indicates gap.

[Epicrider]

I got the gap from my service shop.It's .045 .My boat has been running just fine on autolites.

[cyclone]

As a diehard Ford man, I can vouch for Autolites. I haven't tried them in my boat, but I probably will.

[jasonli]

Well Derek thanks for the advice! I ran the Exxon gas out, added a nice yummy tank of Chevron super (+one bottle of injection cleaner) and voila. She purrs like a kitten. No missing at all. Nice! I was so happy I cleared the wake by five feet and landed fakey!

[cyclone]

They SAY that the Denso's are better, I used them for my second set of plugs, replacing factory NGK's. I replaced them at around 400 hrs, I think.

NOTE:
Chicoepic reports that he fouls a particular plug repeatedly if he runs too much oil in the engine. Other runnability/noise problems have been reported from running too much or too little oil in the engine. I would recommend running 5w20 synthetic, I like Mobil 1. There is one oil filter for a 2000 Lexus, it is the one you need for your boat.  Drain excess oil via the drain hose or a vacuum pump.

Change the fuel filter every 100hrs, it is an MF-11, stock West Marine.

Use top quality 93 Octane fuel. The badass mofo 1UZ Marine Engine is over 10:1 compression. Don't Lamb around with cheap gas.

[aviator66]

Change the fuel filter every 100hrs, it is an MF-11, stock West Marine.

Hey Cyclone, What does MF-11 stand for?  If it's Max Flo, I got that, but can't find any reference for the "11".

Thanks!!

Aloha,
Tim

[cyclone]

It crosses to a Mercruiser 35-60494-1, standard Mercruiser filter element. there are pics on here somewhere, search the old posts