Boat Maintenance: Cathouse Does It Again

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	Name:	Maverick -
	Subject:	Cathouse Does It Again
	Date:	11/30/2010 12:12:25 PM

Long story -- but moral is taking your boat to a knowledgeable dealer can save you a lot of money and headaches in the long run.

So the story is had an outboard powerhead rebuilt by a FL company 11 months ago and engine failed and no compression in #1 or #2 cylinders, question was why.

Contacted the FL company and they said sounds like overheating issues and most likely not going to be covered under warranty. So here we go -- FL company wants to pick up boat and take back to shop and told me not to take apart the head otherwise warranty would be voided. So I would have to sent boat to them, then it would be their word against mine. So after hours a thinking about the matter I called Steve on a rainy Friday afternoon (2 weeks ago) as boat was to be picked up on Monday or Tuesday and Steve says bring the boat to his shop in Prattville and they would try to figure out what caused the failure.

So drive 1 1/2 hours to Prattville and there are Steve and Mike waiting. Pull into shop and check compression, no compression is top 2 cylinders and I tell Steve we cannot take off the head as FL company will not honor warranty. Steve pulls out a flashlight and looks at the #1 and # 2 pistons and they are not burned or charred, so he says why did engine fail and all it could be is a blown head gasket. He says the only way to know for sure is to pull the head, so Steve calls FL company and tells them what is going on and they agree to allow Steve to pull the head.

Mike pulls heads and the top 2 cylinder sleeves have been suck in about 1/16" of an inch and the head is chipped in several places around the sleeve. Question now is why. Did it run lean, did an injector fail, most likely not since it is the #1 and #2 cylinders. So we pull the foot to check the impeller and find the impeller is completely melted and the inside of the water pump housing is charred. Steve asks if the boat has ever been cranked out of the water and I said no as boat is on a lift and dropped into the water prior to ever cranking. Steve says well since the impeller is melted and you have never cranked out of the water you need to contact your insurance company as it appears something other than operator error caused this issue and most likely covered by insurance. Had never heard of such, but contacted the insurance company anyway based on Steve's advice.

Claims adjuster calls on Monday and tells me most likely not covered as overheating and mechanical failure are not covered by the policy. Steve tells me to tell the adjuster to send a marine surveyor anyway as he deals with several insurance companies and he has never seen such not covered by insurance. Marine surveyor shows up on Friday and meets with Steve and as soon as he sees the impeller and Steve also mentions engine was rebuilt within past 11 months with new impeller, etc the surveyor says this should be covered and he would write it up as non operator error and something like underwater intrusion (some insurance term, but anyway Steve agreed)

Insurance adjuster calls the following Monday and says they understand engine was rebuilt within past 11 months and if I could provide documentation of such there would be no depreciation taken into account, otherwise there would be a 45% depreciation factor as the engine is a 2000 model. So I fax to claims adjuster the invoice on the Wed before Thanksgiving and he calls today and says they are paying for a new (not rebuilt) mercury powerhead and there will be no depreciation factored into the claim.

So had I not taken the boat to Steve I would have never know such was covered by insurance, as have never heard of such. If I had sent the boat back to FL I would have possibly forever been second guessing my decision. And finally Steve met with the marine surveyor to tell him exactly what he had done and what his professional opinion was and the marine surveyor concurred 100%.

So I guess the moral to the story is Steve just saved me a lot of money, even though I am sure the insurance will go up. But had I not taken the boat to Steve I would have never had a clue why the powerhead failed and if I had sent to boat back to FL and gentleman called me I would have been forever guessing where or not he was lying to me as I am sure he would have told me the failure was not covered by the warranty and whether he would have told me to call my insurance company we will never know. But what I do know is what Steve did and thus there is a relatively happy ending to a rather expensive repair.

So if ever in doubt I would suggest calling Steve and making the 1+ hour drive to Prattville to receive his opinion as in my case and several others it was well worth the drive. Thanks Steve, now get to work rebuilding that powerhead as it is time to go fishing.

Oh yea and tell Steven to get his rubbing compound, wax, buffer, carpet cleaner and armor-all out as he agreed if you got the job he would detail the boat for me, so I expect a boat that looks like brand new when I pick it up. Plus if he does a really nice job we will leave the boat at the Dadeville shop and I will let him take the boat out fishing and break it in for me.