continued...
In early May I took delivery of the boat. I wrote a check in access of $300 for delivery of the boat, and tipped the delivery person $20. He put the boat into the water and not more that 100 yards out into the water I noticed the motor having the same issues it did on the test drive. A minute later the engine stalled out again and again, multiple times before I could even reach my dock. I called Munson, spoke to Pete the service manager, who told me they had tested the motor numerous times and had found no problems with it before delivery. I told him that was impossible. I knew I was in for a long summer with the boat and with Munson, especially since they have started off our relationship with a blatant lie. He said he would send someone up to look at it.
The next weekend a mechanic from Munson came up to the house to check things out. He removed the fuel line from the manufacturer’s (South Bay) fuel filter, essentially bypassing it, and connected it directly to the engine. He told me that Munson technicians bypass the manufacturer's fuel filters all the time because they tend to cause problems with the fuel. He said this Honda motor had its own fuel filter on it anyway so it shouldn’t matter. He had also squeezed the fuel pump ball multiple times to make sure it was working properly. When he did so, I noticed a small amount of gasoline trickling down alongside the motor and into the water. He said this was a common event and that sometimes fuel can accumulate in certain parts of the engine components and will wash off into the water. It didn’t sound right to me, but what do I know, right? He's the mechanic. He said to try things out and let him know if it was still having problems after he left. I took the boat out a couple hours later and it was having the exact same issues I was having on the test drive and before he came to service it that day.
I called Munson back, again speaking to Pete the service manager, who told me they would have to locate a new fuel pump from Honda. After a couple weeks he had located one and scheduled a time to come up and install.
The same mechanic who came to the house before also came up to install the new fuel pump. After the new fuel pump was installed, the boat did not stall anymore for about two months, but it also did not seem to be running very well. It would chug while in neutral and seemed like it always wanted to stall. Finally, in early August, the boat began to stall every time I had the boat in idle. It also took about 10 minutes to get the motor started every time I took the boat out. I knew something was still wrong with the motor and it was indeed not fixed. Keep in mind the motor had 25 hours on it at this time. It was practically still brand new. I called Pete at Munson. He told me it would probably cost in access of $350 to come up and look at it and perform a 20 hour service on the boat which may or may not take care of the issue. After discussing the issue with him, we had agreed that the best option was to take it to the local marina and do an oil change and have the mechanic adjust the throttle and see if it fixed things. I did that. The owner of the marina performed an oil change and lightly inspected the engine.
continued...
more