Just Bought AR230, cant figure out what's exactly wrong with it

[Keelan4604]

I just bought another AR230, knowing it was broken, with the intention of fixing it. It was advertised as needs new ECM on the port engine, which is definitely true but not the whole story.

The story I heard from the buyer, who I still believe to be telling the truth, or his version of the truth, goes:
He's had the boat for 4 years. Gets all maintenance done by Park Marine near Atlanta. Boat sits for winter. Takes boat on water, and oil light comes on port engine. Limps back to dock on starboard. Takes boat to Park Marine, where they diagnose bad ECM and do an oil change on each engine.

Looking at the boat today, I found a few different problems, and can't seem to figure where they originated from and what exactly they are. Both engines start and run, no lights on the dash. They both start up quickly and idle okay. The port engine was hissing when I bought it, from an injector dumping fuel (possibly because of the ECM). The starboard was seemingly fine when I bought it, but I wasn't paying close attention to an open injector on that engine. It ran fine, and I chalked it up to good the engine is fine.
Getting into the boat further today, I find a nice assortment of electrical problems all around the boat. Whoever had the boat before the guy I bought it from invested substantial money into the sound system, lights, solar panel, etc. However, the wiring done to install these systems is definitely questionable. To start, there are two batteries in the back, for starting the motors, and one battery in the front, for the sound system and presumably other accessories. The accessories wont turn on, which wouldn't be too weird considering the suspected dead battery, except for the fact that all rocker switches turn on docking lights instead of their assigned accessory (i.e. bilge, blower, horn, dash lights all turn on the docking lights and nothing else. In addition, there is a short circuit somewhere on the front battery and stereo amplifiers, causing fuses to blow the second I put them in the amp. It is worth considering that this boat was regularly parked outside, getting absolutely flooded with rain, however, no signs of corrosion or water damage are anywhere. Seller claims that he has never had electrical problems like this.
As far as the engines go, they both start and run fine. Now both engines have at least one injector dumping fuel, as well as the breather boxes being substantially full of an oil/gasoline mix. It is also worth noting that the substance in the starboard engine's airbox has a milky color to it, whereas the port side does not.
Does anyone have ideas where these problems could have originated from? Could they all be interconnected? I am beginning to suspect that someone overfilled the oil on both engines, causing oil to spill over into the airbox, shorting the injectors, frying the ECM's. Not sure if that's exactly possible. It's also worth nothing that the fluid in the airboxes is great enough in volume to submerge the injectors completely as well as their connectors.

Let me know if anyone has ideas to what could have happened, and potential fixes/ what my next step should be in fixing these motors. I would rather not buy 8 injectors and 2 ECMs if possible.

 

[WREKS]

I would start by getting a service manual. Then check the oil to see if it was overfilled. That leads to flooding the airbox with oil. That in itself, I believe, can cause injector problems. In order to get back to basics, I would, also remove any questionable addons that may be improperly wired.

 

[Scottintexas]

I just bought another AR230, knowing it was broken, with the intention of fixing it. It was advertised as needs new ECM on the port engine, which is definitely true but not the whole story.

The story I heard from the buyer, who I still believe to be telling the truth, or his version of the truth, goes:
He's had the boat for 4 years. Gets all maintenance done by Park Marine near Atlanta. Boat sits for winter. Takes boat on water, and oil light comes on port engine. Limps back to dock on starboard. Takes boat to Park Marine, where they diagnose bad ECM and do an oil change on each engine.

This doesn't seem right
oil light comes on, dealer decides it's bad ECM but then does oil change on both engines ???

also, the boat only needs one battery to start ( really just a small motorcycle battery is enough) I would suspect the 2nd batter is left over from the original sound system,

This boat is called "a pig and a poke"

If it was me,
Electrical - I disconnect every thing and only reconnect the starter and accessories at the dash (back to stock)

It is also worth noting that the substance in the starboard engine's airbox has a milky color to it, whereas the port side does not.

if you have an engine with milky substance in the air filter I'd worry greatly and address it first, that's water mixed with your oil,

I'd change the oil in both engines so you're starting somewhat fresh and know what your dealing with,

If you have water mixing with the oil that's bigger than you dumping fuel issue,
if you run it you can get a better idea how much fuel is dumping into the oil,

 

[anmut]

If it was me, I'd be starting from the "hull up" on the restore.

Yank out all aftermarket electronics and put it back to stock.
Oil change, plugs, compression test, replace fuel, add seafoam to decarbon everything.

Otherwise you'll be chasing issues that could, or couldn't be, related to each other.

 

[Scottintexas]

and as mentioned above,

get a service manual and a YDS unit to read the ECU's

 

[Keelan4604]

Finally got back to working on the boat and have figured some things out and also have some new questions if anyone can help out. When I got the boat, both port and starboard engines had oil/gas in the intakes which means either ecm or injectors were bad on both engines. Today I checked injectors on both engines and confirmed that the ecm is sending a bad signal to injector wires 3 and 4 on the port engine. I swapped injectors around and cylinders 3 and 4 remained getting a bad signal, which leads me to believe that the port ecm is bad. On the sb engine however, none of the injectors were spraying. This came as a surprise to me because of the oil mixture that made its way up to the intake, meaning gas must have mixed with the oil, and that I heard and saw injectors spraying on the sb engine last time I was working on it. The only thing I changed was the batteries. This is leading me to believe that I have a possible bad ground somewhere and that's why the sb engine mysteriously started working properly and why the port engine is still not working.

On top of that, I am only getting 8.5-9v at the accessory panel on the dash after installing brand new batteries. This again leads me to believe I have a bad ground somewhere. If anyone has ideas on where the bad ground could be or other potential problem's please let me know. My plan for next time working on the boat is to clean all terminals and connections in hopes of eliminating any bad grounds. I also plan to swap the port and sb ecms, and if only the injectors on the port engine are spraying still, this would mean the problem isn't with the ecm itself, but possibly one of its connections to the battery. Let me know if anyone has ideas, thanks!

 

[Beachbummer]

I have had mild exposure to bad grounds. As with any troubleshooting you have to follow the wiring until you hit the problem...but you COULD cheat, at least to start. If you bring a known good ground to the circuit and all starts working well, you may not even have to find the root of the failure, just use your new troubleshooting ground permanently instead.

Best of Luck! I'm not a pro, but this is something that worked well for me some time ago when I was exposed to a really weird ground issue.