Merc 200 Opti digital/Pinging

[Vickie]

Help! I posted this on the Boats and Motors board also, but I need some help fast. We have a 2000, Mercury 200 Optimax Digital that is making a loud pinging noise. It occurs around 4000 rpms.There isn't the power there usually is and the rpm's only run at about 5000 instead of the usual 5500. We had been out at Big Stone in some terrible weather rain, wind, cold and the motor worked great up until about 2:30pm on Sunday. How would it react to water in the gas? We took it out last night trying to run some of the gas out but it didn't help. Can't get it into the dealer this week and need it for opener. Any help would really be appreciated.

Thanks. Vickie

[Chadk66]

First off if you don't already have a good water filter installed on that nice a boat do it. Then pour in some Seafoam. Also the pinging could be coming from too low of octane fuel. Better top it off with premium next time if you haven't been. The opti's need the better gas I think.

[Vickie]

Thanks for the info. We only run premium in it so that's not it unless we somehow got bad gas. He's working on it right now - but they're pretty high tech and need that computer at the dealer to tell you what's wrong and how to fix it.

Vickie