Ri237 demo

[Cdifranco 463]

I was informed of the thermostat issue last week. It's apparently an issue across the board of all the PCM engines made in the past 18months or so.

Unacceptable

[DarksideR 1,679]

Unacceptable

It's a recal. They just found the issue

[Cdifranco 463]

It's a recal. They just found the issue

I would recall having some headaches if I owned one of these new pcm motors lol . Who notified the customers PCM or Fineline?

[CO Surfer 289]

I know I haven't been contacted. I also haven't experienced any issues yet.

[DarksideR 1,679]

I had my boat in for 25hour service and the maintenance manager informed me he had just got word of it but was unaware of the fix as of that moment. Your dealer SHOULD contact you I would think....

[truekaotik 458]

It's obviously intermittent from all our posts combined brothers. So, I'm glad it's getting fixed atleast but I agree it shouldn't take this long from posts to know the problem supposedly but not have a solution.. Hmmm

Edited July 23, 2016 by truekaotik

[CO Surfer 289]

 

 

Guess what happened to me yesterday? Overheat alarm as I'm trying to beat a storm headed back to the marina. For those that don't know, I have a 2016 PCM H5 engine in a SV233. It now has 75 hours on it. I picked it up in April.

 

I had to nurse the boat back to the marina at no wake speed. If I went even as fast as 1,500 RPM, the temps would climb up towards 200.

 

Today I pulled the impeller and all of the fresh water hoses from the thru-hull ball valve all the way to the impeller. They were perfectly clean and the impeller looked fine.

 

I then decided to pull the thermostat thinking I was on a wild goose chase since thermostats don't go bad. Well, apparently yes they do. I did the boiling water test twice and both times the thermostat never opened even though I brought the water to boiling. The first photo is right after I pulled it out of the pan at 200 degrees F. My house is at 7,040' in elevation and water boils below 212 here. The other photos show me holding a thermometer touching just the water with the thermostat still closed.

 

Note that I had no issues whatsoever for the first 74 hours of operation. Really glad I found this before my trip to Lake Powell in a couple of weeks.

[h20king 794]

Spent time on the 17 237 yesterday it is a nice boat for sure

Edited July 31, 2016 by h20king

[Lak3surf3r 714]

 

Guess what happened to me yesterday? Overheat alarm as I'm trying to beat a storm headed back to the marina. For those that don't know, I have a 2016 PCM H5 engine in a SV233. It now has 75 hours on it. I picked it up in April.

 

I had to nurse the boat back to the marina at no wake speed. If I went even as fast as 1,500 RPM, the temps would climb up towards 200.

 

Today I pulled the impeller and all of the fresh water hoses from the thru-hull ball valve all the way to the impeller. They were perfectly clean and the impeller looked fine.

 

I then decided to pull the thermostat thinking I was on a wild goose chase since thermostats don't go bad. Well, apparently yes they do. I did the boiling water test twice and both times the thermostat never opened even though I brought the water to boiling. The first photo is right after I pulled it out of the pan at 200 degrees F. My house is at 7,040' in elevation and water boils below 212 here. The other photos show me holding a thermometer touching just the water with the thermostat still closed.

 

Note that I had no issues whatsoever for the first 74 hours of operation. Really glad I found this before my trip to Lake Powell in a couple of weeks.

There is a recall for PCM thermostats. I would hope that your dealer reached out and told you that!

[CO Surfer 289]

My dealer had absolutely no clue about this! NW Boat Sports posted the service advisory on another thread. I called PCM and got to their warranty manager. He is sending me out a new thermostat which I should have on Thursday. He also told me that my dealer had not turned in the warranty card for my engine yet (which I already knew from speaking with the dealer on Saturday when he told me that).

My dealer knows about it now. I sent him the service advisory and I'm pretty sure PCM will be calling them to find out where my (and all of the other Fineline boats) registration is.

My guess is that my dealer didn't know about it because they haven't sent in any of the warranty cards/inspection checklists to PCM.

PCM was very nice about sending me a thermostat right away. Maybe I should have asked for labor payment for replacing it myself....

Edited August 2, 2016 by CO Surfer

[Lak3surf3r 714]

My dealer had absolutely no clue about this! NW Boat Sports posted the service advisory on another thread. I called PCM and got to their warranty manager. He is sending me out a new thermostat which I should have on Thursday. He also told me that my dealer had not turned in the warranty card for my engine yet (which I already knew from speaking with the dealer on Saturday when he told me that).

My dealer knows about it now. I sent him the service advisory and I'm pretty sure PCM will be calling them to find out where my (and all of the other Fineline boats) registration is.

My guess is that my dealer didn't know about it because they haven't sent in any of the warranty cards/inspection checklists to PCM.

PCM was very nice about sending me a thermostat right away. Maybe I should have asked for labor payment for replacing it myself....

Ouch, double whammy! Yea charge them what the dealer does for labor

[viking 491]

It really sucks when the consumer knows more about the boat than the selling dealer

[CO Surfer 289]

Yep.

I might add that I have yet to go into a dealership and find that the salesman knows more about the vehicle I want to buy than I do. I'm obviously not buying from the right dealers.

It is disappointing that my dealer was not aware of this issue but they did point me towards the thermostat when I asked them over the phone if these engines had any type of electronic device that controlled water exiting the engine. At that point I had already pulled all of the fresh water hoses to the impeller housing as well as the impeller so I knew that wasn't the issue. I just couldn't believe a thermostat would go bad.

[h20king 794]

Guess I'm the lucky one. My dealer NW Boat Sports is awesome. Pat and Brian who own the dealership also work at the dealership. It is not uncommon to walk into the dealership and see them both helping out the guys in the service department if no customers are in the showroom. Both own Boats and surf so they know as much about them as me. Through the years we have become good friend's and try to get together to ride whenever we can. Surfed Friday with the boys as well as our rep Gerry who is also a great guy and a surfaholic LOL as much as I love centurion and supreme I would change brands before I would change dealers.

[truekaotik 458]

A dealer by your side in any fight logical trumps a Brand to be honest.... If they keep you in service through the glitches, that's gold...

[CO Surfer 289]

Those guys clued me in to the recall. I can tell they're a bunch of good guys.

I just happen to live in the middle of nowhere. My dealer is the closest dealer of any manufacturer of surf boats around me and they're still 4 1/2 hrs away. I think they're ok; just not one of the top ones.

[Mrdeerwood 26]

The 237 has definitely had some bugs but it seems like they are getting most of them ironed out. I have 75 hours on my 15' FS33 this year and probably 20 Hard surfing hours on my buddies 237. The 237 is hands down a better boat, rediculous wave, more storage, everything about it... My Biggest problems are the stock prop blows and no table. Sounds like they are fixing both for the 17's. Personally I would wait for a bigger prop cause with full ballast and 4 people it struggles to reach 11.5 mph. Maybe it was a thermostat issue but it struggles every time so I doubt it (Pretty sure they put out a memo that said with over 4-5 people you need to dump ballast). That being said, even without full ballast the wave is amazing but the potential it has (with a bigger prop) i think is almost unbelievable. Love my FS but when it's time to upgrade pretty sure a 237 is in my future. Just my 2C....

[Fivebar2 176]

What elevation are you at? I agree it definitely could use a little more at weight but I've never had an issue getting surf speeds with 4-6 people and 500 lbs of lead. I haven't tried to get much past 12 mph though. Where I really struggle is trying to fill the ramfills.

[Mrdeerwood 26]

Should have mentioned, H5 engine, always premium non-oxy, 800' elevation. Ya, we learned the hard way that you have too fill the Rams 1st otherwise it's very tough to overfill them to the point where they are actually full (gushing out the vents) but my FS33 is similar when filling the Rams (for QS, non list surfing). All I'm saying is a little bigger prop would make a world of difference on that boat. The early model G23/G25 run a 15" prop and the current ones run a 17" prop. For the Ri237 the 14.5" just isn't enough for the size/weight...

[Fivebar2 176]

I once forgot and filled all the pnp/tanks prior to filling the Rams...that didn't work so well. I also have the H6 so I'm sure that helps. And am basically at sea level.