Blew up another battery.

[pmreed]

I took my 22C out on a local lake with Bob and Ranya to check out my new Turbo1 prop. Runs fine; seems to handle better than with the Mirage Plus. I don't know about speed...forgot the gps. Anyway, we're out in the middle of the lake after a good run, and at idle I had the rpm surge problem, up to 900 back down to 600, up to 900, back down etc. Turning off the engine and restarting usually cures this. So Bob, who was driving, shut it down and tried to fire it up again. BANG!!! :shocking:

He was understandably concerned as was I for a moment. Sounded like a backfire, but on a fuel injected engine? Then I realized what it had to be. A battery, the starboard one in this case, had blown up. Not the first time for me. About 6 years ago I turned on the ignition in my Chrysler Concorde and the same thing happened. That one blew up with enough force to dimple the hood! Anyway, after the first initial shock, I remembered that sound. Thank goodness for the other battery. Would have hated to ask for a tow from the Regal that thought he was faster than a BB Donzi.

Phil

[Fish boy]

Glad no one was hurt. Had one blow up myself tightening down the cables on a bettery with a feamle terminal that a screw went into. Torqued too hard; spun a lead plate that held the terminal from the inside; broke through into the next cell through the plastic wall and boom! Fortunately my cruise control unit was between me and the battery cause it was ripped off its fitting when the batt blew. :eek!:


At least you got to hang out with bob and ranya, which is always a blast.

Fish

[Forrest]

Phil, are you sure that your system is not overcharging those batteries? Overcharging produces lots of highly explosive gases from excessive heating of the sulfuric acid. High concentration of these gases will accumulate in the battery housing which will cause an explosion inside of the battery once the battery's internal temperature gets high enough. As you probably already know, that's a very dangerous situation which need to be rectified ASAP!

[Tidbart]

Phil,
Once the new battery(s) are installed, we'll run a check on the electrical system. Your voltmeter in the boat didn't indicate an overcharging condition but the meter may be off.

As for the revving, my first guess would be the IAC motor. I will do some more reading and see what other ideas I can come up with on that.

Bob

[boldts]

It's a fuel injected engine right? I saw a 502 FI engine do what your describing. The computer is trying to compensate for an injector that is either clogged or broken and not adding fuel to a cylinder. Take a look at the plugs after running the boat to see if all are wet with fuel. Just a thought, I'm no expert.

[Cuda]

High concentration of these gases will accumulate in the battery housing which will cause an explosion inside of the battery once the battery's internal temperature gets high enough. As you probably already know, that's a very dangerous situation which need to be rectified ASAP!

Exactly my thoughts. Many years ago, I was out in my dad's boat and my buddy and I got caught in a bad storm. We were getting banged around pretty good when we heard an explosion. Apparently the battery tipped and must have gotten against a ground causing the hydrogen gas to ignite. Luckily it was an outboard, and no real damage. The motor even kept running. I blew one up in a similar fashion on a car. I was hooking up jumper cables when they must have sparked, exploding the battery in my face. I was 16 then, and to this day I stand back when I'm connecting jumper cables.

But really I'm more well versed in melting batteries down. :bawling: