Alright I have a 99 optimax 200 and and NO ONE can figure out what is wrong with it. Tracker Marine has done an AWESOME job in trying to help me get to my tournoment but they are even scratching their heads. Tracker is the 4th mechanic to have their hands on it has been to each mechanic at least 3-4 times. The motor does it randomly but has been doing it consistently the past 4 days. Yesterday and today after the mechanic ran it in tank and would not have a problem yet at the lake make like a 5-6 mile run come off plane idle for a min then shut down then get back in it maybe 10 min later start it idles fine, ease onto plane and it chokes itself out wont idle just run really rough. Let it sit 10-15 min do the same thing and it will get up and run fine???????? It is driving me crazy I cant fish the college national championship because no one has a clue, Mercury does not even have a clue. All fuel and air pressures are in spec, has had a drop cylinder test done the only time it messed up with the mechanic and all are good!

Could be a power pack not supplying sufficant voltage for a hot spark or a coil

The drop cylinder test ruled that out is what I was told.

khoes 203 (outdoorsman) Try calling Charles outboard in Alvarado and talk to him or Keith Prater they are the sharpest maintance personal everment. Im sure they could help you.

That sounds electrical something heating up and separating then cooling down making contact. That could be a lot of things on that opti lots of sensors too. I'm sure someone else has had this happen. Could be a loose wire, bad connector, bad ground,or corrosion in a connector. It could be a bad coil tests fine cold but heat it up and it quits. Just some possibilities sounds electrical for sure well 90% anyway.

has any of them tried the maping sensor?

I had a simular problem on my 04 175 opti, it ended up being the high pressure fuel regulators in the fuel rails.

Have heard of some Mercs having wiring harness problems. See if Pender will try one on your motor.

That's a fact! Merc knows this. Surprised they haven't suggested or tried it...........

No surprise, we had the boat for a few hours and donated the time to him in an attempt to get him to Ala. for the C.N.C. tourney. Another customer loaned him a boat to fish out of and he is going to bring the boat back so we can spend a little more time with it. We don't feel like it's the harness but are leaning more to a heat soak issue.The concern only appears after the motor is heat soaked. Pretty easy to guess whats wrong when you don't know all of the facts.

We don't throw parts at a problem until we know that it's going to correct it.This saves the customer money unlike the other dealers he has already been to.

From what I understood from tha 2 owners that I know they did act that way. Thought they were referring to some type of "pin" connector in one of tha harnesses as tha problem. Don't remember for sure. Don't know if it was a part of tha motor harness or boat harness. Didn't get into it that deep with either person. Both were '99 225 Opti's. Both were in tha shop many times. Both were probably 2 yrs. old at tha time. I never did ask "how" they found it though! Was told a 'rep' found it on one of 'em after several visits. They also were both BassPro boats (Nitro) and that was where they were being taken......Don't know any more that that. Don't wanna know any more than that. Don't do Opti's. I'm to old and they're way to complicated for me...............

But GOOD FOR YOU Gary for your part in tryin' ta get tha guy goin'. Not many dealers would be doin' that.......

Thanks. We did pull the harness connector apart and inspected it but all pins present and clean. When we get it solved I'll post the solution. Thanks for the suggestions.

Seems ta me like was told it was "inside" tha connector itself. It wasn't visible when it was cleaned and "looked at". That's what made it so hard ta find.......Good luck man. Hope ya find it..........

I have the same year motor and same hp, mine did the same thing and none could find the problem. It was seen by so many mechanic they new the serial number by heart. It never threw a code never did anything except to do the exact same thing as yours. One day i fond a set of coils on ebay for 200 bucks. They were advertised as new so i took the chance. Boat ran fine for almost a year than starting doing it again. That time i used finger nail polish to mark the coils and started replacing them one at a time. I found the culprit on the bottom left looking at the motor from behind. It has done this several times over the years and it always the same one. I now need to buy another, that's seven in 13 years, Dennis the Boat whisper is the one who helped me find it as he and i have been friends for many many years, just my experience.I hope to someday find out why its always that one.

Well still no solution yet. Its not the coil packs we replaced each one individually and still does it. Gary and his crew at tracker have done an OUTSTANDING job and I still can thank them enough!! I am recommending them to everyone I know with boats.