Texas Fishing Forum

My ZX200 Bug by the numbers.

Posted By: ogles824 (aka Lakewaydr50)

My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/30/21 06:22 PM

My daughter and I just got back from Cooper Lake taking our bug on its maiden voyage with this family. By the numbers this is what it yielded. Me and my daughter on board empty livewells, about 20 to 25 gallons ( (about half that is fresh fuel), 200 Vmax SHO 2012 model, 15-1/8 x25 inch Yamaha VMax prop with slight damage, around 5700 rpms on slick water, clear temps in the mid 60's, Humminbird GPS numbers 63.1 mph. We had a slight engine miss for a little while and that eventually turned into a full on dead miss; I attribute that to 147 on the clock and it being 9 years old, I backed out of it and started easing back to the boat ramp and that eventually cleared up, so we continued with our test run. when we got back to the boat ramp it was running smooth as glass. I think I'm going to put some Sea Foam in it to clean the injectors as well; already has Sta Bil in it. What do you guys think?
Posted By: BrandoA

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/30/21 06:33 PM

I am a big believer in Sea Foam. If possible drain gas and put new gas in it
Posted By: ogles824 (aka Lakewaydr50)

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/30/21 06:58 PM

Corrected the prop size; should be a 25. Brando A I very well may do that; remove the gas. Is there anywhere that I can have it pumped out and disposed of?
Posted By: BrandoA

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/30/21 08:21 PM

Originally Posted by ogles824 (aka Lakewaydr50)
Corrected the prop size; should be a 25. Brando A I very well may do that; remove the gas. Is there anywhere that I can have it pumped out and disposed of?



I would siphon it out my self and add some motor oil and use it to start campfires
Posted By: nellie

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/30/21 10:11 PM

Don’t think you would be able to siphon it, I could not, I was told there is some kind of anti valve in the tank that prevents it, I even tried to use a pump but only got very little out each time.

Mine was a 2006 250 Yamaha that had not been ran but once in two years so I was scared to run it without a full checkup and glad I did. I would recommend taking it to someone and have some maintenance done and a checkup before running it, a clogged injector could end up causing some very expensive damage.

Better safe than sorry. I had all new filters installed and had all injectors pulled and serviced, two of mine were 60% clogged and would have caused a failure at some point.

Make sure it’s operating properly before running it a lot if it sat up for a long time.
Posted By: SteezMacQueen

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/30/21 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by nellie
Don’t think you would be able to siphon it, I could not, I was told there is some kind of anti valve in the tank that prevents it, I even tried to use a pump but only got very little out each time.

Mine was a 2006 250 Yamaha that had not been ran but once in two years so I was scared to run it without a full checkup and glad I did. I would recommend taking it to someone and have some maintenance done and a checkup before running it, a clogged injector could end up causing some very expensive damage.

Better safe than sorry. I had all new filters installed and had all injectors pulled and serviced, two of mine were 60% clogged and would have caused a failure at some point.

Make sure it’s operating properly before running it a lot if it sat up for a long time.


VERY WISE WORDS!

A soon as that motor hiccuped one time, I would have shut it down. A dirty injector is a lean cylinder. A lean cylinder is a blown power head. Big money. Don’t let it get that far.

It could also be one of the 5 fuel filters inside the engine cowling. The main on the front, the inline, the inside of the VST tank, the one with the “Y” fitting, and one other one. Also each injector may have a fuel filter inside.

I bought my boat with 42 hours in it…14 years old. I immediately spent $800 getting the filters, changing the oil, having the fuel tanks emptied and “scrubbed”, installed a Raycor filter, and had the injectors cleaned.

That was me doing the labor on everything but the injector cleaning.

Great deals are good, but plan on doing a complete service.
Posted By: Ken A.

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/30/21 10:46 PM

Agreed, better to be safe than sorry. If one of the injectors leans the cylinder out at high RPM's you could burn a piston real quick. That will be $4K min.

Also the slight damage on the prop could affect the speed a lot more than you would think. The blade may not be 25" pitch any longer. Take to to a reputable prop guy and have them clean it up and make sure all blades are consistent. Your speed sounds a little off with the cool water/weather.
Posted By: leethefishking

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/31/21 12:30 AM

Originally Posted by Ken A.
Agreed, better to be safe than sorry. If one of the injectors leans the cylinder out at high RPM's you could burn a piston real quick. That will be $4K min.

Also the slight damage on the prop could affect the speed a lot more than you would think. The blade may not be 25" pitch any longer. Take to to a reputable prop guy and have them clean it up and make sure all blades are consistent. Your speed sounds a little off with the cool water/weather.
A 2012 SHO is a four stroke. Leaning cylinder won’t matter a hill of beans on oil like it would with a 2 stroke.
Posted By: SteezMacQueen

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/31/21 12:38 AM

Originally Posted by leethefishking
Originally Posted by Ken A.
Agreed, better to be safe than sorry. If one of the injectors leans the cylinder out at high RPM's you could burn a piston real quick. That will be $4K min.

Also the slight damage on the prop could affect the speed a lot more than you would think. The blade may not be 25" pitch any longer. Take to to a reputable prop guy and have them clean it up and make sure all blades are consistent. Your speed sounds a little off with the cool water/weather.
A 2012 SHO is a four stroke. Leaning cylinder won’t matter a hill of beans on oil like it would with a 2 stroke.

That is so far from the truth. I hope NOBODY listens to your suggestion.

Lean burns hot. Hot enough to melt pistons, burn rings, flake off chunks of spark plugs. I’ve seen it all…and now I have heard it all.
Posted By: skins84

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/31/21 12:43 AM

lean is never good. 2 stroke or 4.
Posted By: ogles824 (aka Lakewaydr50)

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/31/21 07:39 AM

I’d have to agree on the lean situation. We had gotten out about 5 miles when it dropped a cylinder I pulled back on it to the point it would just stay on plane and about a mile or two it cleared it was running on all 6 smooth and idled perfectly when we brought it back in. I talked with Billy Sartin when I bought the boat about this and he did tell me the engine is designed to protect it’s self from anything catastrophic and would go into the limp mode before it would damage its self. My experience with two strokes doing this has been as soon as it dropped a cylinder the damage was already done. It was to late at that point.
Posted By: Chris B

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/31/21 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by leethefishking
Originally Posted by Ken A.
Agreed, better to be safe than sorry. If one of the injectors leans the cylinder out at high RPM's you could burn a piston real quick. That will be $4K min.

Also the slight damage on the prop could affect the speed a lot more than you would think. The blade may not be 25" pitch any longer. Take to to a reputable prop guy and have them clean it up and make sure all blades are consistent. Your speed sounds a little off with the cool water/weather.
A 2012 SHO is a four stroke. Leaning cylinder won’t matter a hill of beans on oil like it would with a 2 stroke.

You couldn’t be more wrong.
Posted By: Mark Perry

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 12/31/21 03:03 PM

Sometimes a weak battery will mimic fuel issues. Might be worth it to test the battery as well as check all battery connections.
Posted By: ogles824 (aka Lakewaydr50)

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 01/01/22 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by Mark Perry
Sometimes a weak battery will mimic fuel issues. Might be worth it to test the battery as well as check all battery connections.
I may have to do that. We just installed batteries in my wife and daughter's cars this week for that very reason. both were causing the ECM's to act up and they both failed a load test miserably.
Also these motors are direct injected so if you completely loose the fuel coming to a cylinder you will loose the ability to burn a piston because you've taken away part the fire triangle.
We recently fought this battle on my son's Jeep Wrangler. It dropped an injector and he had to drive it for about a week like that until we could get the parts for me to repair it. Boy there's a battle; had to remove the intake to get this done, we did a tune up and one coil pack while we were in there.
Posted By: KYBluefan

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 01/02/22 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by SteezMacQueen
Originally Posted by nellie
Don’t think you would be able to siphon it, I could not, I was told there is some kind of anti valve in the tank that prevents it, I even tried to use a pump but only got very little out each time.

Mine was a 2006 250 Yamaha that had not been ran but once in two years so I was scared to run it without a full checkup and glad I did. I would recommend taking it to someone and have some maintenance done and a checkup before running it, a clogged injector could end up causing some very expensive damage.

Better safe than sorry. I had all new filters installed and had all injectors pulled and serviced, two of mine were 60% clogged and would have caused a failure at some point.

Make sure it’s operating properly before running it a lot if it sat up for a long time.


VERY WISE WORDS!

A soon as that motor hiccuped one time, I would have shut it down. A dirty injector is a lean cylinder. A lean cylinder is a blown power head. Big money. Don’t let it get that far.

It could also be one of the 5 fuel filters inside the engine cowling. The main on the front, the inline, the inside of the VST tank, the one with the “Y” fitting, and one other one. Also each injector may have a fuel filter inside.

I bought my boat with 42 hours in it…14 years old. I immediately spent $800 getting the filters, changing the oil, having the fuel tanks emptied and “scrubbed”, installed a Raycor filter, and had the injectors cleaned.

That was me doing the labor on everything but the injector cleaning.

Great deals are good, but plan on doing a complete service.


Lean cylinders go on 2 strokes. Not so on 4 strokes. They still get the oil to them even with clogged injectors.

ETA. I didn't read all the responses and the response on lean burns hot I guess makes sense. I'm no expert so I'll put my foot in my mouth.
Posted By: tmd11111

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 01/02/22 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by KYBluefan
Originally Posted by SteezMacQueen
Originally Posted by nellie
Don’t think you would be able to siphon it, I could not, I was told there is some kind of anti valve in the tank that prevents it, I even tried to use a pump but only got very little out each time.

Mine was a 2006 250 Yamaha that had not been ran but once in two years so I was scared to run it without a full checkup and glad I did. I would recommend taking it to someone and have some maintenance done and a checkup before running it, a clogged injector could end up causing some very expensive damage.

Better safe than sorry. I had all new filters installed and had all injectors pulled and serviced, two of mine were 60% clogged and would have caused a failure at some point.

Make sure it’s operating properly before running it a lot if it sat up for a long time.


VERY WISE WORDS!

A soon as that motor hiccuped one time, I would have shut it down. A dirty injector is a lean cylinder. A lean cylinder is a blown power head. Big money. Don’t let it get that far.

It could also be one of the 5 fuel filters inside the engine cowling. The main on the front, the inline, the inside of the VST tank, the one with the “Y” fitting, and one other one. Also each injector may have a fuel filter inside.

I bought my boat with 42 hours in it…14 years old. I immediately spent $800 getting the filters, changing the oil, having the fuel tanks emptied and “scrubbed”, installed a Raycor filter, and had the injectors cleaned.

That was me doing the labor on everything but the injector cleaning.

Great deals are good, but plan on doing a complete service.


Lean cylinders go on 2 strokes. Not so on 4 strokes. They still get the oil to them even with clogged injectors.

ETA. I didn't read all the responses and the response on lean burns hot I guess makes sense. I'm no expert so I'll put my foot in my mouth.


Lean cylinder on a 4 stroke can and will melt a piston.
Posted By: ogles824 (aka Lakewaydr50)

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 01/02/22 02:13 PM

Lean yes completely blocked off no.
Posted By: leethefishking

Re: My ZX200 Bug by the numbers. - 01/02/22 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by Chris B
Originally Posted by leethefishking
Originally Posted by Ken A.
Agreed, better to be safe than sorry. If one of the injectors leans the cylinder out at high RPM's you could burn a piston real quick. That will be $4K min.

Also the slight damage on the prop could affect the speed a lot more than you would think. The blade may not be 25" pitch any longer. Take to to a reputable prop guy and have them clean it up and make sure all blades are consistent. Your speed sounds a little off with the cool water/weather.
A 2012 SHO is a four stroke. Leaning cylinder won’t matter a hill of beans on oil like it would with a 2 stroke.

You couldn’t be more wrong.
Your absolutely right. I always thought that the lean issue was detrimental to 2 strokes due to no oil in the piston. I didn’t realize temperature was a major factor in four strokes and could also be damaging.
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