Volvo Kamd 44P-Engine Hesitation

[Bullish]

I have posted this request previously this Summer but Volvo has not been able to rectify so I am asking for advice on how to proceed.

My engines are 2002's with about 330 hours on them. For the past two years I have experienced a problem when the engines reach about 2700 rpms and the compressors would usually turn off as the boat lays up on plane. The engines/compressors have a dead spot in them at this point and the compressors cycle or ossicalte for a couple of seconds as the boat struggles to get up on plane.

Over the course of this Summer I have hauled the boat and thouroughly cleaned the bottom, replaced the compressor clutches, and sent the EDC modules to Volvo for them to upgrade the software. The latter was upon their request since they have encountered this problem with my engines in the past and this software upgrade has fixed the problem.

None of these efforts have fixed the problem. At this point the Volvo mechanic/dealer has resigned to the fact that the boat is heavy with a severe deep-v and that I will have to live with this performance problem. Since the engines never had this problem during the first year that I owned the boat, I find this response unacceptable.

Besides continuing to contact Volvo directly and requesting one of their techinicians to be more directly invovled, I don't know what other course of action that I could take. In my opinion, Volvo made a decision to provide their engines as an option in the CC 28 so I don't want to hear that these boats are a bad combination with this Volvo engine.

Any advice for my next steps with Volvo with be greatly appreciated. Life is no fun when your toy doesn't work right and no one wants to deal with it!

[lrc]

hesitation

Hmmm, until you said you had the software upgrade, I thought I knew what it could be.

The E prom upgrade is what had to burned to the chip when my boat was new with the KAD 300. They first changed all the injectors. That didn't do it. So the E prom software was re-burned. Don't know if it was actually an upgrade but it did fix the problem.

They also recalibrated my throttle controls. That was a new factory procedure too but one you could do yourself.

If the dealer can't fix it, I would think the Volvo factory should send someone to you. That expert should have a laptop with the diagnosis software to confirm the trouble.

Good luck.

[Bullish]

Thanks for the providing that detail....they never explained the software upgrade in detail to me....I'll make sure that they did the same upgrade as your's. Did they have to do the software upgrade (burn the chip) more than once before it worked for you?

[Bullish]

Also, could you explain how to calibrate the controls?

[lrc]

Volvo

Bullish,

The first time they re-burned to the e-prom it removed the hesitation.

The throttle calibration is in you're users engine manual if you have it. Mine may be different than yours. If it's been updated, the dealer should be able to give you a copy of the service bulletin.

As I recall it was one or two pages on how to do it. Wasn't difficult, you just had to follow the instructions carefully.

[Bullish]

Thanks again.

[Bullish]

Problem Fixed!

The symptoms included a hesititation and cycling sound in the engines just before planing. The symptom is magnified when the boat is heavy. The solution was to replace both compressor clutches and for Volvo to upgrade the chip in the EDC module.

The hesitation was caused by the wornout compressor clutches engaging and disengaging just before planing.

These are Volvo KAMD 44p's. Identical problems have occured in the KAMD 300. Beware!

[Axiom2000]

I am sorry you are having these problems with what is essentialy a new boat. I agree Volvo has not done its best here, for them to say your problems are caused by a heavy boat with a deep V is utter nonsense. If the engines are not running right they are not running right. I have the same boat with the 43P engines, less horsepower than yours and I have no problems. My compressors kick in at 1500 the boat gets on plane nicely and they kick out at 2500.
I agree you should contact Volvo directly and request some direct factory support. Obviously something is not right and they should be made to right it.

[Bullish]

All said and done, the boat is running right now. My biggest complaint is that I had to write lengthy emails and document my difficulty getting good support from two of their dealers before I received serious attention.

In my opinion, these dealers want nothing to do with problems that are unordinary. The message I was hearing is that these engines are past warranty and I might have to live with it. Not acceptable. In the end the problem is fixed but I'll do much more research on engine manufactures and more importantly research on the dealers in my area that service different manufactures before I buy my next boat or repower.

To Volvo's credit, they covered the cost of the compressor clutches even though they were not under warranty due to the fact that they wore out so quickly (300 hours). I paid for all labor.