I have a 1998 150 hp Johnson fuel injected engine with about 350 hours on it. The engine has a new solenoid, clean/new spark plugs and the wiring/connections have all been inspected and cleaned as of this past month. With that said, the engine has been giving us problems cold starting the past 2+ years. Typically if we prime the engine with the bulb it will start up after several times and from there the engine will run great. However, this problem has gotten progressively worse and we have been forced to spray the engine with engine fogger to get it started (especially on cold morning trips). In addition to that, the engine has started to run noticeably choppy at all speeds other than idle and the check engine alarm has been going off after running the engine for about 10 plus minutes (this started about 3 months back). The local marina hooked up their computer and they claim the check engine light is being set off due to water in the fuel. They checked the fuel and there wasn't any water. Their suggestion to us was to just keep running it as it is most likely a computer error with the engine. I however believe there is something more to this problem as the engine is running poorer and poorer on each subsequent trip.
We nearly always use 91 or 93 octane fuel and we always add the appropriate amount of Sta-bil ethanol treatment to any new gas we pump in. I'm rather confident there is not water in the fuel as it has been running poorly during the duration of multiple ill-ups at the gas dock.
The engine never dies, but it runs really rough and cold starting the thing keeps getting tougher. Any thoughts or suggestions? I understand there could be several things wrong and there are a lot of variables at play here but if anyone has some initial thoughts it would be greatly appreciated.
One last thing, the primer bulb is never completely hard when we pump it and it has not been replaced since purchasing the boat in 1999 (I would think this could contribute to the cold starting problem but I don?t know if this would have anything to do with the fact that it is not running smoothly).
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
We nearly always use 91 or 93 octane fuel and we always add the appropriate amount of Sta-bil ethanol treatment to any new gas we pump in. I'm rather confident there is not water in the fuel as it has been running poorly during the duration of multiple ill-ups at the gas dock.
The engine never dies, but it runs really rough and cold starting the thing keeps getting tougher. Any thoughts or suggestions? I understand there could be several things wrong and there are a lot of variables at play here but if anyone has some initial thoughts it would be greatly appreciated.
One last thing, the primer bulb is never completely hard when we pump it and it has not been replaced since purchasing the boat in 1999 (I would think this could contribute to the cold starting problem but I don?t know if this would have anything to do with the fact that it is not running smoothly).
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.