Four winns horizon 220 5.8L king cobra Intermittent spark? Maybe Low compression

Sam Buckpitt

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Jul 17, 2012
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Hi i have a 1992 Four winns horizon 220. It has the big block 351 5.8L OMC engine. I bought this boat as a project. The owner previous to me didn't have the impeller installed. It over heated, then he immediately turned it off:facepalm:. That sucked lake water back through the engine and had water in the oil. Me and my mechanic took of the manifolds and heads. The heads along with the valves were fine. We basically did the top end and changed the oil. Before we re- did the heads some cylinders had 20-30lbs of compression. The previous owner later told us that he replaced the drive cable. We knew that could have caused problems with the switch that turns off the four cylinders to shift (forgot what the acronym for it is). Over all we are having trouble getting it to fire on all cylinders.We unplugged the swich and still fires weird. What it does is when we start it the boat runs really rough. when it runs you can hear that every few seconds all eight cylinders fire then it goes back to running rough. It seems like it has intermittent spark to a few of the cylinders. The main coil sparks correctly but I am wondering if it could be the distributor? Or low compression? (when the manifolds are on we cant get the gauge in the spark plug hole, thus, we cannot test the compression.) We tried new ignition cables but it didnt help any. We did replace the ignition switch, which kept it running but it didn't fix the problem we have now. Any suggestions?
 

Don S

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Re: Four winns horizon 220 5.8L king cobra Intermittent spark? Maybe Low compression

You may want to reconsider your options with that boat. If you have a King Cobra, you have a drive you can't get any parts for, plus you have the EEM ignition system you can't get any parts for, on a Ford engine that you can't get marine parts for. So how much money do you want to spend on this boat you can't fix?
 

Sam Buckpitt

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Jul 17, 2012
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Re: Four winns horizon 220 5.8L king cobra Intermittent spark? Maybe Low compression

Ya unfortunately I realized that after I bought the boat. It is just so close to working correctly. I am just stuck. It has been difficult. I just need to see what the problem might be. This boat has been my night mare
 

Sam Buckpitt

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Jul 17, 2012
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Re: Four winns horizon 220 5.8L king cobra Intermittent spark? Maybe Low compression

I cant afford to put a whole lot more into it I was planning on having 4000 in it by the time its all said and done. Bought it for 2500
 

Sam Buckpitt

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Jul 17, 2012
Messages
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Re: Four winns horizon 220 5.8L king cobra Intermittent spark? Maybe Low compression

Should I just change out the whole ignition system? The boat shops I have been to said I can change the whole system.
 

Don S

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Joined
Aug 31, 2004
Messages
62,321
Re: Four winns horizon 220 5.8L king cobra Intermittent spark? Maybe Low compression

Post a picture of your drive and transom shield, just to make sure what you have. Do the same with your engine and ignition system. Just to verify what you have. Or post the full model number of your engine.

To many times an engine drive system can be a year older than the boat itself.
 
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