won't idle unless choked up

[shagnatious]

i just bought a 1986 riviera fiber corp 17'10" trihull. WHICH I CANNOT find anything about online.

the motor i was told is a 1996. LOGOs say mercury tracker 60 pro series.
serial number is 0g253256.

i put it out in water and it ran beautiful for about 2 miles at pretty close to wot. i have no tach. then it bogged down and shut off. we let it set for a min and it fired back up and it would run for a for a while and shut back off. i think it was over heating but not sure. if we ran itdown to idle it would stall. brought it home checked out the water pump. no crackes or anything in impeller. i pulled thermostat out just to see if that would change problem (putting in new it was curoded) but i took it out and it did the same thing but in a lot less time. like 200 yards. We noticed fuel inside the bottom of casing and found broken line going into fuel regulator. replaced it. motor now will only crank full choke and if you bring down the choke it stalls out. now can only trick it to move without it stalling by uping choke and then dropping choke fast and into gear before it idles all the way down. engine puts out a quite a bit of smoke when it stalls out. a little gas comes out of carbs when it stalls.and if i cover any of the intakes on the carbs a lot of fuel comes out and the rpm rocket up.

just wanna know what direction to go on the motor. wife will kill me if we end up with a lawn ornament.

thx

 

[j_martin]

Re: won't idle unless choked up

Run in an erratic pattern, ducking and weaving.

When you have a motor binding up because of overheat and lack of lubrication, and you push it till it just won't go, you've made a lawn ornament out of it.

If you've lucked out, and the fuel pump is bad, you can put a kit in that.

1. Verify that it has good compression
2. Fix the fuel system
3. Verify strong spark.

It only goes squish bang. It ain't rocket science. It should run.

hope it helps
John

 

[shagnatious]

Re: won't idle unless choked up

i don't know if that was a joke. i wasn't saying i tried to run it while it was shutting off. i only ran it back to the boat ramp. i just wanted to give the whole story and not piece it out in numerous sections like a lot of these forums go. then made sure cooling system was working at home and it seemed to run good on the muffs. then when i brought it back out it started again and came out worse is all.

but thx for your response

 

[j_martin]

Re: won't idle unless choked up

i don't know if that was a joke. i wasn't saying i tried to run it while it was shutting off. i only ran it back to the boat ramp. i just wanted to give the whole story and not piece it out in numerous sections like a lot of these forums go. then made sure cooling system was working at home and it seemed to run good on the muffs. then when i brought it back out it started again and came out worse is all.

but thx for your response

You know, shag, that motor don't care what you feel. If you did what you described, you may have done some serious damage to the power head. You said you ran it till it bogged at WOT, then ran it again till it bogged. You said you think it overheated. All of that is inimical to the health and well being of pistons.

Run a compression check to verify that either you did or you didn't. If you hurt it, one or more numbers will be low, and then you can either run like the wind or fix it, but you won't waste any time trying to tune up a bone. If the numbers are good, then you can go after the tune items at relatively low cost. It could be a simple as a plugged fuel pick up screen needs cleaning.

And yes, I did try to use a little humor.

hope it helps
John

 

[sschefer]

Re: won't idle unless choked up

Ahmen and Agree with both of John's posts. The symptom of before and after overheat are consistent with scuffed pistons and excessive blow by..

Understandable that you didn't see John's humor amidst your frustration. He is genuinely trying to cheer you up in an ugly situation.

 

[shagnatious]

Re: won't idle unless choked up

i agree i didn't see that humor in john reply. i just bought that boat and it ran fine at the house where i bought it. I was a little angry that i bought the boat and then get told motor is shot.

I was not sure it overheated. no bell or whistle went off but honestly i don't know if it has things that buzz if it is overheating. I took it to a shop and its got good compression right at 100 on all cylinders. they told me its a carberator issue so i am gonna pull them clean them and put in new needles and sets. motor ran strong and its just carb is choking up when comming off throttle plus man with boat before hand had the idle on the carbs all out of wack. not 1 1/2 turns like it is suppose to be.

 

[j_martin]

Re: won't idle unless choked up

i agree i didn't see that humor in john reply. i just bought that boat and it ran fine at the house where i bought it. I was a little angry that i bought the boat and then get told motor is shot.

I was not sure it overheated. no bell or whistle went off but honestly i don't know if it has things that buzz if it is overheating. I took it to a shop and its got good compression right at 100 on all cylinders. they told me its a carberator issue so i am gonna pull them clean them and put in new needles and sets. motor ran strong and its just carb is choking up when comming off throttle plus man with boat before hand had the idle on the carbs all out of wack. not 1 1/2 turns like it is suppose to be.

Lighten up, you lucked out.
It sounds like whoever had it before either neglected it or messed with it with no knowledge. It probably had a tank full of old fuel and muck in it when you bought it from lack of use.

I didn't say the motor was no good. What I said is that what you did in trying to run it could have ruined it. If that offends you, you better sell the boat and take up something safe like bird watching.

The thing for you to do is get some carb kits, and a genuine maintenance manual for it. Go through the carbs, cleaning them up, checking jet sizes, adjusting the floats, and generally getting them into blueprint shape so you can trust them.
The next thing to do is a formal linkage and timing adjustment. We call that a link-n-sync. That procedure may be quite elaborate, but it sets up all the timing, preliminary mixture, and linkage adjustments to the design specification. From there it should start and respond as expected to further adjustment.
You'll have questions. There's 'bout a gazillion folks on this board that have answers.

Many a doggy sluggard old engine has been bought, found to be miserably out of adjustment in many places, and put into top form by a newby that took it on himself to learn. I own one myself.

hope it helps
john

 

[quantumman29]

Re: won't idle unless choked up

sounds to me like the gas tank isnt vented,MAKE SURE THE VENTS ON THE GAS TANK ARE OPEN...

MIKE

 

[shagnatious]

Re: won't idle unless choked up

nope looked at vents even tried unscrewing fill cap alittle. adjusted carbs out 1 1/2 screw i know i need to pull and clean carbs. thx for the posts all.

 

[sschefer]

Re: won't idle unless choked up

You might want to have someone else check your compression against factory specs. 100lbs sounds kind of low for a inline.

 

[shagnatious]

Re: won't idle unless choked up

by using the Clymer mercury manual and doing my own research online i found the motor is good anywhere from 90-135 psi. But all that doesn't matter as much as they being withing 15 psi of each other and all mine are like 102 -104-105.

 

[shagnatious]

Re: won't idle unless choked up

problem was a leak in a lower fuel line replaced line. also bleed whole fuel system. Ran like a champ. got rid of the boat and went to a 1984 bayliner trophy 22' i/o