[hwesterman]

Help.
I bought a project boat on ebay w/Evinrude 48HP special outboard, 2 cylinder,
2 cycle premix. This boat sat for probably a year in a parking lot.

I am new to boat motors, but have good experience on car engines.
Replaced the ignition switch to get it to start.
Using earmuffs, I got it going in the driveway. Grey greasy sludge began oozing out of ports in the lower section . Very rought idle, but higher speeds seemed OK.
Put it in the water about 6 weeks ago.

Idle was so bad, it took mid throttle to keep it running.
Lots of gas smell, big slick in the water. LOTS!! of smoke, much more than typical 2-cycle. WHITE billowing that did not die down as it warmed up. At full speed, not really noticeable(?)
Plugs looked sooty and wet at every inspection. I put new plugs in.
No change. I pulled a carburetor overhaul and found one float needle/seat was badly varnished and stuck. Paid close attention to all gas passages, especially slow speed circuit. 1.5 turns out on idle needle screw.
It now idles pretty well but flutters badly at any other speeds.
Pulled a compression check. 130 +/- on both cylinders.
Still wet looking plugs. I took the carbs apart again and double checked main jets. I pulled off the intake shroud and am finding a white milky looking puddle in the throat of both carbs???
I don't understand the white color. Am I getting water in the engine? There is a hose from the main case into the carburetor intake shroud.

More troubleshooting revealed that a miss-placed tie-wrap was preventing the ignition advancement linkage from moving properly at full throttle. Fixing it didn't seem to help??
Otherwise, i'm beginning to suspect the ignition at this point and have ordered a "factory" repair manual in order to trouble shoot deeper.
Any other ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Hankster

[i386]

Looks like you're on your way to sorting things out but give the "Awakening a sleeping engine" FAQ a read to get started. Plus anything else you can find in the FAQ section that's relevant.

White smoke sounds more like steam. Could be a blown head gasket. You should definately check your compresion first and go from there. Good luck.

[tashasdaddy]

also read Joe Reeves post on adjusting the carbs. have you done a decarb with seafoam deep creep? theres a post on that also.

[hwesterman]

i386 -both cylinders at 130 psi compression. Is there another path for water to get into crankshaft housing?

Rear Admiral -I did use seafoam when I overhauled carbs. Is seafoam deep creep something different?

THxd

[rickdb1boat]

Have you had a chance to run it on the water since the carb rebuild? You might just have had some condensation that caused the milky look in the carb. I'd take it out and run it to clean it out and see how she does. Check the spark plugs when you're done for proper burning. Compression looks good...Deep creep is the spray version of Seafoam...

[hwesterman]

Admiral,
Yes, I've tried to run it several times.
Engine fluttering badly above 1/3 speed, scared to go out of cove. Plugs still look black and wet.
Still milky puddle in the carb throat.
:/

[clemsonfor]

The gas smell and milky exhaust means that there is not compleat combustion either from weak spark or to much fuel. Your probably corrected that with the new needle and seat, BUT MAKE sure your float is adjusted parallel to the carb surface, if it sits to high it will flood the engine causing it to run very rough or only on 1 cyl, my 60 had a mis adjusted float that was slooding my bottom cyl and caused it to barley fire and sometimes to not at all when i had it under load. I think your problem is in the carb, but make sure you have spark on both cyl by pulling wires at idle to se if motor sound changes to let you know if a cyl is not fireing.

-nate

[jim_in_day]

One thing to do, is pull your gas line at the motor, and depressing the little ball in the middle of the connector and drain some gas into a glass container. If it is milky, that's your problem, I saw a lot of that this summer when the switched to summer blend gas with ethanol. Otherwise, I would look to what nate said, a misadjusted carb running rich will do that also

[clemsonfor]

I just forgot that i did not address the milky gas/oil/water in the carb throat. Take jims advice first and look at your tank, only other thing i come up with is splashing water up under the cowl being sucked into the carbs at half to full throttle??? A long shot but i am drawing a blank right now on the throat being milky, i'm thing more along the lines of in the water or running on muffs what comes out of the exaust at the prop. But the mis-adjusted card can fully account for running problems. Do some more digging it may take a little but i'm sure you will figure it out.

-nate

[clemsonfor]

I just forgot that i did not address the milky gas/oil/water in the carb throat. Take jims advice first and look at your tank, only other thing i come up with is splashing water up under the cowl being sucked into the carbs at half to full throttle?? A long shot but i am drawing a blank right now on the throat being milky, i'm thing more along the lines of in the water or running on muffs what comes out of the exaust at the prop. But the mis-adjusted card can fully account for running problems. Do some more digging it may take a little but i'm sure you will figure it out.

-nate

[clemsonfor]

Dang it a double post. I did not intend for the open mouth smiley to be in the first one i just used 3 ? marks and coinsidentilly that is the sign for it and it appeared, instead of editing it i hit bak and deleted one not thinking untill i hit add that it would double. Mods delet the first if neccisarry.


-Nate

[hwesterman]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
The gas directly from the tank looks clear and I am getting the milky puddle in the carb throat with my boat just sitting in the water running in neutral. Not enough splashing to get to the Carbs. I will clean it all out, re-assemble the intake shroud and restart it. It idles OK but flutters badly above 1/3 throttle. Dissassembly reveals the milky has returned.
Still has very white billowing smoke rolling out of the eshaust.
Double checked the float levels, very parallel with body at closure of the needle.
Visually, the carb butterflies look exactly in sync as I exercie the throttle linkage.

[jim_in_day]

ok, since your fuel looks ok at the tank, and you are getting a milky look at the carbs, try this. start motor on muffs, and remove one of the fuel lines to the carb and let it pulse into a glass. It might be possible to have a situation with a ruptured diaphram in the fuel pump and a bad lower seal pulling water into to case. Its a long shot, but would like to see if gas getting to carbs is ok, then if that is ok, you want to take a look at your reed valves.

[hwesterman]

Breakthrough...
Got the Factory manual in the mail and used their pullout troubleshooting guide. The symptoms matrix chart stongly suggested that the primer solenoid was stuck open.
Shore-nuff, :^ ... in fact the little plastic end looked like jabba-da-hut. All melted down. I removed the solenoid and plugged off the line from the fuel pump and the 2 small ones to the carbs and it started right up (residual gas) but would not start again. Just cranked. I cranked it about 15 seconds twice, but no luck. Probably not enough gas now. I was getting ready to try some starter fluid in the carb intake and NOW IT WON'T CRANK.
Not even a click. I've got 12.5 volts at the battery. Pulled the starter solenoid and it is clicking fine connected directly to the battery. When I put it back in the circuit, nothing. Pulled the Remote control apart and the Neutral switch is working correctly. Something is pulling the voltage down to about 8 volts somewere...
SHEESH. It's always sumpthun.
Back to the book for me

[hwesterman]

Primer solenoid replaced and resolved all problems
Now it idles, minimal smoke, runs at high end.
Thanks to everyone.
hankster d

[tashasdaddy]

deep creep is different for seafoam you add to your gas. it cleans all the innards in one nice smokey sweep. (usually 3 times)

[i386]

Awesome. Glad you figured it out. It's always nice to see the solution posted.