Johnson 88 SPL Spark Problem After Leak

Hello to everyone in the iBoats world. I have yet another problem with my 1993 Johnson 88 SPL. I have many other posts on other issues that have since been solved, thanks to everyone here. So here is the new one.

A few weeks ago after replacing the water pump I was under way and the boat started acting up after about 10 mins of running. Stopped, pulled the hood and noticed salt water everywhere. Look at the back of the motor and saw that one of the water hoses going to the head plate sprung a good leak. I am assuming this was hidden before because of the previous weak water pump. Well, ran back to the house to see what we could do. Replaced both hoses and no water problem is fixed. Now here is the problem created from that again I am assuming.

Now the motor is having issues starting no matter if its in the water or on the hose. Dual batteries fully charged, cranking fast. It takes a lot of fiddling to get it finally going on what seems to be 2 or 3 cylinders. At one point the motor in the water ran perfect, roared like a V4 Johnson should. Then intermittent RPMs again. Run to 4200, then 3000 then 2000 then 4200 again.

New coils on all cylinders, new OMC power pack, new Champ 82 plugs, new rectifier, fully charged battery. One dry plug, 3 wet ones after running. Recently rebuilt carbs, perfect compression just done, fresh pre mixed fuel, new fuel pump, new water separation filter, new fuel ball recent timing and link and sync.

I do not think it is fuel, pressing the primer will do nothing while running. The fuel ball is rock hard and all filters clean.

Could the good amount of salt water have ruined the stator? Anything I should check after the water sprayed down the inside? Any ideas here is appreciated. Thanks for everyone's time.

Re: Johnson 88 SPL Spark Problem After Leak

start, by running motor on muffs, pull one spark wire plug at a time, and pay attention to the rpms, they should drop when you pull the wire, and pick back up when you replace it. if it does not, that cylinder is not "running". you now have to determine if it is spark, compression, or carbs for that cylinder. i believe the 88 has 2 dual carbs, one barrel for each cylinder. with the one dry plug, i think you have a carb contaminated.

Re: Johnson 88 SPL Spark Problem After Leak

Thanks Tdaddy for the fast response. I already used a spark tester on the 4 coils. Only the top starboard side of the motor seemed to be getting solid spark. The other that are wet are weak to none. Bottom port side has no spark at all. Should I still do the pull the wire test or does this already give us our answer? Thanks again for all the help.

Re: Johnson 88 SPL Spark Problem After Leak

Also on the dry plug, I meant a perfectly burnt plug, not wet fouled like the others. It is the same upper starboard cylinder. Thanks again.

Re: Johnson 88 SPL Spark Problem After Leak

Ok Tdaddy, I think you are on to something as usual. I put in a fresh set of plugs and got it going on the muffs for a few min. Then I pulled each wire one by one. On the lower port cylinder I didnt notice a difference when I pulled the plug. The other 3 I did. After I pulled each plug to inspect. On the lower port cylinder the plug was totally dry like new. So I do believe there is a carb issue. Any ideas? Thanks for the help.

Re: Johnson 88 SPL Spark Problem After Leak

'So I do believe there is a carb issue.' that is what i was getting at. make sure you have spark there, then go after the carb.

Re: Johnson 88 SPL Spark Problem After Leak

Awesome, I will get at that today or tomorrow. I would have gone to the stator before back to the carbs. TDaddy thanks for the quick help as always. I will keep you posted with the results.

Re: Johnson 88 SPL Spark Problem After Leak

soaked and cleaned carbs yesterday and ran the boat. Now the problem has changed. Before I had an intermittent problem, now it is a solid loss of a cylinder. Before I would go from 2000k-3500k and back down, all over the board. Now it will plane and run at 4100k for the few times we ran it. Starts perfect now and seems to idle great. Previous it would take sometime to get her going. Pulled plugs, lower port plug still seems a little dry to me and unburnt. Any idea? Think I didn't get the carb cleaned well enough? It seemed real clean when I pulled it, ran wires through the jets as well to clean. I am going to get deeper into the ignition system here tomorrow or so. Any other advice is appreciated.

Re: Johnson 88 SPL Spark Problem After Leak

Problem solved! I took the carb apart again having a strong feeling TDaddy was right. I pulled the high speed jet that was feeding the cylinder in question and it was stuffed with some pretty thick plastic like substance. Cleared out. re-installed and fixed! TDaddy, you always have the right advice. Thanks for all the help, problem solved.

Re: Johnson 88 SPL Spark Problem After Leak

I try, thanks for letting me know. congrats and safe boating.

Re: Johnson 88 SPL Spark Problem After Leak

i dont know what junk is that accumulated in your high speed jet but i had the same thing in mine , what is it from?