175 Evinrude Locking up

Hey, I just bought a 87 Bayliner center console with a 175 Evinrude outboard on it. I took it out last week and it ran great. Took it out again today and it ran fine for most of the day. I ran it about 3/4 throttle for about 10 mins and when I slowed down it started knocking and stalled. It sounded like the motor locked up. I tried to start it and it seemed locked up. After a few trys it turned over again and started and ran fine. It did the same thing about 2 more times after getting up to speed it would run good for a min then stall. Does anyone have any idea what this could be? All help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

what is the yr and model number?

Best bet is drop the lower end to find out where its binding, I wouldn't run it , the danger is you can put a rod thru the block if its in the powerhead.

remove plugs and put in gear, can you feel anything when turning the prop?

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

Did you get any warning horn? When was the last time the impeller was replaced? Could be an overheat lockup. If you have a laser temp gun, would be good to check the head temps next time you run the engine. You need to resolve the issue before any major damage occurs to the engine.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

Thanks for the help. I did notice that the motor didn't seem to spit out a real hard stream of water like my old motor did. The impleller could definitely be the problem. I also remebered that I replaced the spark plugs since I took it out last. They didn't have Champions where I went so I got Autolite equivalents. Could this be a problem too? I don't have a temp gun but i'm sure that I could rent one from the parts store. I wil probably just order a new impeller anyways to be safe. Thanks again for the help.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

Just looked and found the numbers.
Model Number is E175TXCUA
Serial is R 1500554

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

Yep, address the water pump.

My understanding is that the knocking can occur from deposits getting very hot in the cylinder which in turn cause a 2nd source of ignition in the cylinder. The excess deposits may exist from the day you overheated and the engine locked up. If this is the case then you need to remove those deposits somehow.

I'm also no expert, but anytime the motor seizes I think it's best to shut it down and not restart until you've figured out the problem.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

Hey Guys, I have now replaced the water pump, gone back to champion plugs, and checked all the things that I could think of. I put the boat in neutral and turned the prop with no problem, also took the plugs out and turned the prop with it in gear. Turned freely with no glitches I took the boat out yesterday and it ran great for over an hour. I then wanted to ride to another spot on the lake. It ran great at wot for a few mins then same thing. (motor lost power and shut down.) I bumped the key and it first hesitated like it was froze then fired right up. I headed back to the ramp and loaded her up. Can't understand what is happening. Can anyone Help?

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

That sounds like a classic "lean lockup". The affected cylinder when running lean, heats up excessively, expanding the piston and the friction causes the engine to shut down. Then, when it cools, the engine starts up and runs until it heats up again.

Compression test time, I am afraid.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

Hey daselbee, I just went out and started to pull plugs to do a compression check and noticed that one of my plugs wires was cut almost in half. It obviously wasn't even firing. Could this be my problem? I did a compression check before I bought the boat just a little over a month ago. All cylinders were good with close to matching numbers. Thanks for your help.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

It was probably orginal with the boat as they're both 1987.

I don't see it taking much more of this before throwing a rod,
when it shuts down thats the time to find the problem, feel the heads for overheating, should be able to put your hand on it for 3 seconds without cooking your hand. Or use a infra red thermometer.

After reading so many of these posts I installed a temp guage on mine.
Might be worth your while to install one.

At this point I'd start at the begining and go through it, compression test it, decarb it with seafoam, and check the lower gear oil to make sure its not binding up and causing an overheat.

Order head gaskets and take a look at the cylinders if compression is uneven or very low, say below 70psi.?

it has temp sensors in the head near the thermostat, try grounding them out on the head, ignition on, they should sound the heat alarm.
Maybe take a look at the thermostats too, if in doubt change them.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

bucmac79 said:

Hey daselbee, I just went out and started to pull plugs to do a compression check and noticed that one of my plugs wires was cut almost in half. It obviously wasn't even firing. Could this be my problem? I did a compression check before I bought the boat just a little over a month ago. All cylinders were good with close to matching numbers. Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

No, I don't think a plug wire would do what you are describing.
I hope I am very very wrong on this. Do the comp test to see if you are still where you were when you bought the boat.

Unfortunately, this has happened to me a few times, so I have "first hand" experience! Most always results in having to rebuild the P'head.

Once, on a 1985 185, I just said screw it, and ran it with low compression. It ran fine for quite a long time...maybe 10 years....but then again it wasn't really that low. The cyl was scored for sure.

I hope yours are alright. Whatever happens, you MUST get to the root of the issue. Why is it running lean? Why is it overheating? Gotta fix the root cause.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

jonesg said:

After reading so many of these posts I installed a temp guage on mine.
Might be worth your while to install one.

Click to expand...

Hey jonesg, tell me about your temp gauge....I am interested. Is it the clamp on to head type, or is it drilled into the water jacket...
Tell me the details.
Thanks.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

Okay, So I just did a comp test and got 89-93 lbs on all six cylinders. Before the test I let it run for about 25 mins and touched the heads and neither were too hot to touch. Does anyone have any other suggestions for me to do? I cleaned the carbs the best that I could with carb and choke cleaner. I'm just at a lost as to why it's doing this. I also checked the fluid in the lower unit and its good and full still. I replaced it just a few weeks ago before I took it out. Thanks for all the help. Any more would be greatly appreciated too.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

Are any of the guys that were helping me still on here? Really any help is greatly appreciated.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

what ratio are you mixing your gas at or is it oil injected?

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

I've been mixing it 50:1. Thats what the guy told me was good.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

A couple of thoughts on your issue: any engine lockups are serious, so you need to resolve this issue. 1. I've seen this same problem on a 79 200 crossflow. Same symptoms you have. Eventually it blew up. The autopsy revealed that the engine had significant carbon under the bottom ring all around the piston skirts, caused by today's poor fuel. That carbon ring built up over the years to the extent that it prevented the intake fuel/oil mix from getting to the rings to lube them and keep them cool. Eventually took out a ringset on one hole and cracked the exhaust bridges in the block when it did the 3rd overheat lockup. The powerhead never once set off an overheat horn. You can pull one or two of the intake bypass covers and examine the piston skirts for carbon accumulation. OMC realizes that poor fuels are a problem and has recommended the use of their Carbon Guard product, or annual use of their Engine Tuner product. I'd engine tune the powerhead in case you may also have some carbon build up on the piston skirts. During this problem, the engine was hard to start. 2. I'd also check for water ingestion in all cylinders. It is also possible that you could have a high pressure water leak from the bubble back exhaust which will push water from the exhaust chest back into the cylinders-causing a hydraulic lock. Esp, check the bottom lower cyls for sure. You can see it on the plugs, a white milky appearance. From your comression readings, sounds like the block is still OK, so you are working the problem before anything serious happens...

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

daselbee said:

Hey jonesg, tell me about your temp gauge....I am interested. Is it the clamp on to head type, or is it drilled into the water jacket...
Tell me the details.
Thanks.

Click to expand...

follow EMDSAPMGR advise, he's the pro.

any marine store will have the temp guage with sender, the block is already tapped for it as long as you get one for your engine, just ask them.
I don't use my trim guage so I stole the wiring for the temp guage, just snip the black/brown and white/brown wires at the engine end and pick them up at the controller end. One wire for each bank if you get 2 temp sensors, only one guage should be needed if you use a 2 way switch to read each bank seperately, or just buy 2 complete setups. Pre-tapped holes should be near the top sparkplugs in the head.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

I am glad you do not have any damage yet. Were those numbers in line with the test you did when purchasing the motor?

But, I really do think it sounds just like a lean lockup type of condition.
The overheat and piston expansion happens very very quickly, because it is sort of a snowball, cascading effect. It seems to take less the 2 seconds for this to occur. The piston heats, expands, and because of more friction, expands more, heats more...etc...etc...and then it's friction finally shuts the engine down. All happening within seconds, maybe two, maybe three.

I have never seen it set off an overheat warning horn, because it happens so fast. It really doesn't even get a chance to heat up the water in the water jacket enough to set off the horn. And just as fast as it overheats, it cools enough to loosen in the cyl, and then is free to start.

It almost always happens at or near WOT, and when it happens you feel a slight decrease in power, and RPM's, then it just shuts down like someone turned the key off. It might turn over immediately when you try to start it, or it may seem like it has a dead battery, and refuse to turn over or turn over slowly. But let it sit for 30 secs or a minute, and it will turn over like nothing was wrong.

I really think that is what you were describing.

I know it is a lot of trouble, but if it were mine, I would do exactly as recommended above, and pull the bypass covers for inspection. Maybe even go as far as pulling the heads for cyl wall inspection.

Re: 175 Evinrude Locking up

Thanks for all of the help guys. I am going to pull those covers and check for carbon buildup. The plugs look great. Not milky at all. I will let you guys know how it goes.