1995 Crestliner Sportfish 1750 with a V/P 3.0. Engine Problem

1995 Crestliner Sportfish 1750 with a V/P 3.0. Engine Problem

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I just bought a great 1995 Sportfish 1750 with a V/P 3.0. ( I love it)

1. I was at Topaz Lake CA/NV (5,000 ft elev. ) and it ran pretty good only a minor idle problem.
2. Went to the Delta ( Rio Vista CA) ran better but still needs a little adjusting.
3. Went to Caples Lake CA (7,500 ft elev ) twice, didn't want to start at all. refused to start unless I run the starter a long time. Once I got it up to higher RPMs it would run ok.
Any suggestions?

Re: 1995 Crestliner Sportfish 1750 with a V/P 3.0. Engine Problem

Since this boat is new to you I would have a complete tune-up done on the engine; plugs, wires, cap, rotor, filters, etc., have the bellows checked, and lower unit lube, water pump impeller changed. Get the engine/drive into top shape so it runs right. Check in the "Adults Section" for the manuals if you want to do this yourself.

Altitude will affect how the boat runs, less oxygen = less engine power. You can help compensate for the power loss with a lower pitch prop, but also might have to do some engine tuning. When I ran my old Mercruiser 140HP (3.0L) at 9000' I needed to replace the carb's main jets with smaller ones, something like .066 to .058. Never had to mess with the idle adjustment while going up there, just the main jets. Without re-jetting the boat was a pig, hard plane and hard to keep running at an idle. I dropped to a 15 pitch prop and that helped a lot too.

It was a real pain getting my boat setup for high altitude since I was only up there once a year, and then had to change everything back when I got back down to 1000'. But if I wanted the boat to be able to run right up there, it needed to be done.

It sounds like most of your issues are tune-up related, but don't think a good tune-up will make the boat run well at high altitude. Like you saw, it's possible that it will run OK at 5000' on it's stock setup, but at 7500' I bet you need to change things. I'd try the lower pitched prop first since it's a pretty easy change, swapping carb jets is kind of a pain...

(FYI, if you were running at high altitude all the time, changing the gear ratio in the outdrive would be the best solution, but it doesn't sound like that's the case.)