told him to drain tank before we used it

tanyarae · Oct 27, 2010

we just bought a 1999 wellcraft with a brand new motor in it. not rebuilt but brand new from the factory. it only had 5 hours of run time on it. the guy had it in his garage for 2 years with a full tank of gas. he told us to drain the tank and fill back up but my hub decided he would put something in the gas to make it beter. well we have problems now. after we used that old fuel which the boat ran ok. we added good fuel at a 1/4 tank. it ran great for the first trip then when we took it out again in choked or something. now it won't get up and go. i changed the spark plugs, fuel filter, sprayed the carb, put a new distributor cap on. does anyone know what the problem could be? thanks,

fossill · Oct 27, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

Check for fuel, air and spark.

Jeepster04 · Oct 27, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

Not knowing anything about whats in your boat since you didnt tell us, start by making sure fuel is getting to the carb(assuming its a carb since you didnt tell us). Check the inlet screen going into the carb.

Did you empty the old fuel filter to see what the fuel looked like or if it had any water in it?

So you ran the tank 'completely' empty and put a 1/4 tank back in it?

Describe what you mean by 'wont get up and go.' Does it die? Does it sputter then go? Back fire? etc

cr2k · Oct 27, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

First off there is nothing you can put in old fuel to make it good. So whatever you put in was a waste of $$.

I would say you need to do what was stated in the first place and completely drain the tank, change the filters, check the carb (pull the top off and see what's in there and rebuild if necessary.

Make sure the tank is clean or have a 3 or 4 filters ready to change and then refuel with fresh gas.

tanyarae · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

hi, thanks for the info. sorry i didn't have boat info last night but it is a volvo 4.3gl penta it accelerates to 10mph then bogs down. we put in new plugs, new rotor cap, new fuel filter, the 1st tank of bad gas was down to 1/4 tank when we added new fuel, then ran that out, which ran really good, then the 3rd tank is when it started bogging. thanks for your help and have a great day!

HT32BSX115 · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

tanyarae said:
hi, thanks for the info. sorry i didn't have boat info last night but it is a volvo 4.3gl penta it accelerates to 10mph then bogs down. we put in new plugs, new rotor cap, new fuel filter, the 1st tank of bad gas was down to 1/4 tank when we added new fuel, then ran that out, which ran really good, then the 3rd tank is when it started bogging. thanks for your help and have a great day!

That sounds an awful lot like a defective fuel pump, clogged fuel filter, tank-screen, or plugged/stuck antisiphon valve.

Is it an EFI engine or a carburetor?

cr2k · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

I am 100% sure it is a fuel delivery problem. Somewhere between the inside of the tank and the inside of the carb or fuel injector(s)

Fishermark · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

Not too proud of it, but I did the same thing when I bought my boat about 7 or 8 years ago. I put in a new bobtail engine from Mercruiser. The boat had over 100 gallons of fuel and I didn't want to get rid of that much fuel.

Well, long story short, I ended up getting rid of that fuel - (had to pay someone $1 a gallon just to pump it out and take it away.

) - and putting new fuel in. But I still battled a similar problem for a while.

cr2k said:
check the carb (pull the top off and see what's in there and rebuild if necessary.

I finally took the top off of the carb and there was quite a bit of water and gunk in the bottom of the bowl causing problems. This is even with a fuel water separator. There was just too much for the filter to catch. Cleaned out the carb and new filters and everything was good from there.

Robbabob · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

tanyarae said:
we just bought a 1999 wellcraft with a brand new motor in it. not rebuilt but brand new from the factory. it only had 5 hours of run time on it. the guy had it in his garage for 2 years with a full tank of gas. he told us to drain the tank and fill back up but my hub decided he would put something in the gas to make it beter. well we have problems now. after we used that old fuel which the boat ran ok. we added good fuel at a 1/4 tank. it ran great for the first trip then when we took it out again in choked or something. now it won't get up and go. i changed the spark plugs, fuel filter, sprayed the carb, put a new distributor cap on. does anyone know what the problem could be? thanks,

Dang hubbies that don't listen!!!!!!!!!

I do everything Dottie tells me

Seriously, sorry about the problems... hope you fix it soon!

tanyarae · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

Jeepster04 said:
Not knowing anything about whats in your boat since you didnt tell us, start by making sure fuel is getting to the carb(assuming its a carb since you didnt tell us). Check the inlet screen going into the carb.

Did you empty the old fuel filter to see what the fuel looked like or if it had any water in it?

So you ran the tank 'completely' empty and put a 1/4 tank back in it?

Describe what you mean by 'wont get up and go.' Does it die? Does it sputter then go? Back fire? etc

penta/volvo 4.3gl brand new motor only had 5 hrs on it. ran 1st tank down to 1/4 tank then added more fuel. ran great the 2nd time but the 3rd time is when it started bogging down. we changed the fuel filter, spark plugs, rotor cap, it accelerates to 10 mph then bogs down. please help me if you can. thanks for your replies.

Gary H NC · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

Those fuel filters will only trap so much dirt and water then they bypass it on to the carb.
Just spraying carb cleaner down the throat will not do anything.
The carb needs taken apart and cleaned out.Rebuild kits are not expensive.

Before throwing more parts at it the carb would be the very first thing to check.Trash or water in the float bowl is very likely the problem.

tanyarae · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

already did the carb. thing... took apart and cleaned. i'm going to do a fuel psi test and see what comes up..... do you think i should have a compression test done? it being a brand new motor I wouldn't think it would be bad compression. what do you think?

Fishermark · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

You need three things to run right:
1. Adequate compression
2. Fuel / air in the proper ratio
3. Spark at the right time.

In rereading your original post - was this new engine sitting in the boat for the past two years? Or was the engine recently installed with just the fuel being two years old?

Either way I would strongly suspect the fuel being an issue one way or another. Perhaps the anti-siphon valve - or a collapsing fuel line - or the vent hose being plugged - or a carb that needs to be rebuilt / replaced. Something on the fuel side.

If you go to the sticky at the top of the page there are some good basic troubleshooting articles there that will help.

rodbolt · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

the full engine model will help us more in helping you.
trust me.
brand new, its fuel injected, brand new with 5 hours and its 2-4 years old? all bets are off.
the full model number will tell us exactly what engine and fuel system you have.
we simply sit behind a monitor.

Jeepster04 · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

rodbolt said:
the full engine model will help us more in helping you.
trust me.
brand new, its fuel injected, brand new with 5 hours and its 2-4 years old? all bets are off.
the full model number will tell us exactly what engine and fuel system you have.
we simply sit behind a monitor.

She said she took the top part of the carb off so I guess we can assume its carb'ed.

What did the bowl look like when you took it apart to clean it? Anything in it?

Checking the fuel pressure is a good starting point.

Cant hurt to do a compression check.

Gary H NC · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

She stated she sprayed the carb...?
Was that a complete tear down,blow out all passages and and assemble with new gaskets and needle and seat? Set float to specs?

JaseBosto · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

What you have is a fuel delivery problem for sure. No doubt in my mind. From reading your posts, I don't believe you have the necessary experience to fix it properly. I strongly recommend you take the boat to a reputable shop and have them do it. As an alternative, you might be able to find a friend that has experience working on boats but if you had that option you probably wouldn't be here.
It is possible you have low compression in 1 or more cylinders.
I still think its a fuel delivery issue though.
Take it to a shop, it will cost more, but your problem could get worse if you don't know what your doing.

Jeepster04 · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

Theres nothing that annoys me more than when someone tells someone they cannot work on their boat and needs to take it to someone else. Maybe you should of never learned to work on a boat and took it to someone else to fix it also??

honeys money · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

Could not have said it better. :<}

jeepnsam · Oct 28, 2010

Re: told him to drain tank before we used it

> it accelerates to 10 mph then bogs down.

this just happened to me last year on the boat and the Jeep (go figure).
I got lucky and the jeep had the problem 1st, so the boat was just a lucky guess.

In my case, the float bowl was "some how" out of adjustment. When I throttled up, the gas was being sucked out faster than the mechanical fuel pump can deliver it.

SOLUTION:
I adjusted the float bowl up a bit and problem solved.

Sam

told him to drain tank before we used it

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