1988 60 HP Johnson Idle Speed and Smoke

Hello All,

I am in desperate need of some help, I have a 1988 Bass Tracker with a 60 HP Johnson that I purchased this last spring, I had it out about 5 times on the initial tank of gas that the previous owner had in it...

After trip number 5 I ran it dry....I refilled and did NOT realize the previous owner had Bi-passed the VRO system and now adding the oil to gas was required.... I however didnt realize this until later, after running about 1/4 to 1/3 tank thru it....The engine would die if throttled past no wake speed I was getting very very frustrated trying to figure out what was wrong.... of course its always the last thing you check right?

I have now replaced the sparkplugs, Drained the carbs and blew canned air thru all orifices and filled and replaced the gas with a 50 to 1 mixture.... Fire it up on the muffs and it sounded better but was smoking a ton and the idle RPMS were at about 2000 and after about 20 sec or so I could here them ramping up they kept ramping more and more to where I had to kill the engine around 4000 or they would have kept climbing.... I noticed that i had opened the solenoid valve to be perpendicular when I was working on it earlier but being a novice I dont know which way is normal?!?!

I checked the plugs after this and they were very oily and I also noticed excess gas coming out the front of the carbs almost a greenish color, I also realized that I overdid my mixture a bit, I have a 7 gallon tank and I added the 50 to 1 mixture for that amt of gas even though I only had about 5.5 gallons in, so that might explain the smoke, I have since then balanced out the mixture.....

The Seloc guide says that there should be a low speed adjustment arm, but I for the life of me cannot find it... I HAVE checked the compression and its fine, I wrote the numbers down but dont have them with me.....

can someone please provide some insight on where to go next?!?! I am complete novice working on Outboards.... and please understand that when I say novice I mean I am very green...... so be nice Thanks in Advance!!!

Re: 1988 60 HP Johnson Idle Speed and Smoke

Start with a compression check and post your findings here. Running on no oil may have done some damage. If compression is good, you can go from there. Let us know.

Re: 1988 60 HP Johnson Idle Speed and Smoke

i have already done a compression check and everything seemed fine, I have the number written down at home cant post them until later......

can you at least answer me this one questions is there supposed to be a low speed adjustment arm/needle on this thing? I cant find one anywhere.....

Re: 1988 60 HP Johnson Idle Speed and Smoke

Sorry I missed the comp. check in your first post. Your idle is governed by the yoke and thumbwheel on the end of the cam rod. You have to loosen the jam nut to move it one way or the other.
Did you undo any of the linkage when you were cleaning? You may have to do the link & sync. and start over.
Has it run right after you ran it dry? If not, then you may have to take the carbs apart and check for obstructions. You can't expect to clean them by blowing canned air at it while it's bolted on.

Re: 1988 60 HP Johnson Idle Speed and Smoke

Also, you may have crud in your float needles, thus the fuel pouring out the carbs and the high rpm's. I would get some carb kits and rebuild them. Don't forget the high speed jet behind the drain plug in the float bowl.

Re: 1988 60 HP Johnson Idle Speed and Smoke

Sorry to bump this but I need more help on this, Put it away for winter and now I am back trying to fix it.

So I RECHECKED the compression. All 3 Cylinders are at around 130 even.
Did a Spark Check with an Inline Tester and I have spark on all 3 cylinders.

I have still not done a rebuild on the carbs.

I noticed that while I was checking the compression I had quite a bit of unburnt fuel and oil mixture blowing out of the bottom cylinder, I didnt have the problem with the top 2, I also noticed that the bottom spark plug was a slightly different color, they all looked to be running rich (wet and dark) but the bottom had a slighty light brown hue to it.....

I am still worried that more damage has been done because of the no oil situation..... despite the compression.

Given what I have said is it worth rebuilding the carbs to see if that fix everything? Or is there a bigger problem here..... I am very frustrated, just bought the boat a year ago and I have only been able to use it about 5 times at normal speeds.... everytime I think I may have it fixed I get to the lake and she barely sputters along at wake speed...

I can not hear a difference in the engine sound.

Re: 1988 60 HP Johnson Idle Speed and Smoke

Your needle bearing are probably toast.

Do a leakdown test that will tell you how scratched the cylinder walls are.

Re: 1988 60 HP Johnson Idle Speed and Smoke

I should add that the engine is no longer taking off like it was before, I adjusted idle speed and did a link and sync or TRIED to do a link and sync and appear to have the Revving problem solved.... no longer smoking either, but as soon as I get her in the water she is still bogging down when I try and take off, I should also add that When I took the cowling off the engine on the water performance increased, strange but I got a little more power with the airflow.....

Any more thoughts?