Hi there, I have a 1988 Evinrude 140 V4. I have been told that it is a Looper engine. It has the VRO.
I was out Fishing last weekend and noticed the engine coughing and it even stalled a couple of times whilst at idle. On the drive home however the engine seemed to purr along nicely, there was no noticeable loss of power. Once back on the trailer and at home I ran the engine whilst flushing it and again at low idle the engine was rough and stalled a couple of times. I could notably see flames each time the engine coughed shooting out the exhaust from the centre of the prop. To define exactly which cylinder was not playing the game I pulled off each spark plug lead in turn, when removing the lead for number one cylinder there was a noticeably drop in revs. This was the same for cylinders 2 and 4 however when I removed the lead from sparkplug on cylinder three the coughing stopped and the engine sounded smooth. There was no noticeable drop in Revs. I?ve swapped the Coils between cylinder 1 and 3 with no noticeable difference. I?ve swapped the leads from 1 and 3 with no difference. I?ve swapped the plugs form cylinder 1 and 3 and again there was no difference. I.E. still rough and would get better when the lead was remover from Cylinder number three. I have also tried flushing through the Carburettors with fresh fuel, no difference. The power pack on the engine was replaced about four years ago. As the boat is left over at our holiday home I did not have a compression tester with me so I am looking to possibly make the two and a half hour drive back over there this weekend to run some more tests and see if I can?t get to the bottom of the problem prior to the possibility of an expensive trip to the repair shop.
If there is anybody out there that may know what could be causing this or any tests that may help me in the diagnostic of whats wrong it would be very much appreciated. I really like my V4, it's been a great engine for so long.
Cheers and thanks for your help. Mike
I was out Fishing last weekend and noticed the engine coughing and it even stalled a couple of times whilst at idle. On the drive home however the engine seemed to purr along nicely, there was no noticeable loss of power. Once back on the trailer and at home I ran the engine whilst flushing it and again at low idle the engine was rough and stalled a couple of times. I could notably see flames each time the engine coughed shooting out the exhaust from the centre of the prop. To define exactly which cylinder was not playing the game I pulled off each spark plug lead in turn, when removing the lead for number one cylinder there was a noticeably drop in revs. This was the same for cylinders 2 and 4 however when I removed the lead from sparkplug on cylinder three the coughing stopped and the engine sounded smooth. There was no noticeable drop in Revs. I?ve swapped the Coils between cylinder 1 and 3 with no noticeable difference. I?ve swapped the leads from 1 and 3 with no difference. I?ve swapped the plugs form cylinder 1 and 3 and again there was no difference. I.E. still rough and would get better when the lead was remover from Cylinder number three. I have also tried flushing through the Carburettors with fresh fuel, no difference. The power pack on the engine was replaced about four years ago. As the boat is left over at our holiday home I did not have a compression tester with me so I am looking to possibly make the two and a half hour drive back over there this weekend to run some more tests and see if I can?t get to the bottom of the problem prior to the possibility of an expensive trip to the repair shop.
If there is anybody out there that may know what could be causing this or any tests that may help me in the diagnostic of whats wrong it would be very much appreciated. I really like my V4, it's been a great engine for so long.
Cheers and thanks for your help. Mike