greg82255
Senior Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2009
- Messages
- 781
Hi All,
I have a 1994 Formula 252 BR with its original Mercruiser 454/Bravo 3, about 860 hours. It's a quad jet carb but not sure who makes it (maybe Rochester?). The boat has run great (I've owned it 5 years for 100+ hours each year) up until beginning of this year. Took the boat out for the first time a few weeks ago and 3 times since, and have noticed 2 issues. First is that the engine struggles to start when cold and stalls when at idle, either in gear or when shifting into gear. No issues out of gear other than struggling to start. The starting issue goes away once the engine is warm, but the stalling issue does not - it continues to stall at idle in gear. If I adjust the idle screw the stalling stops but it idles too high (12-1500rpm).
The second issue just happened today - when trying to put the boat on plane it sputtered several times, both getting on to plan and up to 3000 RPM (didn't try higher). Brought it back to the dock and sprayed some carb cleaner around the flame arrestor and into the carburetor and the sputtering issue went away all the way up to WOT, but when bringing the boat back to the dock, the boat again stalled at idle and I nearly crashed into the dock.
I thought the issue may have been ignition, and it was due for a tune-up anyways, so today I replaced the plugs, distributor cap & rotor prior to using the boat, and also did the water pump since it was due. The engine runs more smoothly but it has not solved the stalling issue. The water separating fuel filter has not been changed recently and is next on my list. In the event that this doesn't work, any ideas on what might be going on would be helpful.
I have a 1994 Formula 252 BR with its original Mercruiser 454/Bravo 3, about 860 hours. It's a quad jet carb but not sure who makes it (maybe Rochester?). The boat has run great (I've owned it 5 years for 100+ hours each year) up until beginning of this year. Took the boat out for the first time a few weeks ago and 3 times since, and have noticed 2 issues. First is that the engine struggles to start when cold and stalls when at idle, either in gear or when shifting into gear. No issues out of gear other than struggling to start. The starting issue goes away once the engine is warm, but the stalling issue does not - it continues to stall at idle in gear. If I adjust the idle screw the stalling stops but it idles too high (12-1500rpm).
The second issue just happened today - when trying to put the boat on plane it sputtered several times, both getting on to plan and up to 3000 RPM (didn't try higher). Brought it back to the dock and sprayed some carb cleaner around the flame arrestor and into the carburetor and the sputtering issue went away all the way up to WOT, but when bringing the boat back to the dock, the boat again stalled at idle and I nearly crashed into the dock.
I thought the issue may have been ignition, and it was due for a tune-up anyways, so today I replaced the plugs, distributor cap & rotor prior to using the boat, and also did the water pump since it was due. The engine runs more smoothly but it has not solved the stalling issue. The water separating fuel filter has not been changed recently and is next on my list. In the event that this doesn't work, any ideas on what might be going on would be helpful.
