Well where do I start? I am on vacation and have been struggling with this boat for 7 days now...really want to get the wife and kids out fishing.
Bought a 1981 Wellcraft boat 2 years ago with a 305 mercuriser and alpha out drive. Used the boat for about 1 month and worked flawlessly. Parked the boat, drained the coolant (has an internal coolant system mod), drained the gear oil in the drive, added fuel stabilizer and used engine fog.
Boat sat for 2 years. Put new gear oil in the drive, topped off the coolant, replaced the battery and tried to start the engine...no go. Found serveral things...carb was in bad shape, fuel filter was full of water and debris and distributor cap had corrosion.
So here's what I've done so far and what is happening...completely drained the fuel tank, added new fuel (91 octane). Rebuilt and cleaned the carb (carb kit and carb cleaner, which was quite nasty by the way). Drained all the fuel lines and replaced the fuel filter. Changed all the plugs, cleaned the distributor cap and points.
Turned the key and voila...the engine fired up right away and purred like a kitten...awesome I thought...but then after about 30 seconds it died. Tried everything and no go. Next day tried again and it fired up right away...ran for 2-3 mins and quit and woundn't restart. About 1 hour later started up perfect again, ran it up to about 3500rpm, back to idle...2-3 mins died again and no start...2-3 hours later start again for 2-3 mins and die again...and so on and so on....
Some things I've noticed...sometimes checking the spark it was orange...pretty sure is should be blue-ish? After it died I would pull the plugs and find some dry and some soaked in fuel.
I've even had a mechanic come take a look and he left here questioning his knowledge, just scratching his head. I have been through dozens of manuals and blogs and forms and tried just about everything.
PLEASE, does anybody have any suggestions??
Thanks.
Bought a 1981 Wellcraft boat 2 years ago with a 305 mercuriser and alpha out drive. Used the boat for about 1 month and worked flawlessly. Parked the boat, drained the coolant (has an internal coolant system mod), drained the gear oil in the drive, added fuel stabilizer and used engine fog.
Boat sat for 2 years. Put new gear oil in the drive, topped off the coolant, replaced the battery and tried to start the engine...no go. Found serveral things...carb was in bad shape, fuel filter was full of water and debris and distributor cap had corrosion.
So here's what I've done so far and what is happening...completely drained the fuel tank, added new fuel (91 octane). Rebuilt and cleaned the carb (carb kit and carb cleaner, which was quite nasty by the way). Drained all the fuel lines and replaced the fuel filter. Changed all the plugs, cleaned the distributor cap and points.
Turned the key and voila...the engine fired up right away and purred like a kitten...awesome I thought...but then after about 30 seconds it died. Tried everything and no go. Next day tried again and it fired up right away...ran for 2-3 mins and quit and woundn't restart. About 1 hour later started up perfect again, ran it up to about 3500rpm, back to idle...2-3 mins died again and no start...2-3 hours later start again for 2-3 mins and die again...and so on and so on....
Some things I've noticed...sometimes checking the spark it was orange...pretty sure is should be blue-ish? After it died I would pull the plugs and find some dry and some soaked in fuel.
I've even had a mechanic come take a look and he left here questioning his knowledge, just scratching his head. I have been through dozens of manuals and blogs and forms and tried just about everything.
PLEASE, does anybody have any suggestions??
Thanks.
