ohioriverrat
Seaman Apprentice
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2010
- Messages
- 35
4.3 lx mercruiser with 4 barrel weber. 50 hours. ran perfect last summer.
de winterized my boat this year, which pretty much consisted putting the plugs back in and hooking up the hoses.
it started up just fine. let it idle for about 10 minutes in the yard to let the fogging oil burn off. was purring like a kitten. shut it down then next day took it to the river. the boat fired up, idled out from the docks, opened it up and it ran like a champ ... for about 3 minutes.. then it sputtered and died. started back up, turned it back towards dock and limped it back to the dock, starting and stopping several times - would not plane out and would not run over 2000 rpm. i could let it sit for a few minutes and it would start easily but barely run over an idle.
so i took it back to the shop that winterized it, told them, a week later and 650 dollars later they told me it was a bad fuel pump.
well i was a little chapped at the price but happy to have the boat back none the less.
piled in the family for a fun filled memorial day weekend - epic conditions on the ohio - flat clean water, water temp near 80, air temp around 90
left the docks..ideld out to the river opened it up - ran for about 5 minutes..started to stutter exactly the same turned towards the dock it died. wouldnt even idle back to boat ramp. had to get a tow.
acts like it is running out of gas..
so ofcourse the boat shop denies all responsibility. assured me the fuel pump was bad, but it must have other problems too..
i ofcourse first suspect bad fuel.
not the case - i went and bought an above deck fuel can filled it with fresh premium, new fuel hoses, and everything all the way to the carb except for another pump.
next i jump into the plugs and distributor - distributor is nice and dry, not too bad inside so i just scuff up the points a little to clean them up. pulled a couple plugs too.. nothing telling there either , looking normal as they should. but that doesnt stop me from putting in new ones.
plug wires you say... negative, swapped out a set i knew to be good with no change.
keep in mind, i can run this boat in the yard and you can barely tell anything is wrong except for the occasional miss but once you put it under load its nothing but trouble. spits and sputters, quits when you try to open it up, idles pretty well, but the more gas you give it the worse it sputters.
so ive done some research and here are some possibilities
but i need some more information on how to test these things
oil pressure switch -
ignition amplifier -
before anyone asks, i ran all the previous gas out of the system before i started changing plugs. but seriously... its not bad gas here folks. i doubt it is the carb because it runs perfect for a few minutes until it gets up to temp. the choke is working correctly i am sure. if i let it cool down for about a half hour 45 minutes it fires up and runs perfect for another 5 minutes or so. just far long enough from the docks to be a real pain in the ***
anyone have any other ideas or experience? im not talking about similar experience, but something more exact since it is the same exact thing every time.
de winterized my boat this year, which pretty much consisted putting the plugs back in and hooking up the hoses.
it started up just fine. let it idle for about 10 minutes in the yard to let the fogging oil burn off. was purring like a kitten. shut it down then next day took it to the river. the boat fired up, idled out from the docks, opened it up and it ran like a champ ... for about 3 minutes.. then it sputtered and died. started back up, turned it back towards dock and limped it back to the dock, starting and stopping several times - would not plane out and would not run over 2000 rpm. i could let it sit for a few minutes and it would start easily but barely run over an idle.
so i took it back to the shop that winterized it, told them, a week later and 650 dollars later they told me it was a bad fuel pump.
well i was a little chapped at the price but happy to have the boat back none the less.
piled in the family for a fun filled memorial day weekend - epic conditions on the ohio - flat clean water, water temp near 80, air temp around 90
left the docks..ideld out to the river opened it up - ran for about 5 minutes..started to stutter exactly the same turned towards the dock it died. wouldnt even idle back to boat ramp. had to get a tow.
acts like it is running out of gas..
so ofcourse the boat shop denies all responsibility. assured me the fuel pump was bad, but it must have other problems too..
i ofcourse first suspect bad fuel.
not the case - i went and bought an above deck fuel can filled it with fresh premium, new fuel hoses, and everything all the way to the carb except for another pump.
next i jump into the plugs and distributor - distributor is nice and dry, not too bad inside so i just scuff up the points a little to clean them up. pulled a couple plugs too.. nothing telling there either , looking normal as they should. but that doesnt stop me from putting in new ones.
plug wires you say... negative, swapped out a set i knew to be good with no change.
keep in mind, i can run this boat in the yard and you can barely tell anything is wrong except for the occasional miss but once you put it under load its nothing but trouble. spits and sputters, quits when you try to open it up, idles pretty well, but the more gas you give it the worse it sputters.
so ive done some research and here are some possibilities
but i need some more information on how to test these things
oil pressure switch -
ignition amplifier -
before anyone asks, i ran all the previous gas out of the system before i started changing plugs. but seriously... its not bad gas here folks. i doubt it is the carb because it runs perfect for a few minutes until it gets up to temp. the choke is working correctly i am sure. if i let it cool down for about a half hour 45 minutes it fires up and runs perfect for another 5 minutes or so. just far long enough from the docks to be a real pain in the ***
anyone have any other ideas or experience? im not talking about similar experience, but something more exact since it is the same exact thing every time.