Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL

[jeeperman]

I bought a Katrina victim boat. I can find no evidence of water damage to the engine. However, I can't get the engine to run. Smoothly anyway.
It is a 1996 Evinrude 112 SPL. I can crank it and it fires while cranking but not enought to run without cranking.
Then after a long period (10 minutes) of cranking and spitting, coughing and backfires it will run with added throttle and no cranking.
As it is running with a bit of added throttle, it will backfire and almost quit but keep running until it backfires some more then quits.
While running poorly I can pull one right bank plug wire and it will run more poorly.
If I pull a left bank plug wire there seems to be no change.

A compression gauge gives me 80psi on the right cylinders and 125psi on the left cylinders. Although this reading is with the other three plugs installed.
Also, when it is running, oil is seeping out where the lower unit bolts onto the upper transome pivot section of the motor near the exhaust port. As if the crankcase is way overpressured?.

It should be noted that this boat sat outside in south Mississippi since at least when Katrina hit and perhaps longer since the registration expired in early 2004.

I put fresh gas and plugs in it before attempting to start it. But have not boiled the carbs or anything else other than fresh plugs and fresh gas.

Any ideas?

 

[Scaaty]

Re: Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL

Replace all the Ignition stuff, and clean out the carb and add a new carb kit

 

[F_R]

Re: Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL

There is something wrong on that right bank with only 80psi compression. That is way beyond acceptable 15psi difference.

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL

There is something wrong on that right bank with only 80psi compression. That is way beyond acceptable 15psi difference.

I have now done a compression check with all plugs out.
Right bank is showing 90 and 95psi
Left bank is showing 120psi

 

[mikesea]

Re: Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL

probably a bad head gasket on the low bank,I also suspect the carbs need to at very least cleaned thoroughly by removing,disassembling ,soaking in a carb cleaner you can buy at dvance auto or the like, then as you put back together spray with aerosol carb cleaner through every passage in carb.Its not hard work.

 

[JUSTINTIME]

Re: Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL



are u doing comp test warm or cold
are u giving it wot
have u tried putting oil down the cylinder

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL

Does not require WOT to run once started from cold.
Takes a good ten minutes of cranking before it will run on it's own. And if not careful it will flood out and not fire at all.
Once warmed up it will start right up with the touch of the key.

This weekend I will clean out the carbs.

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL

comp test is at cold
no oil put into cylinders

oil in cylinders to loosen possible stuck rings?

 

[JUSTINTIME]

Re: Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL

oil in cylinders will tell u if u have bad rings
test when warm and make sure it is at wot

i would de-carb it then test

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL

WELL HERE IS AN UPDATE.
I took the bonnet off and pondered a bit at the cylinder heads.
While doing so, I wondered why the right bank upper cyl plug wire went to the right upper coil and the lower cyl plug wire coil went to the lower coil.
But then the left bank cyl plug wires were upper to lower and lower to upper.
So after a correction, it starts a whole lot better but still farts and backfires but not as bad.
I think as it sat in the salvage yard for a year, who knows how many people pulled the plugs to see inside and stuck the plug wires back on backwards.
So then I removed the carbs for cleaning. The first pic is the inside of upper carb, lower carb is same condition. Looking inside the block from the carbs I see absolutely no rust or corrsion anywhere including the reeds. All looks nice and shiny. I am going to clean the carbs in
B-12 to make sure all the passages are open.
The left bank head has quite a bit of what I would describe as seepage-at-the-head-gasket corrosion.
So I am thinking I will take the heads off, clean up the corrsion, check for flatness, etc. as well as make sure the rings are free.

On the engine side of the air box on each side of carbs there are rectagular intake ports with theaded bolt holes for maybe filters or more ducting? Anyone know if I am missing parts?

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL

Before you gut the sucker, do a decarb (archives) and keep it in your gas. You would be utterly amazed at what a little Naptha will do for you.

I just can't understand it. Why jump in overboard to fix a problem when a simplistic, inexpensive, quick cure MIGHT be all that you need. If it's not, you have lost utterly nothing (little time and a few bucks), and can then go the full bore route.

Let's see........ the last time I went to the doctor (Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon) he said my right middle finger joint needed surgery to fix it cause it snapped when I tried to close my fist.........pfffffft. That was 3 months ago and I am using OTC joint medications daily and it's improving daily .....Knox brand (there are other suppliers) Nutra Joint Plus with Glucosamine, Chondroitin & MSM.................case you are interested.....give it a couple of months to do you some good.....wally has it. Now, had I needed surgery then fine (yeah right pain, uselessness, expense, inconvenience.......; but let's test the alternatives first. Same thing applies to MY equipment. Does it apply to yours?

Mark


Mark

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL

Texasmark,
I hear ya man. I fear trying to remove the heads as it is out of thinking I will end up with snapped head bolts.

I am definately going to decarb first.
When we first got it running, even with all the backfiring and farting, the ground was black by the time any heat got into the powerhead.
I am sure there is alot more waiting to be removed.

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Help revive a Katrina victim..Evinrude 112 SPL

UPDATE:
Did the famous "DunkDecarboning" procedure. Got some good smoke.
It now starts pretty good and idles pretty good. Backfiring and lots of cranking to start is gone. Runs pretty smooth.

But after decarbing we still get 95 and 90 psi on the right bank and 120 on the left bank, warm.

So before putting her in the water to run her for a half hour we decided to take the heads off to see if we were getting low psi due to leaking head gasket.
Especially since I had already bought the gaskets.

Left bank head comes off and all is good inside. Black on piston top but not enough to scrap off. Cylinders feel nice and smooth to the touch except for a fine scratch at the top of the one cyl. No obvious gasket problems.

Heres the "good" part.........
Right bank head comes off, same black top pistons. Top cyl. has a bit deeper scratch on top side of cyl. Bottom piston looks like someone beat on it with a welding slag pointed hammer. Especially near the perimeter. The cylinder head combustion chamber for that cyl. also looks like it got beat with the slag hammer.
At the perimeter. The piston has a good gouge right where the sparkplug ground electrode might have hit and maybe broke it off sometime in the past history of this motor. Or maybe someone put in a sparkplug that went in way to much, the ground electrode broke off and a P.O. did not bother to fish it out. Looks like it may have spent time bouncing around in that cyl. before being expelled.
There is a half inch dia.size area on the top side of the bottom cyl. wall that is eroded away along with some good scratches.

Now the really strange part........................
The top piston rings are non-existant in both right bank cylinders.
The lower rings are all there, not broken. The pistons are not broken between the top rings and the top of the pistons either. The top rings are just not there.
There are no nics or gouges on the edges of the exhaust ports either where you would think there might be damage from the broken rings being expelled.

I guess this is why I get low psi on that bank! The compression ratio is lower since there are no upper rings. And the psi goes out the exhaust ports sooner.

The funny thing is there is no evidence that this motor has ever been take apart before.