I just bought a 1999 Bayliner Trophy with a Mercruiser 4.3L V6 engine. I bought the boat from a Marine Dealer in Mississippi that supposedly had the engine and carburetor rebuilt. The day after I received the boat here in San Diego, CA, I started and ran the engine for 5 mins or so. It sounded weird when I started it almost like a few teeth missing on the flywheel. 5 days later I took it down to the launch ramp and it wouldn?t start. I replaced the lug on the hot lead (RED) that bolts ot the starter and the battery. I also replaced the starter with a new one. This starter came with a new solenoid too. Then the engine turns over SLOWLY and does not sound smooth when turning over. It still wont start. It almost sounds like the mesh of the gear with the starter and flywheel ring gear are not meshing 100%.
A week later, I called Sunset Marine here in San Diego and the mechanics said to pull out all the plugs, you may have water in one or some of the cylinders. I did that and found no water at all. I put the original starter back it after testing it. The starter spins fine. I checked the firing order too. I charged both batteries over 2 nights. Batt#1 has 550 cold cranking amps (CCA's), Batt#2 has only 405 CCA's. I verified everything and it tried it again. It still turns over SLOWLY like its a torquey 1500 HP engine. Then after 2 mins of trying to start it, the batteries wont turn it over at all. I don?t get it. The engine acts as if it has trouble turning over. Now the solenoid just clicks like the batteries are almost dead. Both Batteries have 13.2-13.5 Vdc when trying to start it...then 12.7 after 2 mins..... Very weird that it wont start.
The next thing I am going to do, is get one new battery with 675 CCA's and then pull the distributor to rule that out, pull all the plugs out again and manually turn the crankshaft/harmonic balancer over by hand with a breaker bar to see how freely she turns. It's possible that maybe the distributor jumped a tooth? But who knows??? I dont know, this is very frustrating. I am still scratching my head.
What do you guys recommend I try? Am I overlooking something here?
Thanks,
Mike
A week later, I called Sunset Marine here in San Diego and the mechanics said to pull out all the plugs, you may have water in one or some of the cylinders. I did that and found no water at all. I put the original starter back it after testing it. The starter spins fine. I checked the firing order too. I charged both batteries over 2 nights. Batt#1 has 550 cold cranking amps (CCA's), Batt#2 has only 405 CCA's. I verified everything and it tried it again. It still turns over SLOWLY like its a torquey 1500 HP engine. Then after 2 mins of trying to start it, the batteries wont turn it over at all. I don?t get it. The engine acts as if it has trouble turning over. Now the solenoid just clicks like the batteries are almost dead. Both Batteries have 13.2-13.5 Vdc when trying to start it...then 12.7 after 2 mins..... Very weird that it wont start.
The next thing I am going to do, is get one new battery with 675 CCA's and then pull the distributor to rule that out, pull all the plugs out again and manually turn the crankshaft/harmonic balancer over by hand with a breaker bar to see how freely she turns. It's possible that maybe the distributor jumped a tooth? But who knows??? I dont know, this is very frustrating. I am still scratching my head.
What do you guys recommend I try? Am I overlooking something here?
Thanks,
Mike