1988 5.7 OMC Cobra--ESA Influence

[ab59]

Took my boat fishing yesterday with a couple of shirttail relations and began to have a few bugs show up in engine performance . After tooling out past the 5 mph buoy I opened up the throttle and had one pop and a miss now and then , when I backed off a little it ran smoothly . That was the only time that I had this happen. However as the day went on then engine became difficult to start ie turned over easily but did not fire up . Only after working the control into forward and back to Neutral would the engine start and run . A couple of times it had a miss or cough at low speed and just over an idle but cleared up upon acceleration . Later , there was no miss but I had trouble starting and keeping an idle at all and had to throttle up somewhat immediately after the engine started or it would die.
I have had many problems getting the shifting timing adjusted correctly I am wondering if these problems could be cause by the ESA interfering because it is not kicking all the way out to allow the engine to run and start as it should . The problems were intermittent and I ran at various speeds all day sometimes not having any problems at all especially at higher throttle .
Could this be the ESA adjustment ?
thanks---- A.B.

 

[Lou C]

When it happens, look to see if the load lever is stuck to the point of engaging the ESA. The other switch which is the overstroke switch, is supposed to keep the ESA from engaging when you are in gear. To test, run it on the water hose, shift to FWD, then try to trigger the ESA....it should not trigger if its in gear....then shift to neutral, your load lever should pop back to center and if you trigger the ESA by hand it should lower your idle....

 

[ab59]

Thanks for your reply Lou--- I will set the muffs up tomorrow after I get back from the Police station. I had suspicions that the ESA would sometimes prevent the boat from starting in the past but since it seems to be random , I wasn't sure where else to look for the cause.
As an added bonus to my trip I found about two thousand dollars of damage to the front of my pickup where someone dragged their trailer across the front of my truck . No note of course. Guess I can add fixing that to my list of mechanical chores . Could be worse I guess.

thanks again Lou , I'll run the tests tomorrow.

Bruce

 

[ab59]

OK , I have tested the ESA and switches and everything is as it should be. I guess next I will pull the side plugs out of the Holley and start the engine then check the fuel level , maybe I'm a little lean . Then I'll check the timing . I have the timing set a 3 btdc so I can run on regular gas and the NGK Plugs set at 45 gap to run with the electronic ign. The gap is set at what NGK recommends for those plugs in an OMC 5.7 environment.
I don't know why the engine is doing so many different things intermittently and not constantly . When I went out to start the engine a few minutes ago it started right up immediately just like it should and ran smoothly . Saturday it was difficult to start almost all day ,right from the start.
upon leaving the dock it kinda farted through the carburetor and missed a few times when under acceleration then straightened out and ran flawlessly until I shut it off and fished a while. The next time started fine , ran fine with no problems . After the next stop it was coughing ie missing at low speeds but once past the 5 mph buoy cleaned right up and ran smoothly at higher speeds . Almost all day the engine did not readily start and I had to crank on it , several times, once I moved the shift throttle lever in and out of forward , it started up a little better. My thoughts were maybe the ESA or Not getting enough fuel to the carburetor .
I have read all these posts about water coming up through the Y pipes and into the engine and causing various problems so I guess I should pull the plugs as well.
This kind of stuff has become SOP on this rig.
Seems like it could be a lot of different things so If you have any suggestions of where I should start lemme know .

thanks ----Bruce