Volvo Penta 4.3 Gxi-E hard start

[Pedrorala]

I'm having a hard start problem on my 4.3 GXI-E motor. Everything was running fine...cranked at first, but then I've replaced the Sparks as a regular maintenance procedure, kept working fine in the next couple of days until the momento that for coincidence or not, after working for a couple of hours and back at the Marina I've run the motor with fresh water turning the water first than the motor and since then it has been hard to Start. Cranks for about 8 sec and smelling gasoline....Could it be also a problem of the distributor ? Should I remove the Sparks and put the old ones to test. Local mechanic says the Sparks were still looking fine...I've been checking for water inside the motor...but no sign of it. Any advise?

 

[QBhoy]

So does it not turn over or does it, but won’t start ? What plugs went in it ?

 

[Pedrorala]

It starts but taking much longer than normal and smelling gasoline. Regular behaviour is to start within the first two seconds after turning the Key...now it takes around 8-9 seconds....the new Sparks are Volvo Penta Originals and motor started fine 3 or 4 Times after...and then after One day i used fresh water to run it...it started to take much longer to start...either in cold condition or hot!

 

[Saline Marina]

An idea: your water temp sensor might be an issue. The injector pulsewidth has to be set to a rich condition to get started when cold and work its way back out of that to a more normal air/fuel ratio for running. If the ECM is reading a false -warm condition it may not be giving you enough fuel to get started reliably. That a change in the cooling water made a change in starting, I would look there. The fresh water wash could have washed away something that was helping it barely work. As I recall its important not to use teflon tape in sealing a coolant temp sensor as it may interfere with the grounding of the sensor thru its case to the metal parts of the engine.

Don't be tricked by the water temp on the cluster display. Its entirely possible that the cluster has its own independent sensor and is not piggybacking off the sensor used by the ECM.

Not sure about other maintenance but the distributor cap, the ignition module, and the spark plug wires' exterior jacket condition can all be part of ignition problems. Even the remote coil itself can go bad after a number of years, the windings break down and it either shorts out or is leaking high voltage out the side of it to ground instead of "funneling" it thru the spark plug wires.

 

[QBhoy]

Hi
VP don’t really have original plugs if you know what I mean. What were they specifically ? Remember this is an mpi/gxi engine and calls for at least platinum and ideally iridium plugs. Ac delco or ngk are the usual. Those perhaps not in the know have been caught out just putting the normal plugs for a normal 4.3 in. Like ngk br6fs or similar. It won’t run at all well with these.

 

[Pedrorala]

An idea: your water temp sensor might be an issue. The injector pulsewidth has to be set to a rich condition to get started when cold and work its way back out of that to a more normal air/fuel ratio for running. If the ECM is reading a false -warm condition it may not be giving you enough fuel to get started reliably. That a change in the cooling water made a change in starting, I would look there. The fresh water wash could have washed away something that was helping it barely work. As I recall its important not to use teflon tape in sealing a coolant temp sensor as it may interfere with the grounding of the sensor thru its case to the metal parts of the engine.

Don't be tricked by the water temp on the cluster display. Its entirely possible that the cluster has its own independent sensor and is not piggybacking off the sensor used by the ECM.

Not sure about other maintenance but the distributor cap, the ignition module, and the spark plug wires' exterior jacket condition can all be part of ignition problems. Even the remote coil itself can go bad after a number of years, the windings break down and it either shorts out or is leaking high voltage out the side of it to ground instead of "funneling" it thru the spark plug wires.

Thanks for the hint! I'll try to see if disconnecting and re-connecting back again the temperature sensor will solve this. I'm not sure it will has I even disconnected the batteries poles for an all day to see if the system would reset to normal with no result, but maybe there could be something wrong with it...Next weekend I'll try to see and revert to you...I've talked this past weekend to a local mechanic that suggested it could be some dirt in the Fuel pump and suggested me to open the fuel pump cover and clean it well with compressed air...I confess I'm not very confortable to do that as it seems the fuel pump to be a rigid body! The theory is that there could be some obstruction on the fuel pump on the return line and too much fuel is being delivered to the cylinders, causing them to have more difficulty to fire up correctly....I'll try first your approach...since it's an easy check with the boat on the water as it is now.

 

[Pedrorala]

Hi
VP don’t really have original plugs if you know what I mean. What were they specifically ? Remember this is an mpi/gxi engine and calls for at least platinum and ideally iridium plugs. Ac delco or ngk are the usual. Those perhaps not in the know have been caught out just putting the normal plugs for a normal 4.3 in. Like ngk br6fs or similar. It won’t run at all well with these.

What I mean originals is that they were ordered on the Volvo Penta official representative. I'll check the specs this weekend and revert to you. Well...I could remove them all and re-install the old ones again to check...

 

[Karl H]

Similar problem on my 4.3 GXI-E. Cold start perfect and then runs perfectly, but after sitting for 15 min with a hot engine I need to throttle all the way up to get the engine to catch. A strong smell of gas. Plugs smell like gas and were fouled. The mechanic thought the injectors were leaking down (rail was losing pressure) and said that the excessive throttle needed to start was burning off the excess fuel in the cylinder from a leaky injector (s). So I replaced the injectors, replaced, the temp. sensor, cap, rotor, wires, plugs, TPS etc. All with no results. The engine starts right up when cold and runs strong, just the problem with the hot restart. Diving me nuts! Only thing I can think io of is that I got a bad injector that is still leaking down in the new lot I bought.

 

[Pedrorala]

HI. After two more weekends using the boat for just about one hour each time, I was on the first weekend really happy because the motor started at first key turn and thought that disconnecting the temp sensor plug and reconnecting it again with the motor still stopped had solved the issue, but this weekend I found it to be as it was before...difficult to start and smelling gas! With the worst thing being now a strange rotating noise which maybe comming from the drive since it's a little bit different when in neutral or in forward or reverse mode...probably something happened inside the drive unit.

I've red in another forum topic about a crap cap of the distributor being the cause of an hard start situation...could it be also something related? How should I test and check it?

Karl H,

If you are having problem with hot restart could it be some water getting inside the cilinders coming from the exhaust system? And then after getting dry and cold, the motor runs well again?