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  1. K

    1987 Merc 180 (“470” 3.7 litre) won’t idle

    lol. Now that’s an analogy that a Canadian can relate to!
  2. K

    1987 Merc 180 (“470” 3.7 litre) won’t idle

    Moving on to the overheat problem. Checked everything I could think of. Had what seemed a good coolant temperature drop across the heat exchanger, so thought the flow must be okay. Out of ideas, I pulled the riser and it was pretty restricted. Visually, I can only see the space between the...
  3. K

    1987 Merc 180 (“470” 3.7 litre) won’t idle

    Thank you. I have the factory manual and have been poring over it! As I posted a moment ago, that leaves me wondering why fixing the connection of the purple yellow at the coil solved the idling problem. Coincidence? Then I wonder what really was the problem.
  4. K

    1987 Merc 180 (“470” 3.7 litre) won’t idle

    But it makes me wonder how that bad connection could have been the cause of the idling problem, since that wire wouldn’t carry any charge on the key is in the Run position.
  5. K

    1987 Merc 180 (“470” 3.7 litre) won’t idle

    Thanks. The Mercruiser manual (#8, p 4A-4) says that wire supplies coil only in Start position, which makes sense to me. Which wire provides the voltage to the coil from the ignition switchwhile the engine is running? I’d like to find a diagram that identifies all wires and voltages to and...
  6. K

    1987 Merc 180 (“470” 3.7 litre) won’t idle

    lol. Now that’s an analogy that a Canadian can relate to!
  7. K

    1987 Merc 180 (“470” 3.7 litre) won’t idle

    Thanks all for the further replies. I put a third carb on, from the starboard engine, which was running fine. No change -- the port engine still wouldn't idle below 1800 rpm. So, not a carburetor problem after all. I started thinking about weak spark possibility and tracing every wire I could...
  8. K

    1987 Merc 180 (“470” 3.7 litre) won’t idle

  9. K

    1987 Merc 180 (“470” 3.7 litre) won’t idle

    NEW NEWS Last night I was flushing the 180 carburetor with gas as well as I could while leaving it assembled, hoping I might discharge any dirt at the needles/jets. I spotted a crack in the casing (lower right corner of photo). I don’t know where it runs internally, but I imagine that could be...
  10. K

    1987 Merc 180 (“470” 3.7 litre) won’t idle

    Thank you all for your replies. I’m replying to your questions here, and new info in my n xt post. The first carb (“the 180 carb”) started easily and idled fine for each of my three Sea trials this summer, so hasn’t been sitting since it operated well. The flooding (?) problem started during...
  11. K

    1987 Merc 180 (“470” 3.7 litre) won’t idle

    (Does anyone remember my 2023 posts where I thought I’d be sea trialling in two weeks? HAHAHAHAHA!! First sea trial was this May. And still not cruising.)
  12. K

    1987 Merc 180 (“470” 3.7 litre) won’t idle

    My 180 won’t idle. It seems like it’s flooding. Its starts easily if I give it quite a lot of throttle, and sounds fine above 2000 RPM. When I ease the throttle back to 1800 or less, the rpm goes up and down a couple of times, then stalls. Recent history: The two 180’s are new to my boat, so I...
  13. K

    Depth sounders and Old transducers

    @airshot @dingbat Thank you for your tips. I decided to go with a new system, discontinued and on half price -- the Reveal 7.
  14. K

    Depth sounders and Old transducers

    PS: There is no display or electronics of any kind onboard. Apart from a depth readout, I don't plan to have any for initial launch.
  15. K

    Depth sounders and Old transducers

    I bought a 1983 26' sedan cruiser on a trailer. It needs lots of work, but my plan right now is to get it seaworthy enough to launch and see how it feels, then decide how much time/money to put into it. I want to have a depth sounder before I launch. I know approximately nothing about depth...
  16. K

    What to do with my two 470's?

    @Dubed @Scott Danforth @Lou C , Thanks for the comments. I have a cast iron manifold. I will try milling it, depending what happens next. The gasket with permatex are holding a 15 psi pressure test for now. I tried starting it yesterday, very briefly. It coughed, sputtered but no start...
  17. K

    What to do with my two 470's?

    Update. Thanks for the comments. The lifter in the picture above is the old one. Didn't seem to me to be "weld" on it since the surface is perfectly smooth, visually and to touch at least. With new lifter installed, tried a brief run on muffs without putting exhaust elbow back on. Ran, but...
  18. K

    What to do with my two 470's?

    Since engine is reassembled and I can’t see any wear marks on the lifter and didn’t see any on the cam, I’ll leave the new one in for now. the one line across it is a stain left by the valrsol fluid line when I soaked it overnight. The other stains are perfectly smooth.
  19. K

    What to do with my two 470's?

    Update. Finally got out to my boat to pursue the “get it safely on the water with minimum expense and time and see how it feels this season”. And I’m feeling optimistic about it. It looks good overall and appears to have been well looked after. Hope to sea trial in a week or two. Port engine...
  20. K

    What to do with my two 470's?

    Thanks for the new comments. I'm arranging a marine survey for the whole boat, mostly to see how sound the boat is structurally. I'm not keen on putting tons of time into fibreglass/core replacement. We'll see how that turns out. Then I'm thinking along the same line as @nola mike, see if I...
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