1979 55HP Seahorse flooding?

[Steve73]

Hi All,
I had my 1979 Johnson 55HP rebuilt last year and it ran good. It has about 12hrs on it and is now broken in. On the weekend it gave me some grief with stalling at start up.
Some of the details on what happened:
-The motor will start and run for about 5 to 10 seconds then chokes itself out and stalls. Smoke comes out the front of the carb. This is with the lever in the "warm up " position and the choke off once it fires.
-If I do get it going past the warm up stage the motor runs like gold and would start very easily again if the motor was still warm.
-There was one run cycle when the motor would only go to half the RPM at full throttle...my best guess is it was only firing on one cylinder. Started it up again 5 minutes later and full power was restored.
-The outfit that rebuilt my engine asked me to run a 35:1 fuel mix ratio for the first ten hours.....after picking up a factory service manual it said 50:1 on break in was adequate....not sure if this has caused anything?

Thanks for any ideas and have a Great and safe boating season!

 

[Daviet]

Re: 1979 55HP Seahorse flooding?

The 35:1 mixture wount cause any problems, might smoke a bit more than usual.
Is the engine actually flooding fuel out of the carbs, maybe you have a needle/seat problem allowing excess fuel into the engine.
Can you look into the carb throats and see fuel in there?

 

[boobie]

Re: 1979 55HP Seahorse flooding?

Check your spark with an open air gap tester. It should jump a 7/16 " gap. When it's acting up, pull one plug wire at a time and see if you can narrow it down to the bad cyl. What do the plugs look like ??

 

[Steve73]

Re: 1979 55HP Seahorse flooding?

The carb throat beyond the choke butterfly has a small film of oil. I pulled the plugs and have attached a couple of pictures. They are oily and to me they don't look like they are in very good shape for being only 12hrs old? Also the spark gap is off. Service manual calls for .040". They were only set at about .028". What are your thoughts on the plugs? Too rich a mixture causing this? Thanks again.

 

[Steve73]

Re: 1979 55HP Seahorse flooding?

bump

 

[oldman570]

Re: 1979 55HP Seahorse flooding?

Wrong plug gap setting and extra oil has fouled out the plugs. Clean the plugs and set the correct gap and run it again.

 

[Steve73]

Re: 1979 55HP Seahorse flooding?

Thanks for the response. That's what I was thinking but needed some reassurance as I am just learning and getting to know outboards. How could a guy call himself a Marine Mechanic (the one who rebuilt my motor) and not even set the spark plug gap correctly? I am sure it is a very important detail that should be followed.

 

[oldman570]

Re: 1979 55HP Seahorse flooding?

Some older motors call for plugs to be set at .028 for the old point systems and newer electronic s are gaped at .040. Probbly a brain fade .
Oldman570