Hello all, I am a frequent referencer of the knowledge here and now have a question of my own for the board. I have finally gotten my new to me 1984 Cobia Odyssey 170 VBR on the water and mostly running great! She has a Mercruiser 2.5L I4 with an alpha one gen one ( I assume) stern drive. I have replaced the whole fuel system as the last owner had a leaky tank and what looked to be original hoses which gummed everything up something fierce. (Tank, carb, fuel pump, all hoses). She purrs now when running. I also replaced the impeller in the lower unit and the thermostat today because this morning she did something...... Odd.
After running around for a while, fishing, start and stop drifting, etc. It was her first successful day on the water and I stayed in safe waters just in case. She ran great, temp creeped up a couple times at idle but when moving she lowered back down to normal. When waiting in line at the boat ramp, idling off the ramp with the occasional bump into and out of gear to hold position, she died. I could start her, she'd run a second, then quit. Everything felt very warm in the motor so I assumed it was temp related. I won't get her out again until Saturday at the earliest. I was dead sure it was related to temp or fuel even though everything in the fuel system is brand new. As stated, I replaced the lower impeller the other day, the thermostat today after testing the old one which was sticking, and removed all hoses and flushed out the motor with the garden hose. Nothing nasty came out.
I read a couple blogs today discussing the ignition coils and they could cause almost identical symptoms and problems. What are your thoughts on this? Is this the likely cause of mine? Once she cooled down after a while, she fired up, ran fine, no problems. I can't get the same problem to manifest itself at home on the ears, only on the water! (Go figure right!) Either way, this has me stumped. Plugs, wires, cap/rotor and supposedly points were replaced right before I bought this thing about a year ago. Not many hours on them at all. I was looking at the coil, it does look very old! I may replace it next. Thinking getting one at autozone.
So, please give me options, sea stories, lessons learned, etc. I am all ears and very curious as to the nature of this obstacle! Thank you in advance guys and gals for any wisdom you can pass on!!!
Chris
After running around for a while, fishing, start and stop drifting, etc. It was her first successful day on the water and I stayed in safe waters just in case. She ran great, temp creeped up a couple times at idle but when moving she lowered back down to normal. When waiting in line at the boat ramp, idling off the ramp with the occasional bump into and out of gear to hold position, she died. I could start her, she'd run a second, then quit. Everything felt very warm in the motor so I assumed it was temp related. I won't get her out again until Saturday at the earliest. I was dead sure it was related to temp or fuel even though everything in the fuel system is brand new. As stated, I replaced the lower impeller the other day, the thermostat today after testing the old one which was sticking, and removed all hoses and flushed out the motor with the garden hose. Nothing nasty came out.
I read a couple blogs today discussing the ignition coils and they could cause almost identical symptoms and problems. What are your thoughts on this? Is this the likely cause of mine? Once she cooled down after a while, she fired up, ran fine, no problems. I can't get the same problem to manifest itself at home on the ears, only on the water! (Go figure right!) Either way, this has me stumped. Plugs, wires, cap/rotor and supposedly points were replaced right before I bought this thing about a year ago. Not many hours on them at all. I was looking at the coil, it does look very old! I may replace it next. Thinking getting one at autozone.
So, please give me options, sea stories, lessons learned, etc. I am all ears and very curious as to the nature of this obstacle! Thank you in advance guys and gals for any wisdom you can pass on!!!
Chris
