1988 Evinrude 225hp not running on all cylinders

[Lk40hp]

I believe its not running on all the cylinders. I bought the boat recently and it had been sitting for 10+ years. First two carbs I took off looked like brand new on the inside so I didnt bother with the rest. When checking for spark it had spark on all 6. I can get it to run, and idle, and in neutral if you rev it up a little bit it will take off and hit on all 6, and really smoke bad, but it gear you can't get it past 1500 rpm. When its running and its in gear and you give it gas it will get boggy, but will occstionally spit out a cloud of smoke. Whats wierd is when I have taken the plugs out after running it to check them all are completely sopping wet with gas. Im stumped. Its got good compression, spark, and fuel... what more can it ask for?

 

[Bosunsmate]

Is your primer bulb holding full with engine off? ( if it does hold firm that suggests that your carbs arent flooding)
Put a match flame to those plugs and check that fuel on the plug burns. Often ive seen wet plugs and thought oh they have fuel... but theres being a leak in the exhaust gasket and its actually got water into the cylinders and so they mostly never fire and so you get a big build up oil hence the big smoke when it sporatically does.
If it burns and the primer bulb holds firm with engine off then it suggests you have weak spark which requires checking with a sparktester that your spark jumps a 7/16 gap.

 

[Bosunsmate]

Also turn the motor to on when you do the primer bulb test just in case your choke is sticking on

 

[Intoodeeep]

Also its been my experience that just because carbs look clean, doesn't mean they are. This crappy fuel can cause fuel to sit in small places and narrow passages like in the orfices of the jets. Smoke could also be from several other things like unburned fuel. If the gas isn't new then replace the old gas. Look at the plugs and check those like the others have said. I doubt its a water leak but its possible. It sounds carb related to me. It wants to idle and run but under actual load it dies. Classic carb problem. Intermediate or high speed jets are clogged I bet. Even if the look clear, it doesn't take much. I run a small piece of copper wire as well as carb cleaner just to make good and sure. I have rebuilt carbs with just cleaner, just to go back and do it again checking with a wire and cleaning again for it to do the trick.

 

[Lk40hp]

I cleaned the flywheel, stator, and all the carbs tonight. Ill test it tomorrow morning. Spark is very strong, and carbs were clean as a whistle... but I went through them anyways. When you hold a lighter up to the plugs it doesnt burn... it will occasionally make a little poof is a small area, then youre back down to flame the lighter is producing. The spark plugs are wet with blackish color liquid... the exhaust gasket would make sense, but it doesnt seem like any water is in there...

 

[Bosunsmate]

It should burn straight away.
Do that test some more. it should go poof like it would if you dropped some of that fuel on the ground and lit it.
What i do at this stage is i drop out the Lower unit and i run the motor for about twenty seconds with no water. It wont overheat in that time but it will tell you if running it with no water is helping, ie a gasket isnt broken.
You can also hook a garden hose up to the inlet pipe and turn that on as the engine starts heating up,If the motor stumbles then you know you have a leak getting in somewhere
The problem is if waters being gettin gin there for a while it can get right into the internals so takes quite a while to blow out.
Sometimes you need to take off the inlet mainfold and clean it out properly.

Id be double checking why the fuel is not lighting if it was mine

 

[Bosunsmate]

If its just a minor leak and its spraying water out then its hard to tell visually if its water on the plugs. If theres fine water mist in there mixing with the fuel the fuel wont look too bad but the water content means it wont burn when you light it.
Dip your sparkplug lead into your fuel tank and light it, if you arent getting the same reaction every time at the engine then you are getting water in it

 

[itsaboattime]

Take a flashlight and shine it in the sparkplug holes. Try and look at the pistons. If there is water intrusion, they will look clean. If they are black and carboned up then I would doubt you have a water leak. Can you smell fuel through the spark plug holes? If it is flooding out you should.
There is a sticky at the top of the forum that has directions for "starting a sleeping engine". Fwiw, you may want to go through that.

 

[Bosunsmate]

Theres no way if you have strong spark using a spark tester that that fuel will accumulate to make it wet like you say unless something is wrong with your fuel.

In case this is your problem: i helped out a guy at the boat ramp once, his motor was doing what yours was. We did a spark test and i checked for wetness on his plugs. It looked like it was getting fuel. I put a match to the fuel and it smoked but didnt burn. I looked at his fuel tank and the gauge on the lid was missing the cover so when it had rained a minimal amount had got into the tank. That was enough to make it not act like it should when ignited by spark or lighter.

I drained all the carbs and flushed new petrol through and it came right.
That was a yamaha.

So point is check your fuel in the tank too, maybe thats contaminated with water and your engine is actually ok

 

[Bosunsmate]

What i should of said is if its pure fuel thats accumulated on the spark plug then that should easily burn out of the confinement of the cylinder, as it wont be in a flooded engine anymore

 

[Lk40hp]

I tried it this morning with the same results. Im running it on a 5gal tank that gas gas thats less than a week old, and its been stored inside, not in the rain. I retried burning the spank plugs and got nothing. Ill try dropping off the lower unit and let you know the results.

 

[Lk40hp]

When I took the spark plugs out steam or exhaust came out. Also the pistons looked very wet, but they were a black color from carbon

 

[Lk40hp]

I took the lower unit off right after running it in water... it had the same result. So I took the plugs out and dried them, then let them sit out for 30 min. I put them back it and it ran great. The rpms jumped up 500 rpm, and when you hit the gas it took off vs being laggy. I then took the plugs out and checked them. Steam or exhaust still came out some of the plug holes, and the plugs were somewhat wet. I held a lighter to them and none of them ignited. Is it possible that some water was just still floating around in there so they got wet, but not super wet like when the waters hooked up? Do you think you know what it is, or woauld you like me to do more tests?

 

[Lk40hp]

...well for ****s and giggles I put the lower back on and tried it again. Believe it or not it ran on all 6 and took off when you punched it so I let it idle for 15 min. All in all its idled in my driveway for over an hour for the past week. I dropped it in the water and pinned it and slowly it took off. It pushed 5375rpm and ran good. I ran it for 10 minutes and put it on the trailer. After returning home I pulled the plugs and 4 were dry and tan, and two had some little wetness on it. Soooooo... heres a crazy thought, but I think the crank was full of fogging oil, and its just had to slowly burn through it. The guy I bought it from obsessed over the motor and said he fogged it every year... for 15 years even though he never started it. I think that he dumped an excessive amount of fogging oil in it and it built up over time. And fogging oil isnt flammable... is this a reasobable idea? Also thanks all who have posted on here and helped me get it going, ive had it on the lake 6 times and could never get it past 1500 any of the times, yet every time it got a little closer to planing out...

 

[Bosunsmate]

Beats me.
Its odd it fired up the moment that you did drop the LU if it was fogging oil.
Has that motor little hoses that connect to below the carbs? if it does the valves in there can get gunked with oil/water and never really clear out unless removed and cleaned.
Glad its getting better not worse and the sparks are tan and brown, just two more plugs to sort out
which cylinders are the wet ones?

 

[Lk40hp]

No little hoses except the choke. 2nd down on starter side and bottom on other side. They werent super wet, but they were a little bit. I dont know if drying out the cylinders and plugs helped it fire through it, but that was the first time ive dried the plugs well, so that could have had an impact on it. Thinking back, when I first started it when I first got it it wouldnt run without your foot on the gas. After a while it would barely idle on its own. After a bit after that it'd idle fine but take off... like put put put vroom put put put vroom. Yesterday it idled smooth but low, and today after cleaning plugs it idled smooth and higher. I got more gas tonight, so im going to run it a while and periodically check it. I can let you know what I find. Pretty wierd motor huh?

 

[Bosunsmate]

yes two strokes boat motors can be weird but always have their reasons....
what you can do is pull out the safety lanyard line, or ground the ht wires so you have no spark occurring. Pull out all the sparkplugs and then Crank the engine over, that will clear out any left over gunk. Make sure you have the impeller lubed with muffs etc during this time so you dont dry it out.Be careful to not overheat the starter by cranking for too long too

What i do after i havent used my motor for a while is that i do this and i look at the exit of all the sparkplug holes from the block, you should see a fine mist of fuel being shot out of them all. This indicates if any cylinders arent getting fuel. I hook up a little jumper switch on the solenoid so i can do it myself without anyone else needing to be there

 

[Bosunsmate]

Also im not sure if you used a spark tester to test that spark is consistent and jumping a 7/16 gap on each cylinder

 

[Bosunsmate]

whats the compression too?

 

[Lk40hp]

No little hoses. The second down on the left and bottom on the right were slightly wet. It may have fired without lower because that was the first time the plugs were dried off. I took it out this morning and it was running excellent, then I stopped at the dock and threw the 25p prop on and it wasnt running right so I then stopped and went to take off and it fell flat on its face. It went back to how it had been, not running well at all, and we oared back. After cleaning the plugs again and taking the hoses off the vro pump (to check that that was working) I fired it up in the driveway and it was fine again. I let it idle for 10min, and after 5 it started dropping and running bad so I pumped the gas and it blew out a cloud of blue smoke and was fine. I again took it to the lake and had it at 5500 rpm and then stopped to button down a seat. 15 seconds later when I punched it it died again. Finally (after 5 min)I got it revved up and cleaned out in neutral, slapped it in gear and it took off like a rocket. 5500 rpms again and ran smooth as silk until I slowed down by the boat landing and again it quit and refused to be revved up...