I recently purchased this motor which has been a complete mistake. Nonetheless, Im stuck with it and need to figure out what is wrong.<br /><br />The first time I started it with the flushing ears, it ran poorly cold although it improved a little when warmed up. I checked the compression when the engine was cold and it failed the 10% rule for one of the 3 cylinders. I changed the lower unit gear lube that had supposedly been changed for the season and found it to be milky and the color of Grey Poupon mustard. Other than that, I replaced the fuel line and bulb.<br /><br />Question 1: Lower unit - I assume this means there is water in the oil. What would most likely cause this?<br /><br />I brought it out on the lake and it didnt perform well as it quit a few times and was generally hard to start and wouldnt idle at certain times. I knew from experience that a mechanic was going to rebuild the carbs so, with the help of a Clymer manual, I rebuilt them myself. When I took the bowl cover off of the top carburetor, there was a brass fuel shield that had broken off at some point before I bought it. A local mechanic told me to leave it out since it would be laying on the float and may cause problems.<br /><br />Question 2: Is the brass plate important?<br /><br />Question 3: I could find no instructions on setting the throttle plates so I closed them both and tightened the screw. Is this the correct way to do this?<br /><br />I was not impressed with the Clymer manual as I couldnt find exact specs for my particular carb (i.e. jet sizes, etc.). I tuned the idle mixture to the best of my ability. The top idle mixture was about 1 ¼ turns and the lower was a little past a ½ turn which seemed odd to me.<br /><br />Question 4: Is it normal to have the idle mixture settings this different?<br /><br />It was evident that this helped but didnt fix my main problems. I was told to use Power Tune to try to free up the rings. I followed the directions on the can and sprayed into the carbs alternately for 2/3 of the can and then sprayed the last 1/3 until the motor quit. One thing I noticed was that I couldnt kill the motor by spraying the lower carb; only the upper. Spraying the lower carbs reduced the idle speed but did not come close to killing the engine. A lot of carbon came out of the exhaust and I had to adjust the idle speed setting up as it had decreased to the point it wouldnt continue to idle.<br /><br />Question 5: Why didnt the lower carb respond like the upper?<br /><br />Question 6: Why would the idle speed decrease due to the Power Tune?<br /><br />To start the motor, I have to squeeze the bulb so hard that I can hear gas spraying into the carbs. (Note: Mechanically, the choke works fine but it does not appear to do anything when starting the motor). It will then start but will not idle for long. This happens every time I start the motor, cold or hot. The motor seems to run fairly good off idle except for a hesitation at about ½ throttle. I understand this means it needs a richer mixture but resetting the idle mixture didnt change the behavior.<br /><br />Question 7: Could this mean my fuel pump needs to be rebuilt or could the problem be a lack of crankcase vacuum due to worn rings?<br /><br />Any help would be greatly appreciated.
