Hi everyone-
I've done a lot of work on this engine (in probably the wrong order!). I don't know the history of it. It was a saltwater engine and was given to me with the boat and told that it was running when it was taken off the old boat. Since the boat and motors were given to me by a neighbor I don't see why there would be any dishonesty in the story he told me.
I rebuilt both carbs, new water pump, plugs, wires, starter, etc. Compression test was very close on all 4 cylinders - 100psi. When I did the compression test prior to mounting, I hooked the 4 gauge battery cable directly to the starter to turn it over and it cranked great. It would not crank using jumper cables. Research on here led me to use actual battery cables because most jumper cables can't handle the load.
Next, I mounted the engine on the boat and hooked everything up. Previous engine on the boat was a 1988 Evinrude 40 HP so I used the existing harness. Turn the key and nothing. I push in on the key and I can hear the "click" but nothing when I turn the key.
Took the boat to a repair shop to get it running for me and they did a leak down test. Here are the numbers per cylinder:
1 - 30%
2 - 40%
3 - 20%
4 - 20%
They also said they couldn't get the engine to turn over, even going directly to the starter like I did when I ran the compression check. So, a few questions:
I've done a lot of work on this engine (in probably the wrong order!). I don't know the history of it. It was a saltwater engine and was given to me with the boat and told that it was running when it was taken off the old boat. Since the boat and motors were given to me by a neighbor I don't see why there would be any dishonesty in the story he told me.
I rebuilt both carbs, new water pump, plugs, wires, starter, etc. Compression test was very close on all 4 cylinders - 100psi. When I did the compression test prior to mounting, I hooked the 4 gauge battery cable directly to the starter to turn it over and it cranked great. It would not crank using jumper cables. Research on here led me to use actual battery cables because most jumper cables can't handle the load.
Next, I mounted the engine on the boat and hooked everything up. Previous engine on the boat was a 1988 Evinrude 40 HP so I used the existing harness. Turn the key and nothing. I push in on the key and I can hear the "click" but nothing when I turn the key.
Took the boat to a repair shop to get it running for me and they did a leak down test. Here are the numbers per cylinder:
1 - 30%
2 - 40%
3 - 20%
4 - 20%
They also said they couldn't get the engine to turn over, even going directly to the starter like I did when I ran the compression check. So, a few questions:
- What do these numbers mean?
- With these numbers, is the engine usable, but at reduced performance?
- If they couldn't get the engine to crank, and I did when going directly to the starter, is it possibly the solenoid?
- When I initially tried to crank the engine using jumper cables, it would not crank much. It was only when I used 4 gauge battery cables that it cranked fine. I wonder if the shop was using jumper cables?
