KathyD19
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2012
- Messages
- 352
Hello again. I relied on iboats to walk me through a total tear down and rebuild of an old 1956 outboard a few years ago but now I'm on to a newer motor. I am having some issues so I'm hoping the good people on these forums can help me figure this out.
I purchased a pontoon with a 60 hp Mercury Four Stroke motor that ran great last year. This year it was great again until about a month ago. When out just putting along, it suddenly bogged down like it was starved for fuel and acted like it would die. I pumped the primer bulb and it started going again but I had to keep doing that to get us back to the dock. I noticed that there were cracks in the top of the original plastic gas tank and figured that was the issue. I assume the previous owner probably didn't do any maintenance so I did the following: replaced with a new fuel tank (Sceptor brand 12 gallon) and new gas, replaced fuel lines from tank to primer bulb (also replaced it) and from bulb to engine, replaced fuel filter and high pressure fuel filter. Still having intermittent bogging down and acting starved. Pumping the primer brings it back each time. The impeller puts out a good stream (but I know I will need to replace that before next season to be proactive). There doesn't seem to be any cause-and-effect to this happening. It happens at low speeds, it happens at high speeds, is not related to speeding up, the motor starts up easily each time, squeezing the primer bulb seems to give it the jump it needs so I'm thinking that yes it is starved for fuel, but why? My husband thought that maybe the new gas tank wasn't venting properly, even though I had the lid on and small vent cap open as it should be; he suggested opening the lid and leaving it off to see if that remedied it. The boat ran fine for about 10 minutes like that and he thought he'd found the culprit (a faulty new tank) but then it did it again. So that wasn't it either.
I'm going to change out the spark plugs and also use a fuel injector cleaner additive to the gas next. After that my only next thought would be that the fuel pump may be failing. Is that what you all would think or can you please give me some other insights? If I take this to the marine shop, it will be there the rest of the season so I was hoping I could do this myself. On a side note, with my old 1956 motor, I had a metal fuel tank with the dual gas/air line and since it didn't have a fuel pump and just a carb (not fuel injected) I was under the impression that the dual line was to draw air in from the engine and that would push the fuel out of the tank to to the engine. With the new motor having a fuel pump, that wouldn't be necessary right? So why does it have a dual fuel line like the old style?
Thanks in advance!
I purchased a pontoon with a 60 hp Mercury Four Stroke motor that ran great last year. This year it was great again until about a month ago. When out just putting along, it suddenly bogged down like it was starved for fuel and acted like it would die. I pumped the primer bulb and it started going again but I had to keep doing that to get us back to the dock. I noticed that there were cracks in the top of the original plastic gas tank and figured that was the issue. I assume the previous owner probably didn't do any maintenance so I did the following: replaced with a new fuel tank (Sceptor brand 12 gallon) and new gas, replaced fuel lines from tank to primer bulb (also replaced it) and from bulb to engine, replaced fuel filter and high pressure fuel filter. Still having intermittent bogging down and acting starved. Pumping the primer brings it back each time. The impeller puts out a good stream (but I know I will need to replace that before next season to be proactive). There doesn't seem to be any cause-and-effect to this happening. It happens at low speeds, it happens at high speeds, is not related to speeding up, the motor starts up easily each time, squeezing the primer bulb seems to give it the jump it needs so I'm thinking that yes it is starved for fuel, but why? My husband thought that maybe the new gas tank wasn't venting properly, even though I had the lid on and small vent cap open as it should be; he suggested opening the lid and leaving it off to see if that remedied it. The boat ran fine for about 10 minutes like that and he thought he'd found the culprit (a faulty new tank) but then it did it again. So that wasn't it either.
I'm going to change out the spark plugs and also use a fuel injector cleaner additive to the gas next. After that my only next thought would be that the fuel pump may be failing. Is that what you all would think or can you please give me some other insights? If I take this to the marine shop, it will be there the rest of the season so I was hoping I could do this myself. On a side note, with my old 1956 motor, I had a metal fuel tank with the dual gas/air line and since it didn't have a fuel pump and just a carb (not fuel injected) I was under the impression that the dual line was to draw air in from the engine and that would push the fuel out of the tank to to the engine. With the new motor having a fuel pump, that wouldn't be necessary right? So why does it have a dual fuel line like the old style?
Thanks in advance!