79 350 mercruiser 350 260hp with Eldebrock 1409 marine carb.
So this summer, strange things been going around my 350 engine. I think it might be a possibility of numerous and combination of things or just a single issue.
When I first took the boat out in spring, it had low fuel but the boat ran awesome for about 10 minutes. (fuel gauge didn't show me correct level) However after about 10 minutes of traveling at high speeds to our fishing location, my engine just started to bugg down and we came to a halt. The bugging down was so severe that my who engine shook. It wouldn't fire up after that so we figured we where low or out of fuel. Luckily I had my buddy out in another boat near by and he brought me fuel. That night the boat some times would do ok and other times it would bugg down and act like it will die at any second especially on low RPM's and def at high RPMs. When the engine was cold, it seem to work well, when engine was at around 160, or higher, seemed like we would encounter problems.
Yesterday we went out swimming. Before we took off I changed the fuel and water separator and filled 55 gallons of 87 gas. Lunched the boat and run it for about 10-15 minutes and it ran flawless! Parked the boat to go eat for about 1.5 hours. Then we all took off boating. The temp of engine was around 140 + when we fired the boat up. We started to accelerate when same thing started happening. The boat started to bugg down when going 10 miles and plus. However, the boat would not really die just no power and bugging down big time so I would release the acceleration to keep it alive. Then I had my buddy hit the throttle while i removed the air filter for the carb and checked to see if fuel was spraying consistently depending on throttle demand. It seemed like it was. Then I had him pick up speed while I played around with the carb choke leveler. I know the Eldebrock had auto choke but it seemed like it was going to wide open too soon so I manually held the choke at a slight degree closed position and the boat ran good. After playing around with the choke leveler we decided to leave it alone and just cruise at 10 miles an hour to our swimming location. After riding for about 8 minutes at 10 miles an hour I bumped the speed up to 12 miles then 14 and it still seemed to work good. Parking at our swimming hole, a VERY STRANGE thing occurred. My FORWARD GEAR DISAPPEARED! I had to hit reverse from natural twice in order for my forward gear to re-appear. Never had that happen before. Anyways after few hours of swimming I was able to get back to the dock at 20 miles an hour no problem.
Possible problems.
* Talking with my boat friend he said that he had similar problem when he fill his boat with 87 gas. He said to always put high premium gas like 92 because it has less ethanol. He has brand new boat but (I really dont buy this because its a 79 Chevy small block pretty much and crab fed) Do you agree with the guy or me?
* I fogged my carb during winter storage for the 1st time ever and didn't use any kind of defogger or anything like that because I am not sure if such thing even exist. Does it?
* I bought my carb in July of 2009. Took the boat out maybe like 10-20 times max. Its time for a carb clean up? If so anybody know a site for Eldebrock 1409 Marine Carb cleaning?
* Finally, I notice that some of my wiring might have bad connection. One of the shift gear wires go onto the same exact bolt where my auto chock carb wire goes. It is possible that I need to take that bolt off and put a stainless bolt on and clean the connection around that area. That's what might of caused my forward shifting gear not to kick in but then again when I was playing with the auto choke while my buddy had it in WOT, I did feel a good amount of resistance from the auto choke adjuster (depending on speeds) so It has to have a good connection.
Please give me your insight. Your time is very valued, thank you. .
So this summer, strange things been going around my 350 engine. I think it might be a possibility of numerous and combination of things or just a single issue.
When I first took the boat out in spring, it had low fuel but the boat ran awesome for about 10 minutes. (fuel gauge didn't show me correct level) However after about 10 minutes of traveling at high speeds to our fishing location, my engine just started to bugg down and we came to a halt. The bugging down was so severe that my who engine shook. It wouldn't fire up after that so we figured we where low or out of fuel. Luckily I had my buddy out in another boat near by and he brought me fuel. That night the boat some times would do ok and other times it would bugg down and act like it will die at any second especially on low RPM's and def at high RPMs. When the engine was cold, it seem to work well, when engine was at around 160, or higher, seemed like we would encounter problems.
Yesterday we went out swimming. Before we took off I changed the fuel and water separator and filled 55 gallons of 87 gas. Lunched the boat and run it for about 10-15 minutes and it ran flawless! Parked the boat to go eat for about 1.5 hours. Then we all took off boating. The temp of engine was around 140 + when we fired the boat up. We started to accelerate when same thing started happening. The boat started to bugg down when going 10 miles and plus. However, the boat would not really die just no power and bugging down big time so I would release the acceleration to keep it alive. Then I had my buddy hit the throttle while i removed the air filter for the carb and checked to see if fuel was spraying consistently depending on throttle demand. It seemed like it was. Then I had him pick up speed while I played around with the carb choke leveler. I know the Eldebrock had auto choke but it seemed like it was going to wide open too soon so I manually held the choke at a slight degree closed position and the boat ran good. After playing around with the choke leveler we decided to leave it alone and just cruise at 10 miles an hour to our swimming location. After riding for about 8 minutes at 10 miles an hour I bumped the speed up to 12 miles then 14 and it still seemed to work good. Parking at our swimming hole, a VERY STRANGE thing occurred. My FORWARD GEAR DISAPPEARED! I had to hit reverse from natural twice in order for my forward gear to re-appear. Never had that happen before. Anyways after few hours of swimming I was able to get back to the dock at 20 miles an hour no problem.
Possible problems.
* Talking with my boat friend he said that he had similar problem when he fill his boat with 87 gas. He said to always put high premium gas like 92 because it has less ethanol. He has brand new boat but (I really dont buy this because its a 79 Chevy small block pretty much and crab fed) Do you agree with the guy or me?
* I fogged my carb during winter storage for the 1st time ever and didn't use any kind of defogger or anything like that because I am not sure if such thing even exist. Does it?
* I bought my carb in July of 2009. Took the boat out maybe like 10-20 times max. Its time for a carb clean up? If so anybody know a site for Eldebrock 1409 Marine Carb cleaning?
* Finally, I notice that some of my wiring might have bad connection. One of the shift gear wires go onto the same exact bolt where my auto chock carb wire goes. It is possible that I need to take that bolt off and put a stainless bolt on and clean the connection around that area. That's what might of caused my forward shifting gear not to kick in but then again when I was playing with the auto choke while my buddy had it in WOT, I did feel a good amount of resistance from the auto choke adjuster (depending on speeds) so It has to have a good connection.
Please give me your insight. Your time is very valued, thank you. .
