Hello everyone! Just registered on here after a few weeks of reading tons of your posts and learning an immense amount about a boat we recently got. I'm well and truly stuck now, so I thought maybe you could help me. Completely new to boats and engines, so a little background on the repairs over the last 2 weeks in case I messed something up.
We have an 88 Mercruiser 3.0L with an Alpha One Gen 1 sterndrive on a 17ft Chris Craft Cavalier. We had an engine that after a season, winterized, wouldn't start well, and when it did, would stall when putting into forward or reverse. Replaced fuel filers, lines, cleaned the carb with cleaner, it idled a little better, still stalled when shifting into gear. Replaced spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, and rotor, reset the points gap (who knew all this even existed?!) now the engine runs smoothly, but still stalls in gear.
After much troubleshooting, and taking the outdrive off (that was intense), found that the shift shaft wasn't turning well, which in turn had damaged the shift cable, and the cut off switch was getting stuck . Replaced the shaft, the lower shift cable, shift plate assembly (had to move it off the engine since the old switch wasn't available any more and the new plate/kit couldn't mount there), and now it goes into and out of gear smoothly without triggering the cut off switch! Voila, we're running. Put the outdrive back on (hopefully correctly, it was tough going). Now we're running in the water! It was glorious.
So, we were on the lake for a full day, mostly tubing. Everything goes well, we take the boat out onto the trailer overnight, unplug, only a bit of water comes out.
Day 2, we launch, go to the marina and fill up. We smell horrible smell from the engine area as we run, not the normal slightly fuel like smell, but best described as the smell of steaming artichokes. About 10 minutes into tubing, the engine loses power at full throttle, like I'm backing off on the throttle but I'm not. We stop, turn off/on, it gets better for a bit, then again gets really weak and slow. We unload everyone and limp back to the launch to get out of the water. This time, when I pull the plug, the plug looked a bit damaged on the end, and lots of dirty, brown water comes out. I hadn't looked in the bilge before this, but the water just pours and pours. We pack up and drive home.
So, now I've checked the bellows, can see anything wrong. I'm almost sure the water inlet seal o-ring was on when we put the outdrive back on, since it kept wanting to jump out during the reinstall and we were watching it, and it wouldn't explain why we didn't have any problems on day 1. There is no leak into the boat when using a hose on the muffs, whether the engine is running or not. There is a small hole above the lowest of the 3 starboard bolts that mount the outdrive, I can't remember if it was plugged or covered by a washer before... We're a few hours from a lake, and the experience of removing and reinstalling the outdrive was a nightmare for me by myself, so I'm hoping I'm missing something simple that you guys could point me to before I do anything drastic again or have to drive a full day just to test it out in water.
Thanks in advance for your help and for reading my wall of text!
We have an 88 Mercruiser 3.0L with an Alpha One Gen 1 sterndrive on a 17ft Chris Craft Cavalier. We had an engine that after a season, winterized, wouldn't start well, and when it did, would stall when putting into forward or reverse. Replaced fuel filers, lines, cleaned the carb with cleaner, it idled a little better, still stalled when shifting into gear. Replaced spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, and rotor, reset the points gap (who knew all this even existed?!) now the engine runs smoothly, but still stalls in gear.
After much troubleshooting, and taking the outdrive off (that was intense), found that the shift shaft wasn't turning well, which in turn had damaged the shift cable, and the cut off switch was getting stuck . Replaced the shaft, the lower shift cable, shift plate assembly (had to move it off the engine since the old switch wasn't available any more and the new plate/kit couldn't mount there), and now it goes into and out of gear smoothly without triggering the cut off switch! Voila, we're running. Put the outdrive back on (hopefully correctly, it was tough going). Now we're running in the water! It was glorious.
So, we were on the lake for a full day, mostly tubing. Everything goes well, we take the boat out onto the trailer overnight, unplug, only a bit of water comes out.
Day 2, we launch, go to the marina and fill up. We smell horrible smell from the engine area as we run, not the normal slightly fuel like smell, but best described as the smell of steaming artichokes. About 10 minutes into tubing, the engine loses power at full throttle, like I'm backing off on the throttle but I'm not. We stop, turn off/on, it gets better for a bit, then again gets really weak and slow. We unload everyone and limp back to the launch to get out of the water. This time, when I pull the plug, the plug looked a bit damaged on the end, and lots of dirty, brown water comes out. I hadn't looked in the bilge before this, but the water just pours and pours. We pack up and drive home.
So, now I've checked the bellows, can see anything wrong. I'm almost sure the water inlet seal o-ring was on when we put the outdrive back on, since it kept wanting to jump out during the reinstall and we were watching it, and it wouldn't explain why we didn't have any problems on day 1. There is no leak into the boat when using a hose on the muffs, whether the engine is running or not. There is a small hole above the lowest of the 3 starboard bolts that mount the outdrive, I can't remember if it was plugged or covered by a washer before... We're a few hours from a lake, and the experience of removing and reinstalling the outdrive was a nightmare for me by myself, so I'm hoping I'm missing something simple that you guys could point me to before I do anything drastic again or have to drive a full day just to test it out in water.
Thanks in advance for your help and for reading my wall of text!