Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

j_k_bisson

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Tried to continue in the original build thread to carry on the discussion of jetting this monster. There have been some performance issues that I was hoping to clear up. But before we get into the nitty gritty, I thought I would give a basic overview.

The motor was built in thread; http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=457212 The skinny is that the motor is a 1986 Johnson 200hp mid and lower unit. The block and rotating assembly is a 1990 Evinrude/Johnson 225hp. The ingition system is a 1987 Evinrude 200/225hp. The carberators are the wild card, no idea what year they are from. They are from year 1986 thru 1990 200 to 225hp Evinrude/Johnson.

The main issues I am having with the motor is at mid range 12-18mph in the boat in rough water the motor does not maintain speed. It either slowly increases speed untill it gets up on plane, or looses speed. While this is going on the motor is kicking like it is loading. Also the load speed hole shot is bogging.

Now to understand the motor have been installed and adjusted on the boat for motor height. That has been set to the most efficient height. The boat is a 1991 Bayliner Trophy 2002 walkaround. The boat I feal is not too heavy for this motor. I have adjusted the prop down to 15" x 15"P from a 14.3"x23"P. The motor ran great after I got it up to speed with the higher pitch prop. But getting there took for ever. The motor bogged completely with the higher pitch props.

Now the reason for this thread. I have been really investigating the carbs seeing they are the wild card here. I believe that the carbs are not properly jeted for the best prop I could be using. I want to increase the pitch of the prop to a 14.5" x 17"P prop. I was running this prop earlier in the last year season. I had to drop the pitch due to the motor really kicking at mid range speeds. The motor would really load with fuel. It would not stall but the plugs would carbon up allot. If the motor was shut down at this point, the plugs where drenched.

So I was thinking after the following investigation;

1986-87-88 225hp Evinrude had different jetting each year. The jet stayed the same between the years 1988 thru 1990. In 1990 the carbs changed along with the jetting. Also the part number for the carb bodies are the same for all these years 1986 thru 1990. Also the the carb rebuild kits are the same for the same years 1986 thru 1990.

So my thinking was I was going to change out my jets with my current prop and see what happens in the mid range. For the price of jets I was willing to play a bit.

Here is what I was thinking....
Current;
1987 Main; 62d, Mids; 14, Idle; 48

Proposed;
1988-90 Main; 62d, Mids; 47, Idle; 34

Now the questions;

1) Does anyone have or had a 1988 thru 1990 Evinrude/Johnson mounted on a 2300lb walkaround boat and what prop and performance characteristics do they experience?
2) What are everyones thoughts about swapping jets from year to year?
3) Are there any diffrences between the bodies/bore diameters on the carbs between 1986 thru 1990?
4) What are the risks on swapping the jetting thinking of lean idle and rich mids to the opposite?
5) Anyone ever thry this?

Let the disscussions begin..........
 

j_k_bisson

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

Bump.....

Where is everyone? I'm trying to lead a discussion into jetting of outboards and how the different was of accomplishing it with various jetting sizes. No body has anything to pipe in about?

Come on, you guys scared?????? lol

I dare you to talk about it.......
 

dehydrated

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

Ill give you this .I also had a bog out of the holeshot and messed around with idle and mid changes on my 88 225 really didnt notice change so i took air box off tried again took right off didnt hold throttle on long just enough to know i was rich on the mains plugs were always black also.ended up going down 2 sizes on the mains one at a time. Went boating over in montana elevation 3800 bog came back. what works for some may not work for others but it worked for me and thats all that matters
 

j_k_bisson

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

So you where running the 88 225 jets which where Idles 34, Mids 47, Mains 62D's.

What size of boat, and weight?

Also what elevation, just to clear everything up?

School me on plug colours and what they mean....
 
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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

Well, I learned a little bit about jetting (and not a bit more). My '90 Johnson 200 is a bit of a Frankenstein also, among other things when I bought it it had '94 carbs, with one of them being cracked. I wound up getting a complete set of '96 carbs which were properly jetted for a '96 engine but didn't run at idle or midrange worth a crap on my '90. There are some very knowledgeable folks on screamandfly, thanks to them I figured out that the midrange needed to be richened significantly to work on my engine (on '96 carbs the idle is a needle valve, I needed to go quite rich on that as well). I don't fully understand the why of this, but it has something to do with the airflow characteristics of different engine configurations.

One thought, are you absolutely positive you're not getting into a lean sneeze condition coming off idle? Your symptoms sound similar to what I was experiencing. I don't know if this is possible for you - if you can idle the engine in gear with the cowl and air box off (doing this at dusk makes it especially easy to see), you'll be able to see backfiring in the carbs as you come off idle if you've got a lean condition. This would have to be done with a load on the engine (either a prop or test prop in the water), it won't show up just running in the driveway on muffs.
 

dehydrated

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

jeff ,1988 hydrostream valero yt 18 foot weighs about i would guess 1200 lbs elevation 2500 ft. mains 60 d idles 31 mids 47 1988 225 evinrude 20 in. shaft. plugs color light brown great paper bag color. lighter than that you got a melt down darker than that she is rich black shes a pig need to stop feeding her so much ha HA. YOU WANT TO RUN YOUR ENGINE WIDE OPEN FOR AWHILE STRAIGHT AND SHUT THE IGNITION OFF NO SLOWING DOWN OR IDLEING PULL THE PLUGS AND SEE WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE
 

j_k_bisson

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

Well, I learned a little bit about jetting (and not a bit more). My '90 Johnson 200 is a bit of a Frankenstein also, among other things when I bought it it had '94 carbs, with one of them being cracked. I wound up getting a complete set of '96 carbs which were properly jetted for a '96 engine but didn't run at idle or midrange worth a crap on my '90. There are some very knowledgeable folks on screamandfly, thanks to them I figured out that the midrange needed to be richened significantly to work on my engine (on '96 carbs the idle is a needle valve, I needed to go quite rich on that as well). I don't fully understand the why of this, but it has something to do with the airflow characteristics of different engine configurations.

One thought, are you absolutely positive you're not getting into a lean sneeze condition coming off idle? Your symptoms sound similar to what I was experiencing. I don't know if this is possible for you - if you can idle the engine in gear with the cowl and air box off (doing this at dusk makes it especially easy to see), you'll be able to see backfiring in the carbs as you come off idle if you've got a lean condition. This would have to be done with a load on the engine (either a prop or test prop in the water), it won't show up just running in the driveway on muffs.

I went and posted the info and questions on the Scream and Fly Forum. They are working thru all the questions trying to figure out what I have done that probably should not work in their minds.... We'll see what come of it. Thanks for suggestion.
 

j_k_bisson

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

Ok I will do this this spring. Thanks for the directions on how to properly read plugs. That proceedure should be posted some where.

So Light (new) brown paper bag colour is what we are looking for. Got it.

Hey one question, are you premixing? What kind of oil are you using? Will either one of these factor effect the color?
 

dehydrated

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

premix at 50 -1 oil redline (its a synthetic blend ) IMHO i dont think which oil you use would have any effect on plug color. look in any parts book for spark plugs they used to have a picture chart for how a spark plug should look and different pics and cause for not firing right. I was outside sales rep in auto parts for 10 years in my earlier days.
 

j_k_bisson

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

premix at 50 -1 oil redline (its a synthetic blend ) IMHO i dont think which oil you use would have any effect on plug color. look in any parts book for spark plugs they used to have a picture chart for how a spark plug should look and different pics and cause for not firing right. I was outside sales rep in auto parts for 10 years in my earlier days.

I do have the plug chart. It came with the Factory service manual. Here is a pick of the plugs....

SSPX0108.jpg

SSPX0109.jpg

Those plugs have about 2-3 hours on them. They where ilded for 4-5 minutes before shutting down. There is some carbon on the tang, but they are really clean.
 

SparkieBoat

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

I have found that most outboards do not preform well until you get the boat on a plane, I am not sure it is possible to get a motor to do what you seem to want it to do, which is run smoothly and hold you at an exact speed with the boat still down in the water. the most important thing is just make sure you are not lean. a 4 blade prop may help you some at these lower speeds. I think you said you have trim tabs, you should find the slowest you can go while still staying on a plane adjust your tabs for this and jet mids for that mid RPM. I assume your idle and mains are good. thats my thought.
 

j_k_bisson

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

Staying on plane is around 21 mph. Trying to go 21 mph in 3-7 foot waves is a very bumpy ride!

So basically you are telling me that is I run a 2 stroke don't expect to run it if not in the power ban and on plane. Anything below these two is mush. And I should go to a 4 stroke that does not have a power ban......
 

SparkieBoat

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

yes that would be a good answer...and about right. If you cannot keep the boat up on a plane a 2 stroke is not going to perform well. I just sold a 4 stroke 115 that I had on the back of my 19' sea pro bay style boat. It did not really like pushing through at low speeds either but it did better than the 115 2 stroke I just put on it and test ran today, it just does not like pushing the boat at low rpms, but my boat jumps up on a plane almost instantly, I did not test lowest possible speed while staying on a plane but I guess it would probably be around 12-15 MPH. I have trim tabs they made a huge difference...just a side thought, maybe if you had a electric jack plate you could jack your motor up some and make it slip a little to get RPMs up some, they also make props that are vented that kinda do the same thing..a 4 blade vented prop would probably help you out some. also I have a 1989 20' well craft that had a 200 johhny on the back, it jumped up on a plane quickly without trim tabs and would plane at somewhere under 21 mph maybe 17 or so, I remember it did not like the 8-15 MPH range much, almost impossible to hold it there, you would slow down and speed up constantly...but 5-7 waves are going to be bumpy no matter what..I just stay home on those days...
 

j_k_bisson

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

yes that would be a good answer...and about right. If you cannot keep the boat up on a plane a 2 stroke is not going to perform well. I just sold a 4 stroke 115 that I had on the back of my 19' sea pro bay style boat. It did not really like pushing through at low speeds either but it did better than the 115 2 stroke I just put on it and test ran today, it just does not like pushing the boat at low rpms, but my boat jumps up on a plane almost instantly, I did not test lowest possible speed while staying on a plane but I guess it would probably be around 12-15 MPH. I have trim tabs they made a huge difference...just a side thought, maybe if you had a electric jack plate you could jack your motor up some and make it slip a little to get RPMs up some, they also make props that are vented that kinda do the same thing..a 4 blade vented prop would probably help you out some. also I have a 1989 20' well craft that had a 200 johhny on the back, it jumped up on a plane quickly without trim tabs and would plane at somewhere under 21 mph maybe 17 or so, I remember it did not like the 8-15 MPH range much, almost impossible to hold it there, you would slow down and speed up constantly...but 5-7 waves are going to be bumpy no matter what..I just stay home on those days...

But I can't stay home! those are the best days of fishing where I'm at!

Dam I was worried that this was the case! Nest step is drilling a prop I think!
 

daselbee

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

Just bumping this in hopes of another 12-13 page post.
 

j_k_bisson

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Re: Frankenstien's revenge, 1987 junkyard 225 Evinrude jetting discussion

Just bumping this in hopes of another 12-13 page post.

You guys love it when my threads go like that! Don't you????
 
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