Help! My Volvo Died Today!

emarkd

Cadet
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
20
Hello all. I recently bought an old bayliner with a volvo aq125 in it. I spent a while working out kinks in the cooling system and replacing parts that obviously needed it and got it out on the water for the first time today. It ran great for about an hour. Motor fired right up, ran smooth, quiet and cool. At wide open throttle I was turning about 4800-5000 rpms and it was smooth as silk.

Then all of a sudden it gave a little backfire and died. I was probably turning 3000 rpms or so at the time. The motor turns over strong but will not fire. I took the spark arrestor off and its getting gas. I even put a little shot of starting fluid down in there and it still won't fire. At that point we paddled to shore and brought it home.

I'm leaning towards some sort of ignition problem but haven't torn into it yet. Anybody have any better ideas? Where should I start?

Thanks,
-Mark
 

maxxman04

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Mar 30, 2009
Messages
352
Re: Help! My Volvo Died Today!

gas, fire, compression. you need these to run. gas, you've got. my guess from the pop, backfire, is ignition system BUT check compression, just to rule that out. bout 10-15 minutes, you'll know if compression is good or not. if so, then you'll know it's ignition.
 

-JR-

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 21, 2009
Messages
133
Re: Help! My Volvo Died Today!

pull off the spark plug wire and stick a nail or a screw driver in the spark plug wirer boot and hold it 1/8 inch away from the engine block and crank the engine over and check for a spark . If you do have it you might of jumped a tooth on the timeing belt. Does the engine crank faster than normal .If so it jumped alot !
Do you have an hour meter on the unit ...how many hours does it have on .
 

emarkd

Cadet
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
20
Re: Help! My Volvo Died Today!

I haven't messed with it yet but I'm also worried about having jumped timing. I'll find out today or tomorrow which problem I've got but my timing belt looks good and has good tension. The engine sounds the same to me when it turns over.

I wish mine had an hour meter but it doesn't. I bought the boat from a bank that had repo'd it so I don't know anything about the previous owner or the service he did, so I'm just tackling problems as they pop up.
 

CharlieB

Vice Admiral
Joined
Apr 10, 2007
Messages
5,617
Re: Help! My Volvo Died Today!

Check that timing belt again.

Volvo is very particular about setting tension, not exactly as the OEM manual and it WILL jump time and die.
 
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