Idle/Tilt Question

[sludgeguy68]

73 rude 25hp - seems to idle better when the motor is tilted up. When in neutral and tilted down, exhaust does not seem to bubble up out of the tube that is under water - not sure if it's supposed to. When I tilt it up so that the exhaust outlet is just under the surface, the bubbles come out and idle increases.

Subsequently the motor will idle down pretty low when tilted up, but when I tilt it back down it'll sputter out and die.

I took off LU and looked for problems, saw a lot of gray muck all over the place (water and exhaust?). Found a stripped thread that held the LU in... tapped it, but still have same idle performance.

Any thoughts? Still new to outboards...
Thanks in advance
-Tom

 

[oldcatamount]

Re: Idle/Tilt Question

Sounds like a tune-up is what she needs. The usual suspects: points, plugs, condensers. You might try a compression test. If you have a weak cylinder, it will not idle right.