Motor dies in the water get toed back

[mcarlito]

Hello again,<br />We rebuilt the low end, put new hoses on fuel pump, cleaned out carb. with cleaner, drained gas tank and put fresh gas/oil in 40-1. Ran it in a tub and it did fine except I had to prime the carb with gas/oil mixture to start it. Took my two boys and self to the docks, launched it, so far so good, Traveling 5mph to get out into the open lake area, went to throtle up and would not go any faster then 2000 at most, we were cralling. Motor is a 1966 Johnson v-4 60 hp on a 1963 crestliner 14'-0". We were out for about 50 minutes, we were just cralling and I didn't have it WOT, when all of a sudden it kicked into a low rpm for about 10 seconds and stalled. Observations were, the primer bulb from the gas tank was soft, I primed it several times and nothing, not even a hint that it wanted to start. When I had it on shore I took the hose line off the carb and turned it over and gas was coming out, it wasn't shooting out just little sperts. This just happened yesterday so I haven't had time to try and start it since it was in the water. I took the plugs out and two where dark and wet, the other two were dry and white. What does that mean, running Lean??? The fuel pump and the carb have not been rebuilt, I was waiting for the winter to do this. Compression is 92-92-100-93 psi with a sears guage. Can anyone help on this one? Thank you in advance.<br />Mike and son Zach<br />Still digging it, but it's getting cool out there!!

 

[G DANE]

Re: Motor dies in the water get toed back

HI - be glad it quit there, compression still sounds fine - I would start by cleaning both carbs before any further attempts to run it - its lean on the two cylinders, there mush be some dirt in that carb.

 

[chuckz]

Re: Motor dies in the water get toed back

Sound like you were running on two cyclinder. To troubleshoot:<br />1. Start the engine and note the RPM. <br />2. Shut off the engine and remove a plug wire. 3.Start the engine, if no change in RPM that cyclinder isn't firing.<br />4. Shut down the engine and replace the plug wire.<br />5. Repeat steps 1- 4 for each cylinder.<br /><br />This will tell you which cylinders aren't firing. Then you have to determine if it's a fuel problem, if the wet plugs aren't firing it's probably an ignition problem. If the dry plugs aren't firing it's a fuel problem.

 

[mcarlito]

Re: Motor dies in the water get toed back

Thank you G Dane and L.I.Chuck for your quick input. I will follow your suggestions. May I add one more observation I forgot to list. When we parked the boat on my property and lowered the motor to vertical position after traveling, we noticed a gray ooozz coming from a pee hole in the lower stem area. It had the smell of gas. I opened the drain plug to check the lower unit and the oil I just put in before we took the boat ride was clean. Any observations?? on this??<br /><br />thanks again<br />Mike and son Zach

 

[G DANE]

Re: Motor dies in the water get toed back

The gary oil is unburned twostroke oil, normal when iddling at temps below normal operation temp.

 

[mcarlito]

Re: Motor dies in the water get toed back

G Dane,<br />Thanks for the answer.<br />Mike and Son Zach<br />Still digging it!!!

 

[BF]

Re: Motor dies in the water get toed back

Hi,<br /><br />First congrat's on successfully fixing the lower unit leak! As said by others above, it sounds like it's not running on all cylinders. Your compression is good, that leaves fuel and/or spark as potential problems. The test of whether it's running on all cylinders suggested by L.I. is a good idea. Ideally, plugs should be brownish, but it's not uncommon for them to be a bit blackish/oily even if all is well... I think outboards are often jetted a bit on the rich side.<br /><br />I don't remember if you've checked over the ignition system... it's not uncommon for coils to crack with age and leak current out (short) instead of firing the plug. <br /><br />The oozing oil will be worse than normal if it's not running on 2 cylinders. (unburnt oil and gas end up in exhaust). If you fix the running problem, a lot of the oozing will fix itself.<br /><br />good luck.

 

[mcarlito]

Re: Motor dies in the water get toed back

BF,<br />Thanks for the input. The weekend is coming and I would like to test the coil. Would I find the explaination on how to do this in my manual or should I just ask the question here ??? <br /><br />Mike and son Zach<br />still digging it

 

[BF]

Re: Motor dies in the water get toed back

On mine, it was obvious when the coil was bad. (big crack in the insulation). The manual should have description of testing procedure (mine does), but I'd be suspicious of whether a suspicious looking coil might test out OK, and still short out when it's close to the block and enclosed in a warm/damp environment like in the cowling. If it looks suspect, I'd change it out.<br /><br />Using a spark tester, (or even just looking whether there is spark, and how it looks) might be where to start.

 

[mcarlito]

Re: Motor dies in the water get toed back

Thanks BF,<br />I'll do a visual on it tonight and take a look at the spark then, take it from there. <br /><br />Thank you very much<br />Mike and son Zach<br />Still Digging It