No Power '93 Evinrude 88 SPL

[powerless]

I don't know much about boat motors, so thought I would ask on this forum. This motor is on a 24' Pontoon boat. The engine runs great and idles fine. Last year we noticed the boat seemed to not have as much power. It's worse this year. No initial torque power or any kind of speed at all. We used to pull skiers up with this boat, there it no way now. I've owned this boat about 3 years, no maintenance other than winterize. My parents had it before me, and it's never had problems. I see from reading the forum we probably should change spark plugs. It also seems to be using ALOT of fuel. We don't have power tilt/trim so we also tried adjusting that. Tried all different positions and nothing seems to help. We would like to try and fix this ourselves as we don't have a trailer it's kept on the lake. Any suggestions? Can you tell me what type of spark plugs would be best, how many are in this motor, gap, etc...help

 

[Goodoleboy]

Re: No Power '93 Evinrude 88 SPL

Welcome to the forum!<br /><br />The plugs you need for this engine are QL77JC4 and gaped at .030 .<br /><br />Dont use anything else CHAMPIONS ONLY. Other wise you could suffer engine damage.<br /><br />Iam thinking your engine is in need of alot more than just plugs.<br /><br />You need to do a link and sync. procdure on this motor. <br /><br />You will want to also check the WOT timeing. And without a doubt you will also need to do a good and through carb cleaning.<br /><br />Also every other season your water pump empeler will need to be changed.<br /><br />The way you can accomplish all this by yourself is with an OMC service manual.<br /><br />Its the best money you will ever spend on your motor.<br /><br />I would urge you to do all this very soon. Because from what your describeing I beleive your engine is "Lugging" badly. It will cause severe engine damage soon. And it could cost you 2500 dollars to get it repaired at a boat shop.<br /><br />You want to set this motor up so that it will turn about 5800 to 6000 RPM.<br /><br />Good Luck!

 

[mffpontoon]

Re: No Power '93 Evinrude 88 SPL

Did you find the problem? I too have the same engine on my pontoon- with the same problem.<br />Have checked the compression, chg plugs, inspected all the fuel lines. Idles and runs fine up to mid range, stalls after that - seems to flood out at top end. Checked new plugs and they were all wet.

 

[powerless]

Re: No Power '93 Evinrude 88 SPL

We changed plugs, found one loose cable. Obviously, that helped but it still doesn't run the same. The marina told me maybe I needed the pontoons power washed to get off the algea. It is stored in the water all summer. They say it can slow a boat down up to 10 mph. There wasn't that much on them but I scraped almost all of the algea off myself, and it still ran the same. It just doesn't have the power it used to. It's been winterized now, so decided to look at it again in the spring. I'll be taking it to the marina, it's over our head. Let me know if you find anything out on yours, it may help us too next year.

 

[MCM]

Re: No Power '93 Evinrude 88 SPL

You may consider carb overhauls if it hasn't been done. Also a good decarb may help

 

[mffpontoon]

Re: No Power '93 Evinrude 88 SPL

Removed carb's & cleaned them, repaced the power pack & put a new impeller kit in - runs great!!<br />MFF

 

[CFronzek]

Re: No Power '93 Evinrude 88 SPL

This came up on another thread. A guy was strung out about the amount of fuel he was using on a 25' pontooner. And he was also disheartened because his 115 HP motor would only drive him to 18mph. <br />Well, the truth must be told. Pontoon boats are displacement hulls. They aren't intended to plane and try as they might they never will. Displacement hulls have a max hull speed, usually 10 mph or less and if you try to go faster it takes about double the HP for every 1 mph extra you get. Meaning every time you got above hull speed you were driving your motor very hard and your gas mileage was/is/will be correspondingly atrocious. <br />If your motor has been put thru' this for some years it's time to take some cylinder pressure checks to see how much wear and tear there is. If the motor has signs of piston/ring wear that would explain your drop-off in performance.