CRT Skiff Crafter
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2003
- Messages
- 100
Hi all. Congratulations on the great forum. Glad I found you. I'll try to be concise and brief with my issue.<br /><br />I'm running a 302 Ford, (2bbl Holly) 188 HP Mercruiser in a 73 Skiff Craft 26' SFFB. I should preface this discussion with this: I've had this boat about 7 years. It has been only moderately used and was only in the water once in the last 3 years until this summer when I decided it was time to get it out. It was stored with full fuel tanks (with fuel stabilizer). <br /><br />I have done a serious restoration on it and it's in terrific condition, It really hasn't needed anything mechanically other than a sterndrive water pump. The engine and sterndrive have always performed wonderfully.<br /><br />When I finally got the boat on Lake Erie a few weeks ago, I started having some surging problems at high speed after using it for several days. It came on really suddenly and it seemed fuel related so I checked the screen in the fuel inlet and found nothing. Later I checked and changed fuel lines and replaced the fuel/water separator filter, (although I didn't inspect the gas in the filter for water and probably should have). I also checked the fuel level in the float bowl which was OK. <br /><br />The next time I tested the boat, I saw some arching around the coil, which ultimately led me to replace the points, cap, rotor, condensor, plugs and plug wires and coil. The engine ran a lot smoother and the idle was far more reliable, but the high end isn't there and although the surging isn't as pronounced, it's still a bit "erratic". According to my tach readings, there could be another 800 to 1000 rpm's in the engine waiting to be released! More on this in a minute.<br /><br />So today I decided to put a timing light/dwell meter on it just for the heck of it. The dwell was good, but I could not for the life of me site any timimg marks. Nada! I can tell that the timing is steady just by the consistent appearance of the various blemishes on the damper. So I moved the timing up and down just to see if the marks showed up, but they did not. <br /><br />Now I realize that this engine can't possibly be out of time enough to hide the marks, but I am preplexed as to what is going on. <br /><br />Something else of interest is that the tach on the timing light reads a lot more rpm's than the boat tachs do. Perhaps enough to indicate full rpm (meaning the missing 800 or 1000 rpm's I mentioned before) is actually being achieved. However, none of this was done under load which is where the problems really appear. <br /><br />I am thinking that the power/erratic running problem may be related to one or more of these:<br /><br />Debris in the fuel tank which is intermittently blocking the tank fuel outlet and is too big to actually go down the fuel line?<br /><br />And/or water in the tank? <br /><br />The fuel pump is getting ready to die?<br /><br />The carb needs rebuilt?<br />There is a problem with the distributor. (worn lobes?).<br /><br />Before I start messing further (especially dealing with gasoline, as in draining tanks, which I can't think of a sane way to do), I would like some opinions of what else I might have a look at. Have I missed something really obvious here? <br /><br />If all else fails, I'll take it to a marine store which can dyno it and then I'll second mortgage my house to pay for something I could have done for about 1% of the cost. I'm not a lucky guy.<br /><br />Any guidance will be more appreciated than I can express.<br /><br />Regards, CRT.
<br />Thanks again!<br />CRT
