stahling engine

[bgolat]

looking for ideas on what to do on this:

at dock, boat idles fine, revs fine, smooth as can be. get out on the lake and it stahls. possible water in fuel?

it was given to my by my dad, he said he had issues last season where fuel filter would constantly get plugged with goo type stuff. fuel filter didn't really look plugged when i checked it though.

just looking for some help on this, because i am stumped.

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: stahling engine

Did you check the filter screen at the carb?
What year, make, model?.....JK

 

[Blk-n-Blu]

Re: stahling engine

bg, Have a look here:
http://www.boatered.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=51329

 

[bgolat]

Re: stahling engine

its 1987 chaparral 4.3l v6. i checked carb, replaced fuel filter and water seperator last weekend, yet today i took it out to try and stuff happened as i described above.

 

[Don S]

Re: stahling engine

That "Goo" is probably plugging up the screen on the fuel pick up tube in the fuel tank.
But to be quite honest, if your dad was having problems with it, it sure didn't get better. Time to empty the tank and clean it (If possible)
If it can't be cleaned, then it most likely will have to be replaced.

 

[bgolat]

Re: stahling engine

that is possible, but the thing that i don't get is why it would run fine sitting at the dock/trailor... i think tomorrow i am going to pull the pick up out of tank and see if it looks plugged up.

may also hook up a 6 gallon tank and go for a run to make 100% sure it is something in the tank.

 

[bgolat]

Re: stahling engine

also someone suggested to me to put some acetone in the fuel, anyone ever heard of this?

 

[Don S]

Re: stahling engine

also someone suggested to me to put some acetone in the fuel, anyone ever heard of this?

Don't even think about it, and remember who that person was. NEVER listen to another suggesion from him again. You will have holes in pistons in no time.

Stick it on a remote tank and run it, but don't epect to get very far.
When in neutral, you could make a V8 engine run at 10,000 rpms with the spark plug wires off one side. Under a load you could even put it in gear. So your "runs good in neutral" idea is a NON TEST, and means nothing.

 

[bgolat]

Re: stahling engine

thanks for the input.

 

[bgolat]

Re: stahling engine

i took a sample of fuel this morning, and noticed a weird seperation:

http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/2627/00008vi3.jpg

i thought maybe the bottom was water, so i added some water to it to see what it did, and this was the result:

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/7558/00009io1.jpg

now i am starting to believe it is something with the fuel, maybe when i start going out and hitting waves it is causing whatever that seperation is to mix up and engine to die. today before i put it in the water i just added 20 gallons of fresh fuel... do these pictures spark any ideas from people?

 

[Don S]

Re: stahling engine

Your first picture look like the phase seperation from E10 gasoline that is water at the bottom. The second pic just shows the water you added mixed with the water from the phase seperation. Only the chemicals in the water added caused it to be a milky color.
While you may not have E10 there, it's possible someone has been using one of the gas driers on the market like Heet, to stop the water.
With your ongoing problem, I would dump all the gas and water and start new. New filters rebuild the carb etc. All that water has got to be in the carb and can corrode and plug the passages.

 

[bgolat]

Re: stahling engine

awesome, drained the gas today, added fresh gas, replaced carb filter, ran perfect! (so far at least)