1998 Evinrude 175 stalling

" Mr. Reeves, sure is nice to

" Mr. Reeves, sure is nice to have someone with your knowledge available for questions.
My 98 Evinrude 175 has started to stall on take off. I use OMC Engine Tuner once a year and change my plugs as often. The boat sits for about a month at a time with it being run maybe twice in a given month. For that reason I use the Stabil in the gas. The boat starts fine after the initial warm-up and runs great while on plane but any idling causes it to stall. Thanks in advance. "

"Carter.... First thing to do,

"Carter.... First thing to do, always, regardless of what type problem one has, is to remove the s/plugs... making a note as to what cylinder the s/plug came out of. Use a small box, poke six holes in it, number the holes and insert the plug into its corresponding hole "upside down".

Take a compression check, again making note of what the compression is on each cylinder. Then, with the ignition key on, check the spark on each cylinder... it should jump a 7/16" gap with a strong blue flame. You can insert a proper size philips screwdriver into the s/plug boot and hold it near the block at an approximate distance for that test.

If those items are okay, the timer base under the flywheel may be sticking. Advance the throttle (Engine Not Running!) while looking at that timer base (attached to the top of the vertical throttle arm on the starboard side of the engine). If it hesitates, it is usually due to one of the four retaining clamps being slightly too tight. If so, find that tight clamp, then pry it up ever so slightly to ease its grip.

Other than that, I would suspect that your carburetors are becoming fouled. Clamp the fuel hose somewhere between the engine and the fuel supply to restrict the flow, then remove the bottom screw plug from the carb float chambers and look at the inner side of it. If they are discolored, gummed, varnished etc, I would recommend that the carbs be removed, cleaned and rebuilt. Any restriction of the fixed jets within the carb would result in a hesitation, and as a result would cause your engine to run lean which would lead to a bigger problem. Let us know what you find.

Joe "

" Need some help understanding

" Need some help understanding a problem with my 75 hp Johnson outboard with tilt. It stalls at fast or slow speeds. I just bought a pontoon boat yesterday and it seemed to run great for a while as the dealer went with me to go over the boat. This is a 1994 24' pontoon. Today, on our maiden voyage, I was cruising at full throttle and the engine just died. It took quite a while to restart and it stalled several times. I called the dealer with my cell phone and ran through some procedure to get it running but it still kept stalling. The dealer says it is "bad fuel." Is this possible? If so what is bad fuel? Another person thought it might be a fuel pump. The engine had been checked out by their technicians prior to delivery. I finally got the engine restarted and made it to dock but the mooring was difficult when it stalled during the procedure. Any advice will help. Thanks "