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87 PCM 351 Runs Neutral but Dies in Gear

  • Thread starter Christian Theumer
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Christian Theumer

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"Hello again,

Took the boat


"Hello again,

Took the boat out on July 4th, and she ran great again for two hours or so. Idled around for a while and the boat sputtered out. It would restart and die again in gear. I restarted and tried to give it some gas so I could get back to the dock, but when I got hard on the throttle the engine really bogged down. I tried this a couple times, got it running in neutral and the engine reved fine and ran strong. Got it to idle and was able to idle back to the trailer. Seems like transmission problem to me? There is a little milky fluid around the cap of the dipstick, but the dipstick looks nice and red. Any ideas?

Christian"
 
Since it runs fine under a no

Since it runs fine under a no load situation in the water could this also be vacuum leak related? We pulled a skier for a couple passes and it ran okay.
 
"Also looked like quite a bit

"Also looked like quite a bit of steam/white smoke coming out the back at lower speeds...could have been just climate related, but i might as well list all of the symptoms. could this be related to a cracked block?"
 
It sounds like a fuel problem.

It sounds like a fuel problem. It may be water in the tank and getting into the float bowel. Try draining the carborator. Use a rag to soak up the gas. Do it with a cold engine. With Holly carbs you can remoce the bottom float bowel screw to drain it. If you can catch the gas in a small container you can see if there is water. The gas will float on top.
The transmission probably has some moisture from condation. There is also a transmission cooler heat exchanger to be aware of. If it leaks it can put water into the transmission. They don't gicve mush trouble so put it on the back burner.
 
"Thanks for the advice. So th

"Thanks for the advice. So the bad gas under a load situation would cause me to bog down like that in gear, because it does run alright in neutral. I have the edelbrock carb so it's sort of a pain to drain the float bowls, but would it be worth looking in the fuel water separator?"
 
I pulled the fuel water separa

I pulled the fuel water separator off my boat today and found that it was 90% full of water with only a small amount of fuel on the top. I have not taken the carb apart yet to drain the floats. Should I let the fuel/water in the carb burn through the engine or should I pull it apart and clean it out. Also where in the world does all this water in the fuel come from!! Thanks for all of your help.

Christian
 
It may burn it out but it woul

It may burn it out but it would be better to clean out the float bowl if you can. If it is a Holly carb you can remove one of the bottom float bowl screws and it will drain the float bowel.

Do this with a cold engine and have something to catch the gas. It is about an eighth cup.
 
"So water has continued to be

"So water has continued to be the problem. I am done getting fuel in my mouth from siphoning. I will be draining the entire tank, clearing the lines, installing a new fuel/water separator, and cleaning out the carb again. Putting new gas in it with some stabil and hopefully she will last more than two hours on the water. Thanks for all the help again."
 
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