30 Mercruiser engine questions new boater

"First, I greatly appreciate a

"First, I greatly appreciate any input. Bought my first boat because my wife and I thought it would be fun. I picked up what I was told was a 1997 Excel 18sx wellcraft with a 3.0 Mercruiser inline 4 cyl. Turned out it is a 96. I was also told it was 230HP. Can't believe that for a 4cyl, but maybe someone can confirm that. The engine looked very clean and the oil was not dark and didn't appear to have any water in it. The motor turned right over and started right up. It idled rough, but when in neutral accelerated fine to about 4500 rpm, but I am sure it would have gone higher. I bought a prop from a local marine store because the old one had some hunks out of it. It is a 19. I dropped it in the water yesterday for the first time. It started right up and for a couple minutes the up and down trim worked, but the up trim button seemed to stop functioning. I used the trailer button for the remainder of our stay in the lake. At cruise speed it seemed hard to steer and the wheel seemed loose. The next issue came when we got to the wake area. I throttled it up and it just seemed like it wanted to bog down. I adjusted the prop up and down with no increase in rpm. RPM stayed at about 3000 but with no ability to plane the thing and I was only able to obtain a speed of about 14mph on the fish finder that came with it. At cruise speed the whole dash with the steering wheel would shake furiously. If I idled it up it would seem to dissipate. Just would like some input. Also, I noticed a slight coloration on the surface of the water around the rear of the boat. Any suggestions, help, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Ryan"

"Ryan:

The 3.0L is rated @

"Ryan:

The 3.0L is rated @ 135 HP. The engine sounds like it needs a complete tuneup. Start w/plugs first. Inspect the cap, rotor and wires for wear and replace as needed.

The "slight coloration on the surface of the water around the rear of the boat" may be raw fuel from a rich carb condition. The choke may be stuck or just not functioning. Evidence will be blackened spark plugs.

Clean the flame arrestor; I use a strong degreaser and hot water flushed from the inside out and dry w/compressed air.

Clean the carb and linkages w/carb cleaner while moving the linkages and throttle. Apply a fine oil lube to the linkages and the choke plate end bushings.

When the engine is cold and you move the throttle the choke plate should close leaving about a 1/8" opening. Adjust it by loosening the three screws and moving it as needed.

See if that gets her running. Let us know."

if you would like an engine m

if you would like an engine manual shoot me an email i also have the alpha one drive manuals too !

"Ok. so after playing around w

"Ok. so after playing around with the boat yesterday I figured out that it really was only firing on 3 cyl. First, I want to thank everyone for their suggestions. I also want to thank Kenny for the great information. After running my compression I found out that cyl 3 had none. I squirted lots of oil down the hole with no change in compression. I removed the v-cover and made some adjustments. All the sudden I have compression. The dip I bought the boat from was trying to cover this up with fixing the idle. Couldn't notice the issue with the idle at 1500rpm or greater, but try to get it in spec at 800 rpm and the thing would shut off at 1200rpm. New set of spark plug wires rocked me 50 at the local marine service store and I could have bought for 25 off ebay! Didn't have time to play with the trim issue, but the trailer and down button are still working. At some point I'll try to tear the back end apart to replace gaskets and rubber. I don't hear anything clanking yet. Thanks again for the quick replies."

"Is it that your trim up butto

"Is it that your trim up button doesnt work at all or is it that that it allows drive to go only so far? If it works and then stops when drive goes so far up, That is how it is supposed to work. Drive should not be run in positions further up than that. If it doesnt work at alll seems like you maybe have a broken wire on your limit switch. Limit switch is located on your gimble ring I beleive it is the one on the port side(left). You can move outdrive around from left to right to see the wires and see if they are broken"

"The trim down works. The trim

"The trim down works. The trim up does not. The trailer button works. I'll have to look to see if the wire is broken. Thanks, Ryan"