1989 Evinrude 50HP Problems

Hi guys, new here! Hopefully you guys can give me some insight. I've been working on cars for 35 years and my boat motor knowledge is limited. I've rebuilt carbs and fuel pumps many times along with water pumps. That's about the extent of my boat motor knowledge.

I bought a pontoon boat with a 1989 Evinrude 50HP (E50TLCEC) last Sept. When I checked it out the guy told me he rebuilt it in 2011. He had a small home shop and I saw where he worked on motorcycles and such. Compression was right at 132 psi on both cylinders and I've seen evidence of new gaskets and where the motor was broke in two. With cuffs on the motor she ran beautifully. I brought her home and conditioned the fuel and ran it about 5 minutes. Then she sat until now.

Then a couple days ago I ran her and she started up fine for a few minutes and then started running rough. I had to keep choking her or she would quit. Then she quit all together. So I thought I would investigate the carbs. As soon as I opened the drains one was dry and the other nothing but which appeared to be water come out. The only thing I could figure was I accidently left the tank vent open and we have had some heavy rains this winter.**I drained the tank and the fuel line the best I could.*I dropped the bowls and made sure the needle valve wasn't dirty which they wasn't. The gaskets look old and the floats appear to be saturated as well. So I plan on rebuilding them. The fuel pump had wet areas and I plan on rebuilding that as well. I put her back together to see if the water was the issue. This engine was a VRO but the tank was removed and now you mix it. He has one line plugged at the fuel pump and another one I guess was the other end. He also has a 3 prong connector unplugged on the port side.*

I pulled the plugs an the gap was around .025 which I changed to .030. They appeared clean but when you blew on them a little gas would blow back at me. I guess it sat beside the electrode. I cycled the engine a couple times with the plugs out in case they were flooded. Then I put them back in.*

She started right up but had a noticeable light miss to her like a*consistent*3-4 seconds. Then I shut the key off and she kept running??? I quickly unhooked the fuel line and the engine seemed to race and then settled down until she ran out of fuel. I played with the key some as I suspect it, but I did have the bottom covers off to chase a carb nut that fell. I moved the harness around some. The trim works at the handle but not at the motor so I did play with the relays and might of disturbed some wires that way.

My next step? I plan on rebuilding the carbs and fuel pump. Is there another fuel pump that accommodates removing the VRO or do I just leave the current one plugged and rebuild it? I think maybe the miss is a plug fouling.

I forgot to mention after the plug check I did do another compression check. Top cylinder was 125 psi with my tester and then I checked the bottom cylinder the motor started with a touch of the key and I quickly shut her down. It read 134psi. The motor being ran I'm sure they weren't accurate.

Any other insight would be greatly appreciated.

The neat way is to remove the VRO and plug the pulse port for it.----Then install the fuel pump for the 48 HP of the same year.--There is a spot to mount it on the block already.-Easy to find and east to do. Needs some work with hoses as well.

I agree with the previous post (get rid of the VRO) one safety issue to be aware of (the 40/50 hp two cylinder loop charged engine have a history of running away if the throttle is advanced above an idle while running on a hose) as for the miss this is normal again while running on a hose with the lower unit out of the water, The carbs are calibrated to run the engine with exhaust back pressure witch is provided by the water in the exhaust tuner as the motor sets in the water. I would flush the fuel system from the tank to the carbs using a new fuel line primer bulb assy and pumping fuel thru the carbs. Pay close attention to fuel lines due to deteriation.

Thank you very much. The VRO is already off. My question about it was the line from it to the fuel pump is plugged. I was wondering instead of rebuilding the fuel pump if there was an after market pump that deletes that part of the VRO piggybacked on the fuel pump. Hence get rid of the plugged line?

I might as well replace all fuel lines. I have two different sizes ordered with the kits.

My other question is why didn't the motor shut off the last time when I turned the key off? Bad ignition switch or possible wires shorting? Are you saying the fast idle caused that?