After winter lay up

Got the boat out after winter storage. Started right up but wouldn't stay running after about 3 minutes. Pulled the flame arrestor and I should have smelled gas for as much throttle I was giving it, pulled the number one plug and it was dry as a bone. I ran out of time but I did notice that the fuel line has some dry rot, got a new one that I need to put in later this week, the other things I'm going to look at it pull the fuel line at the carb and check the filter as well as the water separtatetor filter and I'm also going to turn the engine over to see if I get any gas out of the line from the pump. My question is I have a mechanical fuel pump my thinking is I should get fuel out of the pump as I crank the engine. Is this true? If all this checks out my next step is to pull the carb and have it rebuilt. The engine is a 1988 OMC 260 4 bbl cobra out drive. It ran great last fall when I put it away. Any other suggestions would be great. I treated the fuel and fogged the cylinders when I laid it up. I'll let you know the results, but it won't be later this week as the boat is an hour away.

Thanks

im no expert here but i believe the mechanical pump should be pushing fuel at 5 to 7 psi...and some old farts have told me it should push your thumb off of the hose if its pumping correcty. also have heard that ethanol in fuel will break down the rubber in fuel lines ...you may check these while you inspect your filter/separator....good luck , oh and 1 more thing...did you store it with fuel in it and did you reat it with stabil or simmilar additive ?

Yes I filled the tank and treated the gas with a cocktail of Stabil, Sea Foam and a small bottle of Startron. That's a good idea to look for rubber in my fuel system. I did buy a new hose that is ethanol resistant so I planned on replacing it. Thanks for the reply.

I fought fuel issues on my boat immediately after my restoration, even with the Ethanol safe A1-15 Fuel Hoses.


What solved my problem as quickly as I installed them, was the RACOR fuel filter system.

These are a tad bit more money, but IMO, worth every penny.
These can be purchased in a retro fit version (that fits your existing base adapter if you know the thread size), or you can purchase the entire RACOR unit.... base, cartridge, metal bowl and all.

For I/B's in an enclosed engine bay, we need the all metal bowl shown to the right side here.

Thanks for the reply Rick that is my next step this summer, I was just looking at my book and read about the anti-siphon valve. The pick up on the top of the tank is welded to the tank and I called a dealer that has sold 4 winns for the past thirty years and they told me the valve is in the tank. I'm going tomorrow to work on it. I want to put the hose in a five gallon gas can and see if I get fuel through it, if it runs I know that everything is good. If all that works I'll put the hose back on the pick up and see what happens. If I'm starved for fuel I'll know it's the anti siphon.

Just ran across this thread on another website give it a read.

clean carb pump tank

Does the boat have a fuel "shut-off" valve? Did you happen to close this valve when laying up? It can be easy to forget.

indybleck said:

I was just looking at my book and read about the anti-siphon valve. The pick up on the top of the tank is welded to the tank and I called a dealer that has sold 4 winns for the past thirty years and they told me the valve is in the tank. I'm going tomorrow to work on it. I want to put the hose in a five gallon gas can and see if I get fuel through it, if it runs I know that everything is good. If all that works I'll put the hose back on the pick up and see what happens. If I'm starved for fuel I'll know it's the anti siphon.

Click to expand...

The welded part may be a threaded bung that he's talking about.
The pick up tube will thread into this bung.

Both the pick up tube and the anti-siphon valve, are serviceable items.

• why would a pick up tube not be accessible for servicing the screen at the bottom?
• why would the anti-siphon valve be inside of a fuel tank where it cannot be accessed?

Perhaps this man is mistaken, or you misunderstood him.

As for checking fuel flow.... do you own a Tempo Oil Boy oil extractor by chance?
If not..... you may want to pick one up.... these offer a mulitude of uses, including pulling suction on fuel lines, etc.

Worked on the boat today as much as I could before the rain came. Changed the hose from the pickup to the filter, while I had the hose off of the pick up on the tank I found the anti siphon took it out and one of the previous owners all ready knocked out the ball and spring so that won't be a problem. Took the old hose off didn't look bad on the inside changed it any way. Changed the filter before the pump didn't look bad on the inside, took the filter out of the carb the little paper one, it had build up in it looked like wax, changed it out. I had a little time so I tried to start it up it spit and sputtered but wouldn't run. I ran out of time so now the next time I go I have to fill the big filter with gas, something I didn't do and I want to back flush through the pick to get any junk off the screen I'm assuming is on the tube. I'm thinking I'll probably have to drain the tank and get the junk out of it is the other issue. Going back to work on it early next week will let you know what I find or if I get it running.

Tried the link said I have to log in so I couldn't get to it. Rick no I don't owner one of those but I might have to find something like that because I'm thinking I might have to drain my tank and I don't know what I'm going to do with 80 gallons of fuel. I have no place to put it. After looking at the small filter in the carb with all that build up wax stuff I'm thinking I have a bunch of bottom dwelling gremlins in my tank.

hold the phont there indy....did you check and see if your fuel pump is working? its really easy to do and id recomend it before you go through the whole system

I'm going back up next week to check everything, I wasn't getting any gas when I had the line off to the carb, but I didn't prime the big filter either, which I have to do next time I'm there, and I'm also going to back flush the pick up tube and add another inline filter before the water separator filter. That one will be easier to change than the big one.

This boat doesn't have "fiberglass" fuel tanks by any chance, does it?

Ok just got back from the boat, it's running but the fuel isn't all that great, I ended up getting a different carb filter a Quicksilver # 35-5336Q it's getting plenty of gas now, no this doesn't have a fiberglass tank it's either Aluminum or stainless. Now I have to put it in the water and burn that old fuel off. Thanks for all the help. When I got there this morning I back flushed the pick up tube and took the water separator filter off and it had gas in it so I figured the pump was working, then I tried to start it and it wouldn't go, sprayed some starter fluid and it would run, checked the carb filter and it was plugged so I went to West Marine and picked up a quicksilver one that is basically a screen and it ran.

The filtering media square surface area of the in-line filter is very limited and will be prone to becoming saturated with debris very quickly.
I'd not use one.
Instead, I'd pick up several cheapo Marine style filters, and change them frequently until the problem goes away.

Have you considered a Racor system as I mentioned in post #4?



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I got the in line that is for .375 id hose, that's the plan use these until no more problem. I'm going to change over to the rancor later I just want to get out on the boat for now. Thanks again for all the help.