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Start Up after 2 years.. 454 Merc IO.

ehlien

ehlien

Regular Contributor
2 years ago I put away my boat to do some interior repairs. It was fogged and winterized. Now I am trying to ready it for re launch. The batteries are fully charged and I just tried to crank the engine. It would barely turn and the battery wires got very hot. Observations, and suggestions on how to proceed??
Thanks.
 
If it was heavily fogged the oil should have preserved the internals. Could be a bad starter .or corroded battery terminals .
I would remove the plugs and the outdrive to help isolate the problem. Then go after the starter
 
Plugs in or out? I have let my '65 gto sit for a couple years. Take the plugs out spin it on the starter until oil is coming our the rockers. Per previous suggestion check and clean wiring connections. BT is dead on gimbal or ujoints may be tight if they were put away wet.
 
Pulled the plugs today and sprayed the cylinders with fogging oil...now I have another slight problem I lost the small plastic extension tube from the fogging oil into one of the cylinders..no I have to figure how to get it out ..aggggg!
 
put that cylinder at top dead center, pull plug,small needlenose pliers,medical foreceps maybe.I see you posted elsewhere,while fogging engine lost straw, thought engine was running.Post was very vague.
 
thanks for the idea ... the piston is down right now so plan to bump it up to TDC like you suggested .. Engine was not running..lost it in the spark plug hole while removing the spark plugs to reduce compression and fogging the cylinders to try and lubricate them more to get the motor spinning more freely after sitting 2 years. Its always something!!!! Worst case if i can't get it out since its small and soft plastic I may consider running the engine and burning it out but don't like that Idea much but less keen on tearing the top end down and removing a head to retrieve it.
 
Hell that tube will NEVER cause a problem.

Spin her over with the plugs out until she loosens up, charge the battery, let the starter cool, and see if it will fire up.

Jeff
 
Thanks Jeff ..that's reassuring!! ..was a pretty stupid mistake though..put a piece of masking tape on another tube to make a flag so it couldn't fall into any other cylinders.
 
Next time don't use fogging spray to "lubricate" on a spring start up.

Mix some Marvel mystery oil in a separate gas can and run it for a while or add some to each cylinder after you remove the spark pugs.

Fogging oil is not a lubricant it is a protective solution designed to stick to and protect surfaces from corrosion.

I fully understand why one would use it that way but that is not its intended use.
 
Well so far I have tried a vacuum and a wire hanger to try and locate and remove the plastic straw ... no luck and seeming pretty impossible ..looking a lot like the run and burn it out scenario is going to be the only option.. will try a bit more tomorrow ..the position of the motor deep in the hull and limited access is painful and does not help the effort.
 
Update. Got the motor spinning freely with out sparkies in it. Replaced the sparklers and charged up the batteries. Turns really slow and definitely needs both batteries to turn. Pulled the main power wires off the starter solenoid. They look surface corroded so cleaned them and all the connections to the batteries. going to clean the main grounds back to the engine block next. After that I will see if it spins any faster. Its always been a slow spinner and needed 2 batteries to crank especially when the engine is hot. Does the out drive put some cranking load on the engine also? I'm probably going to be yanking it to replace the trim sensor wiring also. .. It always something !!
 
Hope not ..what a bitc*h to replace where it's situated in the boat ....I have been out of town and not had time this weekend to hook everything back up and test it yet ..If I have to replace the starter I'm wondering if there is a better hi torque unit that the stock one. On cars I have built I have usually dumped the stock starters for better ones.
 
on your first post you mentioned starter spinning slowly and cables getting hot,starter drawing lot of amperage,sigh of bad starter and possible corroded cables.
 
I will know better after I finish getting all the connections cleaned and reconnected to see if it improves the situation. I just have the grounds to the block left to do but will be out of town a couple days before I complete it. If not it will be time for a new one. A rebuilt one was put in 2003 with a rebuilt engine.
 
ehlien,possible corrosion internaly inside of cables not just connections.Check with ohm meter,high resistance bad cable,low reading good to go.Power off.
 
I have seen a lot of internal corrosion on smaller wires on the boat. The copper on those wires look coated in black. Eg ..motor lid and trim senders.
 
ehlien said:
I have seen a lot of internal corrosion on smaller wires on the boat. The copper on those wires look coated in black. Eg ..motor lid and trim senders.
Click to expand...

Non marine grade wire and in particular CHEAP non marine grade wire will oxidize, i.e. rust ( copper oxide) especially in a marine environment. On one of my boats, the dealer (for the original owner) installed the horn using regular lamp cord... after 12 years almost the whole length of the wire, both conductors turned to a black powder. An extreme example. That black coating is the copper oxidizing. It will keep on oxidizing until there is no more "pure" copper available. REplace the whole wire with plated marine grade wire. Good quality fiberglass boats last a long time. Long enough for late 60 and 70 ( or even 80s) wire to become unreliable. Some manufacturers cut corners with wire. I once redid a circa 70s Privateer 24' IB that had speaker wire (and wire nuts!) for the red/green nav lights.
 
Update .. new batteries and clean connections means lots of spinning action but now I don't think I'm getting any spark.. gas is old so I added 5 gallons of the fresh stuff and was not getting any fire .. tried using a little quick start /either just to see if I could get some sputter but nothing. Now I'm off to find a spark tester to see if I have spark at the plugs. Ran Ok when I shut it down so I don't think its a mechanical issue. Where and what to check next?? Oh and by the way I see none of the dash instruments are on...............Its always something!!!
 
12 V to + side of coil when cranking and when key is in run postion? If so take coil to distributor cap wire off distributor and hold close to a good clean ground on engine. Should have a good blue spark. If not would look at ignition trigger sensor and tconnectio s on three wires coming out of it. I assume you have a thunderbolt 4 or 5?

If you have spark at wire can only be cap rotor wires or plugs, if no spark go through appropriate ignition trouble shooting logic tree. I don.t have them handy maybe BT does?
 
So ..working my way down the check list..At this point I have narrowed my no start situation down to lack of spark. Distributor cap and rotor were toasted so replaced them .. still no spark, (using a spark plug tester got no indication of spark), Next found the red power feed from the battery to the + mercathode terminal had a blow 20 amp fuse so replaced that , still no spark. N but watow I see the circuit breaker below the mercathode looks bad ..it says push button to reset but the button does not move so no idea if its good or bad but looks like it will get replaced next ..but if bad what caused it to seize up. Next, assuming I find a circuit breaker in the hood , how do I test the coil and the Mercathode??? Advice always welcome..
 
jumped the circuit breaker and confirmed it had a good closed circuit . Next up I guess is confirming current to the coil and that the coil is good?? I used an inline spark plug tester to confirm no spark to the plugs and also put it in line form the coil to the distributor cap and it indicated no current.
 
So lame and dumb.. turns out I forgot to replace the kill switch lanyard on the ignition switch ... started on the first twist.. thanks to everyone who tried to help solve the mystery :p
 
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