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1981 Evinrude 90 HP Stalls Under Load

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Ryan Ayres

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5 days ago: I just bought my first boat which is a 92 Sea Ray with a 1981 E90TLCIM 90HP. I have gone through many posts and many do not share success stories. When I Idle pt on the muffs it runs fine and idles up and down. When I first put boat in water it starts right up and got out of the no wake zone from the ramp and kicked it up no problem. Went a little down the lake and friend left something at the dock so we went it to start it back and it will start and idle. Put in in gear and idles. throttle it up and dies. Had to restart like 4 to 5 times and it will finally throttled up and made it down the lake to fishing hole. shut motor off for about 45 min. Start it back up idles no problem. Put in gear and throttle up and dies. Same thing starting it back up into idle and when put in gear it idles until we ease it into throttle and it dies. Restart trying to throttle up 4 to 5 times and then it finally goes.

Yesterday: Changed Spark Plugs, New Fuel Pump, New Water separator/fuel filter, New inline fuel filter.

Took it out today and same exact thing. First put into water and got out of wake zone and throttled up no problem. Get down the lake and shut off engine for 5 minutes. Start it back and idles. Throttle it up and dies. Restart 4 to 5 times trying to ease into throttle and finally get it going. Sometimes I have now tried to rev it up not in gear and it dies as well. Just keep at it restarting and once I get past the idling up I put into gear and it may throttle up. Also tried squeezing the primer and it is hard and pressurized. You cannot Squeeze it when it has been running and pressurized. It seems fairly new and I have been able to pump it up yesterday and many others in driveway until it gets hard and pressurized. I see the fuel pump up in inline filter.

Once it is actually going I have no problems whatsoever with throttling up and down and the boat runs fine. It just seems to start after the motor is shut off and restarted. I may be onto a carb rebuild next. Sucks for my first used boat to have to go through this. Any help would be appreciated.
 
You are correct; you need to get a carb rebuild kit and clean that carb out really good probably your hi speed jet is clogging up. Othrs will chime in hopefully. Good luck
 
Where I am stumped is why it runs perfect in the first 5 to 10 minutes of putting it in water. Why does it not just do it all the time if carbs had issue? Does it have something to do with engine heating up that is causing this? But if it sits an hour and was fishing, it still does it. Sometimes hard to start to even idle after it shuts off sometimes.

One thing I did notice when I got boat and pulled the one screw filter off fuel pump is that it had no screen inside. One reason why I just went ahead with a whole new pump assembly. Also, once I put in line fuel filter I could see some little black contaminants in there. This was after changing main fuel sep/water filter and putting in inline filter at same time. Still thinking carbs?

If I get kit, should I get float to? Do I also need to pull jets out completely or just the retaining screws with orings. YouTube video the guy never pulls the jets. Just cleans whete they are and blows air through. Says need small flat screw driver if you pull them and be careful that they can be messed up or broken if wrong screw driver to get good grip.
 
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Carbs need to be cleaned out and new fuel lines installed; sounds like lines are breaking down and clogging the carbs. Just clean the jets out in the carb with small wire and carb cleaner then blow compressed air thru them
 
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Ok so I have taken apart the carbs but still waiting for rebuild kit. One thing I have found is there are 4 check valves on intake manifold. One of them was broken at the tip and the line was laying down by the engine side. I heard these give remaining or equal amount of fuel to the cylinders. Since the line was off I would imagine I was getting direct air into one of the cylinders while the check valve was just spitting small mist sprays of fuel onto the bottom engine casing. Bought 4 new updated brass check valves today instead of my original plastic ones. Also when I unscrewed the check valves from manifold the one broken had dirt all covering up the screen. The other 3 when pulled had small amounts of dirt clogged up in the holes. Not bad but the dirt sort of clumped and dumped out with remaining fuel when the were pulled. Blew those out with carb cleaner and now waiting for new check valves. Carbs didn't seem dirty at all. Hopefully with carb rebuild and finding this broken check valve will solve my throttle issue.
 
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Have now rebuilt my carbs put new brass check valves in fuel pump and fuel lines after pump to carbs. Took boat out today and no difference at all. Starts up, gets down the lake, shut off for more than 5 min and start up again. Put in gear and throttle and shuts off! No different. I have to keep hitting primer to keep it running but once I start going I do not have to hit primer anymore although I do think it is running lean. If I slowly cruise I notice the rpm sort of drop off and if I hit primer it starts to rise. This is really starting to piss me off!
 
Having to use the primer clearly indicates problems with carburetors.---These carburetors are really simple , but they do not work if motor is not pulling the proper amount of air thruogh them.-----Post the results of a compression test first.
 
Took it to a boat shop today and they said many have called with this issue. They said people have gone to different shops and no one can figure it out other than it being the crappy fuel today on older motors. Anyway they did check over my compression and spark, compression comes out to 125 exact each cylinder and spark is fine. We did find that the new recirculating tubes I just replaced the other day were loose and leaking a little fuel when primer pushed so we put slightly smaller guage line on to hold onto the nipples better. Seems no one has the answer. They just suggested that I change the jets to allow more fuel. After they ran the engine on muffs in shop and throttled it up just to hear misfires or anything they said it seemed to be mechanically sound and look into changing jets
 
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Hi Ryan.

Did you ever sort this issue?

I have exactly the same problem, on a different motor, but a similar age.

I've made most of the changes you listed, also with no success.

I'm down to thinking it is a fuel issue, either a partially blocked tank pick up, or an air leak in a fuel line somewhere.

Be great to hear how you got on.

Nick.
 
nicklanigan said:
Hi Ryan.

Did you ever sort this issue?

I have exactly the same problem, on a different motor, but a similar age.

I've made most of the changes you listed, also with no success.

I'm down to thinking it is a fuel issue, either a partially blocked tank pick up, or an air leak in a fuel line somewhere.

Be great to hear how you got on.

Nick.
Click to expand...

I did not ever sort the issue but it seemed a "little" better with marine gas (non ethanol). I have sold the boat last spring a year ago. Now working on a 96 7.4 454 Searay Sundancer 270
 
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