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87 Johnson 140 VRO (is it a looper or crossflow?)

K

Krank21

New member
Hey there,

I've been diagnosing some ignition issues and replacing parts on my 87 140hp. I'm told they made both in 87? How can I validate, for sure, whether it's a looper or a cross-flow? Engine no longer has model number on it...

Hope you can help, thanks!

Roger
 
racerone said:
???----No they only made that as a looper in 87.----Who said they made both models ?
Click to expand...

Someone responded to another question I had and I understood that that was the case. May have been my misunderstanding though. But here's the thing, I decided to take a look at where my timing triggers are set on the flywheel and based on the CDI position diagram, it matches a crossflow... Is this an issue with the 3rd party diagram? All I can say is that it's confusing the crap out of me.
 
If it is an 87 model your motor is a looper.-----What is your motor doing / not doing ?-------Timing on that motor is fixed for the life of the motor.----No need to make changes.------Any pictures of your motor ?
 
racerone said:
If it is an 87 model your motor is a looper.-----What is your motor doing / not doing ?-------Timing on that motor is fixed for the life of the motor.----No need to make changes.------Any pictures of your motor ?
Click to expand...

Here's the long story, it may help clear stuff up that I'm missing.

So I got this a couple years ago, sidewinder with the 140. It ran pretty good but it always had a bog mid throttle just before planing. Heavies load I guess. Anyway, It had oiling issues, back of the boat was black (boat is white) lol. So I fixed some old lines that were letting air in which caused the VRO to over oil. That solved that. Ran it with the bog, WOT was good but my RPM gauge was dancing around and it was never quite right.

Fast forward to now - took it out, got worse on idle and mid, stalling and really hard to start, sputtering and seeming like it just wouldn't fire. Started fine with muffs in the driveway but as soon as it has water on the prop for backpressure, not fun at all to start. So I did some poking around, found that my stator was leaking black sealer on the end cap of the power head. I ordered another along with a rectifier/regulator which seems to have fixed my tach issue. But spark seems spotting a low which I suspect is the issue I'm having so I ordered a new powerpack and coils, on their way now.

Reason I started looking at timing is that I tried timing it in the driveway after seeing a few clips showing to pull the plugs and time WOT that way since I'm alone most of the time. This is what got me looking at the flywheels and if I look at the CDI pdf that's out there, the triggers align to what they're saying is crossfire (https://www.go2marine.com/productcenters/electrical/flywheel.pdf).

I have 130 + on all cyl and it has been fueling just fine which leaves ignition. I'm hoping the PP and coils along with the stator, new plugs and wires will do the trick LOL. Only thing left is the trigger, not sure if that can cause this.

So in short, I've never been able to slowly throttle up, as soon as I get close to plaining, dies out. Only a few times have I been able to get through it relatively slow and that was with out the cowl which would lead me to believe the coils or other electronics are not liking the heat. And this year, things just got way worse.

I'll try to get some pics up for you shortly, I can't seem to upload to this thing at all. I have flywheel magnet positioning photos as well as diagram photos and I'll get shots of the engine as well. Stay tuned :)

Thanks for helping!! I really appreciate you trying to figure this out with me :)

Cheers,

Roger
 
CDI flywheel diagram has been wrong for years......You have the small bore looper and what is your compression??? These also had the crappiest carbs and never idled good.
 
faztbullet said:
CDI flywheel diagram has been wrong for years......You have the small bore looper and what is your compression??? These also had the crappiest carbs and never idled good.
Click to expand...

Yeah carbs are really limited, all air bleed, no way to tweak anything.

Compression is:

Starboard side - top 125 / bottom 130
Port side - top 130 / bottom 135

I just went out to run a test to be sure, this is what I got.
 
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