Hardlearned advice from the bilge

[markkingscraft]

"Greetings,

Thanks to all f

"Greetings,

Thanks to all for your suggestions this summer as I fought with two "rebuilds".

As of yesterday at noon I have two 318s running with enough power at idle to put them in gear. Test run coming soon - as soon as our election is over up here in the soon to be frozen north.

You may recall my idling and smoking and other questions from earlier in the summer.

Here are a couple of tips that some may find handy in the future.

Both engines and parts were rebuilt and fuel tank was new.

Although the carbs were rebuilt one required a three day soak and agitation in cleaner to clear out the idle passages. As soon as that was done it finally attained idle at Jeff's recommended settings.

The other one idles but it is rough. It will be soaked this winter.

Also involved in my idle problem were distributor weights that appeared to move freely but remained "stuck" at odd locations after high speed.

It took a $1000 timing light to figure this out (lucky for me it belongs to a mechanic friend so I didn't have a cash outlay) when he was finally able to read timing that was apparently out by about 30 degrees out even though it had been set properly.

A little WD40 and an oil bath solved this problem on both distributors.

Finally, - and I still don't know how this happened - I put 15 gallons of fuel in the tank and in the middle of figuring out all the above issues, I found three gallons of it was water.
But not until it had slowly filled both carbs and all the lines causing even more idling and running issues.

We're operating on up to 10 per cent Ethanol up here now and it is a flat tank and we had wet and humid summer - but it still seeems odd.

The good news, after dropping these babies in the first week of July I have a few minor, minor things to resolve and I will once again have a working boat - after a two year complete stripping and rebuild of a salvage boat.

Thanks everyone for all your assistance and your answers this summer at the height of my frustration. They all led me along the way.

Mark"

 

[sandkicker]

"If you haven't already do

"If you haven't already done so, install fuel filters with drainable water seperators. If you already have screw on cartridge style filters, RACOR makes a screw on that is two part that is a replacement for some cartridge types. One part is replaceable, the other is the drainable water seperator. Make sure you get the metal bowl one (USCG regs). There is some addative stuff that makes the precipitated water/ethanol mix recombine. Its not cheap, but neither is gas.

Had the same problem last season with a BRAND NEW FACTORY (non Chrysler, sorry) engine with less than 5 hrs on it. Carb was so full of junk as to not be believed...and this was AFTER a 10 micron filter!!! Ethanol WILL "clean out" everylast bit of residual junk in your fuel system. BTW... it will also EAT the lining of older aftermarket outboard fuel tank hoses with squeeze bulbs and deposit it as crap in the carb... (This seasons' ethanol adventure)"

 

[coaster]

"Rick, the way the discussion

"Rick, the way the discussion is, leads me to believe that only ethanol tainted gas is available. I heard that once gas and ethanol had seperated in a fuel tank it is difficult to re mix. Would you please post some information on these mixers. Down under in Australia, we still have a choice of gas available, except leaded . Ethanol will disolve fibre glass [GRP] and many other manufactured products as well as those found in nature. I am forced to buy unleaded and hence use an additive. Time will show that, while saving us from any of the effects of lead, we have been exposed to others! [my opinion] This could be the same of ethanol! We all love nature. That is what we play in. We have a saying " don't destroy what you came to enjoy " You have an interesting site in the U.S. at www.nmma.org. Thank You, Frederick."