Johnson 110, cooling and carb question

[leaky]

Hi,

I've got a 89 Johnson 110 here (J110TLCEM) that has been pretty much remanufactured.. Had a home in mind for it, found it had some scoring and internal engine issues - engine totally clogged with carbon, jammed rings up, scored cylinders - I attributed it to a rouge VRO, was very screwed up and seemed to be pumping oil at a 1:1 ratio, also cooling system was very badly maintained.

It got bored up on all cylinders, new pistons/rings/bearings/t-stats/pump/carb-rebuild/hoses/all-new-gaskets/new-hardware, ditched the VRO and converted to a regular fuel pump, completely cleaned inside and out and painted.

Today I fired it up. It still runs, and even runs better than before - yahoo! First thing that I wonder - should water escape the 2 exhaust holes in the top of the exhaust housing? It's not and I sorta expected it to. The tell tale is steady, not the strongest I've ever seen, but looks reasonable just not as strong as say my optimaxes.. Also have water coming out of the prop when running. Can put my had on the heads but not forever after a couple minutes of running (ie maybe 140 degrees). Water out of tell tale is cool. Not sure if the overheat sensors work but they are hooked up and the horn does work. Just not sure.

Second question - what is the expectation for these floats sealing? It's all new but I could have set them wrong and/or in the process of working on other things a little spider could've gotten in there and jammed up the needle for all I know. The top carb seems OK, however when I prime it with the bulb it's easy to overpower the bottom one - does not leak when running but I wonder if I should pull them off and check the setting again?

Thanks!

Jon

 

[leaky]

Thanks for that!

I will pull the carbs off and check that out. I think I can actually test the float by pumping some fuel in there before even re-installing the carbs.

On the sensors - they are single wire, I didn't expect to see any power there but I will check. When I tested it before I just grounded the wire and the buzzer goes, so they do seem to be hooked up OK to the buzzer.

Jon

 

[leaky]

Well I don't understand exactly what's going on but here's what I found.

Top carb (not leaking) float was set with a few degrees in the direction of closing the float, ie with carb upside down not quite parallel with a little slant going up from the pin. This is usually how I set a float that is supposed to be parallel, with the err on the side of closing the valve.

Bottom carb (leaking) float was set very parallel with the body.

So I set the bottom carb like the top, tested it with the squeeze bulb and fuel, worked at first then seemed to be leaking but looked like it was coming out of the tiny holes in the carb body and maybe from the gasket. Confused I took it apart again and noticed screws weren't that tight.. re-inspected seat and needle, put it back together and tightened everything really good. Tried it again and can't make it leak. Probably was leaking from the gasket the first time.

Will order a float, seat, and needle incase I need to tear into this again but I think it's just touchy.

If I'm setting this wrong please steer me in the right direction. I thought by the book the floats are parallel but my book is a joke, says to "let the float hang and bend the tang so the float is parallel with the carb body" - I can't figure out what they mean by that exactly - the tang on these floats only stops the float from falling too far into the bowl from what I can tell, rather you are bending the "arm" of the float itself to adjust fuel level (I think?)..

Jon

 

[leaky]

Thanks for that - actually the book I've got doesn't, it's a seloc and strangely has very little on the float other than that one confusing statement about letting the float "hang". Looking around online seemed to be about 1 inch so that's what I set the drop to.

I think the real issue with the flooding might be the bowl is warped. They are black plastic and when you look close at it there is a bit of a bow in between the mounting holes, such that the middle doesn't end up as tight as the outsides. Before I put the carbs back on I checked the float drop and when I re-tested that carb for leaks it did it again, to correct the problem I just flipped the gasket over and re-seated the bowl while pushing in the center. The fuel inlet that goes to the needle/seat is sealed between the plastic bowl, the gasket, and the metal carb body - seems like what happens is the fuel gets by and fills the bowl, going around the valve. Will look for a bowl too.

It definitely ran smoother minus the flooding carb, must have been trickling extra fuel in there, but still has somewhat of a miss every 30 seconds or so. I'm sure timing link/sync is probably not right, I know it has the wrong plugs in it at the moment, and the spark plug wires are pretty beat, hopefully somewhere in that process I get it smoothed out. I ran it for about a half hour on the flush, the vaseline, fogging oil, and any excess crankcase sealant ought to be flushed out and burnt off by now.

Jon

 

[leaky]

I didn't think of planing it with sandpaper - definitely will give it a shot next time the bowl is in my hand.

It's not actually cracked but what I notice is in between the mounting screws it's not very snugly mating, so basically the bowl is pulled away a little bit in the center of the screws - which is the set you would expect it to take I guess. Looks like the original part is available for about $100, also though Ebay I see used bowls as well as whole used carbs..

I'll probably get the used bowl I see up there, the float/needle/seat to have that on hand and if the engine works out well will hunt for a parts engine and then will have a bunch of options.

Today I put the right plugs in it, put the cover back on the carbs and the cowell and it smoothed right out once it wasn't sucking up rain drops. Guess I'll work on getting it mounted up and ready for a real test run.

Thanks for all your help!

Jon

 

[71V153]

The plastic bowls were/are always the weak link in those carbs. Sure you could try'n mill em flat but they're just gonna warp again. Heard of guys goopin em up with gasket sealer and havin that work for awhile. But ...

 

[leaky]

The plastic bowls were/are always the weak link in those carbs. Sure you could try'n mill em flat but they're just gonna warp again. Heard of guys goopin em up with gasket sealer and havin that work for awhile. But ...

Makes sense - what you would want is either more fastening points or for the bow of the bowl to be the opposite of what it is - such that it presses in the center harder than the outside.

I thought about gasket sealer but it'd be real easy to get carb parts gooped up in the process. Right now it's holding - probably will hold for a bit if I don't mess with it.

Most importantly it's running well enough for me to feel good about swapping engines, after a couple hour test run if it's still giving me the warm fuzzies I won't mind springing for $200 worth of aluminum bowls. Haha of course everything is frozen solid at the moment and still buried in snow, but by the time it thaws I'll be ready.

So far so good though after playing around for an hour on the flush - idling real smooth, nice and quiet, even compression, spark plugs all reading the same, no leaks. Pretty good for a freebie back-from-the-dead job.