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Sputtering and no power Evinrude 140 V4

E

Evinruder

New member
I am completely new to boating and have been unknowingly sold a problem engine! My bad, I should have done a full test, but I took the owners word that there were no issues. The fault being when I start the engine, the motor cranks right up with no issues, it then runs happily through the no wake zone but as soon as I try to increase speed the motor sputters and will not go faster than 5MPH. I have had the compression checked and everything is within 5% of 138 on all cylinders, I have also changed plugs and leads. I am not sure if the fault is Carb related, water in fuel or Link and Sync.......any help or suggestions would be greatly received.
 
Thanks for the replies. The boat sat for about a year before I bought it and had about 2/3 tank of gas in it. I filled it to 100% full with a 50:1 mix and ran it that day for about a 2 mile stretch....it was fine until I stopped and anchored at an island which had was rough enough to know the hull against the sand sometimes (due to tide going out). I am telling you this because I am wondering if the water in fuel might be the cause!! Is it possible that shaking the boat around has mixed the separated water with the fuel and now that is what I am running through the motor? It is a 1993 VE140TLETF Evinrude V4.
 
I often hear about people getting bad gas here or there.----No such thing!--------Often the boat is just used sparingly in calm water and bottom of the tank builds up with junk.----Go out in big rough water and then filters plug up or water gets into carburetors.------No mystery to it at all.
 
So how do I get back to a working motor? Drain entire tank, replace the filter and rebuild carbs??? or can I do a quicker, cheaper method?
 
Carburetors are also the " oil pump " on your motor.----You must ensure they are clean and working properly.-----Not hard to do at home.------Visit U-TUBE ------Many tutorials on there to give you confidence to do this yourself.
 
Thanks for the advice...so a full carb rebuild and replace carb kit etc. What about the gas that is in the tank? Do I have to dispose of that or should a new fuel filter deal with it? Just don't want it to happen again on a rough day out.
 
Lose the gas.. use it to start fires, anything other than use it in your boat. Is it a portable tank, if so, then rinse it out with fresh gas acouple of times, to get any crap out of it. If it's a built in, then drain it, part fill it, drain it again. Repeat if needed, if anything shows up in the drained gas. Change out the filters on the engine too, besides doing the carb rebuild.
 
Ok, so I rebuilt the carbs using the rebuild kit, replaced the gas hoses from tank to motor as there was evidence of air when extracting gas using primer bulb and replaced the gas in the tank.....................Still the same! Any other suggestions? I even considered the ignition coils but don't know how to test.
 
I am having the same issue with a 115 Johnson. So far have replaced the plugs drained all the gas and used stabalizer. No improvement at all. Any other suggestions. Could it be just the spark plug wires.
 
There are some simple checks to do.----Do a compression test first.--All cylinders must be even around the 100 PSI mark.----Then check for spark, these ignitions can and must jump a gap of 7/16" or better.-Only that is a proper test.---Plug wires are high quality and rarely cause a problem.--They can sometimes short to the metal brackets on the cover, so a run with the cover off would be useful test.-------Run with a timing light on each plug wire as a test to see if spark is good on all 4 cylinders.
 
I just wanted to update everyone on the solution to the sputtering...I wish I could take the credit but the mechanic takes the glory! The problem was a combination of the stator and a power pack, the stator was not supplying enough power to all 4 plugs and the boat ran sweeter with one lead off. They changed the stator and the power pack and we are good to go.
 
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